Iran, Russia Use Disinformation Campaigns to Promote Antisemitism and Weaken Western Influence

Iran and Russia are employing sophisticated propaganda campaigns to spread antisemitic narratives aimed at undermining Western democratic values, according to experts who recently exposed their methods.

At an online briefing hosted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center on Tuesday, specialists detailed how Iran deploys various propaganda techniques as weapons in an ongoing information war. Just a day earlier, the Gino Germani Institute for Social Sciences and Strategic Studies released an extensive report chronicling Russia’s long history of disinformation expertise.

“Modern wars are fought not only with missiles, but with memes, not only with military force, but with persuasion,” said Vlad Khaykin, executive vice president of social impact and partnerships at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “The Iranian regime and networks aligned with it across Russia, China, and various proxy movements have spent decades building a global propaganda architecture designed for moments exactly like this.”

Rachel Kantz Feder, senior researcher at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, and Jacki Alexander, CEO of media watchdog Honest Reporting, provided analysis of Tehran’s media manipulation techniques. Kantz Feder had to abruptly leave the briefing when air raid sirens sounded in Israel, forcing her to seek shelter from incoming Iranian drone and missile fire.

Before the interruption, Kantz Feder defined information warfare as “the strategic use of information and communications to influence perceptions and decision-making systems,” noting that Iran began forging ties with American figures from both the far right and far left as early as the late 1990s. She cited Iranian cultural diplomacy efforts, including international film festivals designed to influence Hollywood, as early examples of the regime’s soft-power approach.

Alexander explained how online influencers who promoted false claims about Israel in Gaza have now shifted to similar rhetoric regarding the current Iran conflict. “These networks all work together to amplify each other. Each of their posts will get millions of views,” Alexander said. “And then ultimately that seeps into the podcast network. Tucker Carlson will pick it up. Candace Owens will pick it up.”

Both Carlson and Owens have emerged as prominent anti-Israel voices in American media, frequently using their platforms to promote conspiracy theories with antisemitic undertones.

The experts highlighted how mainstream Western news organizations sometimes unwittingly cite Iranian state media sources like Fars News Agency without properly identifying them as propaganda outlets, further legitimizing Tehran’s narratives.

Kantz Feder noted a concerning shift in Iran’s propaganda strategy: “Officially, Iran has tried to make a distinction between Zionism and Jews in its revolutionary ideology. This is actually something that in the past few years we’re seeing less of.” She explained that the distinction between targeting “Zionists” versus Jews “is starting to erode as the regime looks for new ways to legitimize its rule.”

Antisemitism serves as a binding agent in Iran’s global influence operations, as demonstrated by the regime’s 2006 Holocaust denial conference that brought together extremists like former KKK leader David Duke and notorious Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.

Alexander warned about Iran’s efforts to manipulate information sources that feed artificial intelligence systems. “Sixty-one percent of adults worldwide are getting information increasingly from AI, and 36 percent of those are using it weekly,” she said. