Israel as the scapegoat for a Spanish train tragedy - opinion

NOVEMBER 10, 2026 15:00Everyone is entitled to their opinions, however absurd they may be. They can believe the Earth is flat or even suspect that Jews sank the Titanic (per the classic “Iceberg, Goldberg, what’s the difference?” joke).The problem begins when unhinged notions make their way onto public television, where conspiracy theories acquire the appearance of legitimate political analysis. And that is precisely what happened in Spain.On October 28, two high-speed trains collided near Urda, in the province of Toledo, killing, as of this writing, 69 people. As the country struggled to absorb the tragedy, families waited for news of their loved ones, and investigators began examining what had gone wrong, an old and convenient suspect emerged: Israel.On RTVE, Spain’s publicly funded broadcaster, guest commentator José Miguel Villarroya suggested a possible Israeli connection to the disaster.Villarroya, a historian and commentator known for his hostility toward Israel and nostalgia for the GDR (German Democratic Republic), alleged that a French company responsible for carrying out railway safety testing is linked to Israeli capital.Cranes at the site of the collision the day after two high-speed trains crashed between the towns of Mora and Orgaz, near Toledo, Spain, October 29, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/Ana Beltran)He also invoked supposed threats by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Spain. The implication was unmistakable: Israel might somehow have been behind the catastrophe.There was, of course, no evidence. But who needs evidence when the suspect is Israel?El Televisero, a digital news site published by HuffPost Spain, maintained that presenter Jesús Cintora had stopped Villarroya in his tracks over his insinuations. And technically, Cintora did ask him whether this was a conspiracy theory, questioning why he was pointing toward Israel, and remarked on the seriousness of his claims.But inviting a conspiracy theorist to elaborate on his theory is not the same as calling his accusation out as a completely unacceptable conspiracy theory. The crucial question is whether viewers received the information needed to understand that the accusation had no evidentiary basis.This is not Villarroya’s first excursion into conspiratorial territory on RTVE.Only days earlier, discussing unrest on European streets, Villarroya suggested in the same program that certain actors had an interest in the disturbances, adding that “Israel has shown its hand.”Over a year ago, on another RTVE program, Malas lenguas, he offered a fantastical version of Zionist history. Among the gems from his television appearance, Villarroya claimed that Zionism originated in Bavaria as an offshoot of the German völkisch movement, effectively linking its origins to the ideological roots of Nazism.He also declared that “Semites are a race, and today Palestinians are more Semitic than 90% of the Israelis living in Israel, who are of the Yiddish race.” He insisted he knows this because, as a German-speaker, he understands Yiddish, which “is like German,” he said.Yet the bigger question is not why Villarroya believes such nonsense. The question is why a public broadcaster repeatedly provides a platform for such claims without subjecting them to elementary scrutiny.What makes the episode about Israel’s alleged involvement in the train accident particularly interesting is that even media outlets hardly known for their sympathy toward Israel found the speculation difficult to swallow.Prejudice has become part of the information landscapeMaldita.Es, a Spanish fact-checking organization, traced the circulation of the false claim about Netanyahu’s supposed threat across several languages and accounts associated with pro-Kremlin disinformation networks.The irony is that RTVE’s own fact-checking department subsequently debunked the loony theories linking Israel to the Urda accident, including fabricated claims that Netanyahu had threatened Spain with railway disasters. In other words, while one part of RTVE explained why the accusations were false, another allowed a commentator to present the baseless insinuations to its audience.This contradiction cannot be separated from RTVE’s broader treatment of Israel.As media watchdog CAMERA documented, the Spanish public broadcaster has repeatedly presented Israel through an overwhelmingly accusatory framework. RTVE reporting has included references to a supposed “Jewish lobby.”The framing of its coverage of the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre was “Three years of genocide in Gaza.” The anniversary of the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust thus became another opportunity to foreground accusations against Israel.The terminology is not incidental. The Spanish government has positioned the libelous genocide accusation as a central element of its political confrontation with Israel, and RTVE has repeatedly echoed that framing.Spain, meanwhile, is experiencing serious domestic political difficulties. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has struggled to secure parliamentary support for new budgets and has called early elections for November 29. His confrontation with Israel has become a prominent feature of his government’s political identity.Against that background, the attempt to link Israel to a domestic tragedy raises a broader question about the political usefulness of external scapegoats.But perhaps the most revealing aspect of this episode is that the accusation was so grotesque that it provoked unusual criticism even beyond the expected defenders of Israel. Perhaps that anomaly should prompt Spanish audiences to ask themselves an uncomfortable question.If an accusation as demonstrably baseless as Israeli involvement in a train collision can find its way onto public television, what about the countless other accusations against Israel that are less obviously absurd, more carefully packaged, and therefore far harder to recognize? How many have been accepted without scrutiny simply because they fit an established narrative?When prejudice becomes part of the information landscape, the audience is predisposed to believe ludicrous allegations lacking evidence. The ensuing danger extends far beyond Israel or the Jews; it is a danger to journalism itself.When speculation replaces evidence, ideological obsession masquerades as expertise, and public broadcasters fail to distinguish between legitimate criticism and conspiracy theories, the profession loses credibility. And with it, democracy loses one of its essential safeguards.There is also something particularly indecent about exploiting a tragedy in which 69 people lost their lives to advance an obsession with Israel. Those victims deserve answers, accountability, and truth. They do not deserve to become props in someone else’s conspiracy theory.The writer is the manager of CAMERA Español, the Spanish media team of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis. CAMERA is the leading organization exposing and countering anti-Israel narratives in the media, online, and in schools. Learn more at CAMERA.org and on social media at @CAMERA4Truth.Follow us on Google