US Amb Huckabee rejects conspiracy blaming Israel for Ceuta migrant crisis

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee forcefully rejected conspiracy theories blaming Israel for the recent migrant crisis on Spain's border with Morocco, dismissing claims that Jerusalem orchestrated the influx of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

Speaking with British journalist Piers Morgan on Monday, Huckabee also denounced what he described as growing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment, arguing that Israel is increasingly blamed without evidence for international events.

Huckabee's remarks came amid a wave of anti-Israel accusations circulating on social media and echoed by some Spanish political figures following the recent surge of migrants into Ceuta, Spain's North African enclave bordering Morocco.

The claims, made without evidence, allege that Israel and the United States encouraged the migration in retaliation for Spain's criticism of Israel's war against Hamas.

Morgan cited social media posts, including one by Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who blamed the Jewish state for "weakening and destabilizing Spain" and "encouraging the Western far Right to turn migration into a weapon against Muslims."

"It sounds like Bardem needs to stick to reading a script that someone else wrote," Huckabee told Morgan.

"It's ridiculous to say that somehow this is a US-Israel conspiracy and that's why all those young men flooded to the coast; it's nonsense," the U.S. envoy stated.

Spain has emerged as one of Israel's harshest critics in Europe, and relations between Madrid and Jerusalem have deteriorated sharply since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and the ensuing war in Gaza.

The conspiracy theories have also been echoed by senior Spanish officials. Spanish Transportation Minister Óscar Puente recently insinuated that Israel was behind the migrant crisis in an effort to undermine Spain because of its anti-Israel stance during the Gaza war.

“Things are starting to become quite clear,” Puente wrote on the social media platform 𝕏 without providing any concrete evidence for his claim.

His comment came in response to Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon, who criticized Spain for applying what he described as a double standard toward Israel while maintaining a colonial presence in North Africa.

Asked by Morgan about Danon's remarks, Huckabee responded that he "thought it was a pretty good observation" that raised "valid questions."

Huckabee dismissed the broader conspiracies blaming Israel and the United States for global events.

"Everything that seems to happen on earth, somebody has this nutty idea that it must be Israel and/or the US who would be behind it. Why don't you just accept the fact that there were these people who were wanting to get to that part of Spain?" the U.S. envoy said.

Spanish-Israeli journalist and academic Henrique Cymerman, who lectures at Reichman University, said Israel has become entangled in the conspiracy theories because of its close ties with Morocco.

“Israel enters the picture indirectly because of our alliance with Morocco and with the Americans,” he explained.

“Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has become the leading anti-Israel voice in Europe... Some people say this is an attempt by the King of Morocco to show Sánchez what could happen if he compromises on other issues, for example in his relationship with Morocco's biggest rival, Algeria,” Cymerman continued, referring to the tense ties between Morocco and Algeria.

Israel and Morocco established full diplomatic relations in 2020, and Jerusalem has since supplied Morocco with advanced military equipment.

The interview then turned to the war in Gaza and prospects for reaching a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Turning to Gaza, Huckabee expressed skepticism concerning the prospects of reaching a deal with the terrorist organization Hamas.

"I think that's very important to understand if there's any way in which Hamas wants to make a deal, the first thing they have to do is what they said they were going to do last October, and that's they're going to disarm and demilitarize. They haven't done it yet," the U.S. envoy explained, stressing that Hamas was “proud” of the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251 people from southern Israeli border communities.

Huckabee also dismissed senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, who recently denied in an interview with Morgan that Hamas had carried out the Oct. 7 atrocities against Israeli women, children and the elderly.

Huckabee emphasized that Hamas terrorists "strapped GoPro cameras to their heads, and videotaped themselves raping, slaughtering, beheading, butchering, massacring women, children, and elderly people... they boasted about it online, in phone calls, on the videotape that they shot... so this guy [Hamad] has zero credibility."

The U.S. ambassador argued that Hamas must be excluded from any future governing arrangement in Gaza.

"They don't need weapons. They need to disappear and go away,” Huckabee said.

Morgan challenged the U.S. ambassador by asking whether a theoretically reformed Hamas could be accepted to rule Gaza in the future.

"I don't think so. The president [Donald Trump] has made it very clear. Regardless of what Israel would say, President Trump said repeatedly that Hamas has no future in Gaza. I think they forfeited the future," Huckabee assessed, asking Morgan whether he believed that Nazis should continue governing Germany after the Second World War.

Huckabee also dismissed conspiracy theories suggesting that Israel pressured U.S. President Donald Trump to strike Iran, saying the president continues to prefer a diplomatic solution while maintaining a military option.

"But if it doesn't, I think the president has also made it very clear that there is the military option, it's on the table, and if he takes it, it's not going to be a mild tap. It is going to be overwhelming," Huckabee predicted.

The ambassador concluded the interview by expressing concern over what he described as a growing wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment.

"It's unfair, unfounded, it concerns me a great deal," Huckabee assessed.

"Obviously there's an enormous propaganda campaign that is aimed against Israel, and against the Jewish people. And I think that's really disturbing to me," he concluded.