Train Crashes, Forest Fires, and ICE Raids: Just Blame Israel

Key Takeaways:

• Blame Israel for everything: From South American wildfires to Spanish train crashes and U.S. immigration raids, antisemitic conspiracy theorists reflexively pin unrelated tragedies on the Jewish state—facts optional, hatred mandatory.

• Misinformation at scale: Fake-news accounts, Iran’s Press TV, The Grayzone, and influencers like Shaun King, Susan Abulhawa and Hasan Piker helped push absurd claims to millions, proving that anti-Israel libels are a reliable way to farm clicks.

• From fringe to “respectable”: What starts on X doesn’t stay there—conspiracies linking Israel to ICE violence even seeped into mainstream commentary, with the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman drawing grotesque comparisons between ICE, the IDF and Hamas.

There seems to be a special rule on social media: Everything bad can be blamed on Israel.

Whether a national tragedy, a natural disaster, or just a personal mishap, there always seems to be one party to blame: The Jewish state.

This phenomenon has recently intensified, with both Israel and Israelis blamed for such disparate events as forest fires in South America, train derailments in Spain, and violence during immigration raids in the United States.

Israelis Setting Forest Fires

The Patagonia region, which spans both Argentina and Chile, has recently suffered significant forest fires.

Naturally, for social media commentators, this must mean one thing: Israel is to blame!

According to the pro-Israel blog Elder of Ziyon, there’s a long-running conspiracy theory that Jews are planning on taking over part of Argentina and Chile for the creation of a state. According to this story, every year when there are fires in the region, the conspiracy theory rears its ugly head along with new accusations that Jews / Zionists / Israelis are responsible.

This year seems to be no different, with a wide variety of conspiracies on social media (all blaming Israel) concerning the fires that have raged in South America.

With close to 1.5 million views between the two of them, known anti-Israel fake news accounts like “Adam” and “Sulaiman Ahmed” have spread the false libel that Israelis started these fires.

Another account, with close to half a million views, posted that Israeli soldiers were mapping out the area to aid foreigners in buying up the land cheaply once the fires are extinguished.

Even engines of misinformation like Iran’s Press TV and The Grayzone got in on the action, spreading the lie that the fires were intentionally set by Israelis for nefarious purposes.

American activist Shaun King laughably used a news story about an Israeli being arrested for lighting a cigarette in a Chilean park (where it is not permitted) as proof that Israelis had set the fires that were wracking the region.

One of the more absurd claims was that the fires have been caused by an Israeli military grenade. Of course, it is logically sound that someone would be able to bring a grenade halfway around the world and through multiple border crossings without being detected. Logically sound or patently ridiculous, one post claiming this got over 5 million views on X.

No matter how absurd the conspiracy theory, as long as it involves Jews or Israel, it appears that there will always be an audience for it.

BREAKING:

???? Israeli tourists caught causing huge fires in Argentina in a forest full of natural resources

An Israeli tourist was caught lighting fires in Los Glaciares National Park, in the Argentinian Patagonia a couple of days ago.

Now Argentinian authorities are… pic.twitter.com/rtCMZubj3G

— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) January 9, 2026

 

Spanish Train Derailments: Outdated Railways or Zionist Sabotage?

The past week has seen four train incidents in Spain. A partial derailment led to a crash between two trains, killing 45 people. This was followed by another derailment that killed a trainee driver, a train being damaged when it hit a rock, and a train carriage derailed when it came into contact with a crane.

This series of train incidents in such quick succession has called attention to Spain’s outdated rail infrastructure, increased pressure on the system since 2020, and raised questions about Spain’s investment in its rail system in comparison to other European countries.

But why bother with such an in-depth analysis of what could have caused this terrible week in Spanish rail history when the answer is obvious: The Jews did it.

While serious people are trying to figure out how to avoid the next train derailment in Spain, the less-serious observers on X have come to the unimpeachable conclusion that all of these incidents have been caused by Israel.

Why would Israel do such a thing?

Naturally, because Spain has been an outspoken critic of how Israel has fought its war against Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The theory goes that while tensions are rising with Iran, Hezbollah is rebuilding, and Hamas is re-establishing itself as a governing body, Israel has spent the time and energy to send agents to sabotage train tracks in order to punish Spain for its public anti-Israel positions.

