In the geopolitics of the North Atlantic and western Mediterranean, Britain and Spain have become the leading voices of the European left. Their governments loudly condemn Israel and obstruct the United States while claiming to defend Western values. In practice, they undermine deterrence, fracture alliances, and leave critical chokepoints vulnerable to Russia and Iran.\n<\/p>\n
Britain shows the pattern clearly. On March 25, 2026, Defence Secretary John Healey announced that British forces could board and detain sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tankers in United Kingdom waters. The government presented it as a strong stand against vessels funding Vladimir Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine. Yet more than 25 sanctioned ships continued passing through British waters soon after, some loitering near critical undersea infrastructure. Supposedly, \u201clegal concerns over innocent passage rights limited real enforcement\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
The vulnerability grew starker earlier this month. Healey admitted that Russian submarines had spent an entire month probing Britain\u2019s vital undersea cables and pipelines. The force included one Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and two specialized vessels from Russia\u2019s Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research. British and allied units tracked them, but Healey\u2019s public response to Russia\u2019s Putin was limited to \u201cWe see you.\u201d The Russians withdrew without impunity after securing unique HUMINT on 90% of Britain\u2019s critical daily internet traffic and vital energy supply cables.\n<\/p>\n
This caution contrasts sharply with Britain\u2019s aggressive posture toward Israel. Leading Labour figures have called Israel\u2019s Gaza campaign genocide, imposed sanctions on Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria, and reviewed arms licenses under heavy pressure for harsher action. Loud moral condemnation against a democratic ally defending itself. Measured restraint and legal excuses when Russian submarines map Britain\u2019s strategic lifelines.\n<\/p>\n
In tandem, Spain takes the double standard even further into geostrategic damage. Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez -whose wife faces corruption and influence-peddling charges, while more than 80% of his ministers are under investigation or already accused of wrongdoing- imposed a full arms embargo on Israel. Madrid canceled 19 defense contracts worth $1.4 billion, including hundreds of millions for Israeli-made Spike anti-tank missiles and the SILAM rocket launcher system.\n<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez has repeatedly labeled Israel\u2019s recent campaign in Gaza as genocide, downgraded diplomatic ties, and banned entry to anyone who served there. Even yesterday, he argued that \u201conly one country is fundamentally violating international law: Israel\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
In March 2026, while Washington and Jerusalem struck Iranian targets in defense of the West, S\u00e1nchez declared \u201cNo to war.\u201d Spain denied American access to the Rota naval base and Mor\u00f3n air base and closed its airspace to relevant U.S. aircraft. These facilities are vital for controlling the Strait of Gibraltar, a decisive global chokepoint.\n<\/p>\n
Yet Spain\u2019s actions toward Iran reveal the truth. In 2024, defense-related exports to Iran totaled $198.72 million. Authorities approved another $1.54 million in dual-use items through mid-2025 \u2014 detonators, explosives, and precision tools like computer numerical control lathes and milling machines. Nearly 70% went to state-linked Iranian firms, components ideal for missiles and drones. Since S\u00e1nchez took power in 2018, nearly $7 million in sensitive technology has flowed to Tehran.\n<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s energy policy adds to the hypocrisy. Despite claiming support for Ukraine, Russian liquefied natural gas made up 11.4% of Spain\u2019s imports in 2025. In one month alone, \u20ac90 million was paid for Russian cargoes, with another period reaching 14.6% of total volume.\n<\/p>\n
These policies carry real geostrategic costs. Britain\u2019s timid response to shadow fleet activity and submarine operations leaves North Atlantic sea lanes and digital infrastructure open to hybrid attacks. Spain\u2019s refusal to allow the U.S. use of key bases during strikes on Iran fractures the North Atlantic Treaty Organization\u2019s (NATO) unity at the Strait of Gibraltar. Quietly arming Iran while blocking action against it divides the West when cohesion is most needed.\n<\/p>\n
The United States keeps military forces in both countries for mutual defense. Given their repeated unreliability, Washington must review the scale and conditions of these deployments \u2014 especially at Rota and Mor\u00f3n. Targeted restrictions on technology transfers, defense contracts, and trade would make clear that undermining collective security has consequences.\n<\/p>\n
If Russia or Iran ever attacks Spain or Britain directly, unconditional American support cannot be assumed from partners who block allied operations and trade with adversaries. European leaders earn easy domestic points by attacking Israel and the United States while American taxpayers and NATO foot the bill for their security.\n<\/p>\n
A smarter approach is to invest more heavily in reliable partners across the Strait of Gibraltar. Morocco has modernized aggressively with Western and Israeli systems, with defense deals from Israel now nearing $1 billion, including a $500 million package of Heron drones and Barak MX air-defense systems. Strengthening joint exercises, intelligence sharing, and procurement with Rabat would better protect Mediterranean routes and Europe\u2019s southern flank.\n<\/p>\n
In addition to this, if Morocco ever moves on Ceuta and Melilla, Spain should be left entirely alone to prove whether it can actually defend what it claims to want. If it fails and its own people recoil in fury, the blame falls squarely on its spineless government, which, ever since the S\u00e1nchez Pegasus affair, has served as little more than a slave to the Kingdom of Morocco, yielding to its every demand.\n<\/p>\n
Britain and Spain are skilled at delivering moral lectures to Israel and the United States. Their record, however, shows selective outrage and strategic weakness when confronting real threats from Russia, Iran, and Morocco. In this era of intensifying great-power rivalry, such hollow posturing invites aggression. The West needs consequences for unreliable allies and stronger bonds with dependable ones.\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tJose Lev is an American-Israeli scholar focused on Middle Eastern security doctrine.
\n
\nA multilingual veteran of both the Israel Defense Forces\u2019 special forces and the U.S. Army, he holds a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Israel Studies from American University in Washington, D.C., three master\u2019s degrees in international geopolitics, applied economics, and security and intelligence studies, as well as a medical degree. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in Intelligence and Global Security in the Washington, D.C. area.
\n
\nAlongside blogging for The Times of Israel, he is a writing fellow at the U.S.-based think tank, the Middle East Forum; regularly appears on Latin American television networks to provide geopolitical and security analysis; and is a member of the Association for Israel Studies.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the geopolitics of the North Atlantic and western Mediterranean, Britain and Spain have become the leading voices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[16191,26388,6505,2575,13312,32,252870,2000,299,2194,10982,44400,4884,835,88931,252871,46099,774,1165,41,235072,1167,252872,252873,195523,839,6489,5436,252874,37647,332,104,53,13466,190898,657,15,2862,13131],"class_list":["post-896823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-anti-zionism","tag-antisemitism","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-corruption","tag-cyber-security","tag-donald-trump","tag-espanol","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-genocide","tag-great-britain","tag-hamas","tag-idf","tag-international-criminal-court-icc","tag-invasion-of-ukraine","tag-iran","tag-iran-nuclear-deal","tag-islam","tag-israel-at-war","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-israel-us-relations","tag-israeli-foreign-policy","tag-israeli-politics","tag-middle-east","tag-morocco","tag-natural-gas","tag-october-7-anniversary","tag-palestinians","tag-russia","tag-spain","tag-technology","tag-terrorism","tag-trump-peace-plan","tag-ukraine","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us-politics","tag-west-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}