Of course this makes sense…as long as you ignore any attempt at critical thinking.

While this conspiracy started off small, it has since started to take off on X.

One post, which claimed that “the Israelis have started derailing trains and killing people in Spain as retaliation for its stance against their genocide of Gaza,” received over 800,000 views, with over 41,0000 likes.

Another account posted “Not saying anything, but I’d investigate the shit out of this since Israelis are celebrating the train crashes nonstop” and got a whopping 2.5 million views, along with 132,000 likes. This amount of impressions appears to far exceed the account’s usual post viewership.

Noted hatemonger Susan Abulhawa’s post insinuating Israeli culpability for the train also garnered considerable traffic, with hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of likes.

These days, it seems that nothing is as good at getting you high traffic on social media than a good ol’ antisemitic conspiracy theory.

The Israelis have started derailing trains and killing people in Spain as retaliation for its stance against their genocide of Gaza.

— Korobochka (コロボ) ??✝️ (@cirnosad) January 24, 2026

 

“The United States of ICE-rael”?

From South America to Spain, the tour of conspiracy theories ends in the United States, where public upheavals over the heavy-handedness of certain immigration raids by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and even related violence have led to the widespread conspiracy theory that Israel is the motivating factor behind the harshness of these raids.

This conspiracy theory has especially grown following two separate shootings of Americans by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January 2026.

The conspiracy theory goes that due to some past training exchanges between Israeli and American security personnel, ICE agents have learned their aggressive techniques from the Israelis.

The conspiracy goes further, alleging that the existence of ICE field offices in Israel shows how ICE is taking direct instructions from the Jewish state. Thus, according to this conspiracy theory, Israel is responsible for the recent violence surrounding ICE migrant raids.

But here’s the rub: Yes, it’s true that ICE has conducted training sessions with Israeli forces in the past, but the vast majority of ICE agents (including the large number who recently joined the agency) have had no Israeli training. As well, there is no evidence that the tactics used by ICE during their raids were learned in Israel. It’s all conjecture based on the kernel of truth that some ICE agents trained with Israelis in the past.

Also, yes, ICE indeed has field offices in Israel. Clearly, this is a sign of something sinister and hidden…that just happens to be in full view on ICE’s website. And you know where else ICE has field offices? In 53 other countries! This includes Jordan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Saudi Arabia, China, and tens of others all around the world. And yet, no one ever accuses ICE of being part of some Belgian conspiracy. I wonder why that is…

But keeping in line with the classic mindset of “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story,” there are plenty of conspiracy theorists and bad-faith actors on X who are happy spreading the libel that Israel is orchestrating the violence surrounding ICE migration raids.

Some of these bad actors are big names on social media, including media darling/terror supporter Hasan Piker (with his super witty “United States of ICE-rael” post), antisemitic cartoonist Carlos Latuff, and infamous British conspiracy theorist David Icke.

From Palestine to Minneapolis, ICE and Israel use the same violent playbookhttps://t.co/kMI8Lsne78@Mondoweiss pic.twitter.com/A1p49AZEgE

— Carlos Latuff (@LatuffCartoons) January 18, 2026

 

The false connection of ICE raids to the Middle East has unfortunately not remained in the dark corners of social media but has now spread to the mainstream media.

In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, long-time columnist Thomas Friedman attempted the unique move of somehow comparing ICE to both the IDF and Hamas (the latter due to both ICE agents and Hamas members covering their faces in public). Just for kicks, he also included his usual boilerplate opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump.

A reminder to Thomas Friedman, Hasan Piker, Carlos Latuff, and countless other activists on both sides of the political spectrum: Not everything that happens in the United States is related to Israel and the Middle East.

Too many Americans attempt to fit the Mideast into their own US-centric cultural framework. Here’s the latest ridiculous example, courtesy of @tomfriedman in @nytimes.

Hamas isn’t ICE. And if you think that they are similar because they both wear masks, you clearly haven’t been… pic.twitter.com/4Skt6H4R3Z

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 26, 2026

 

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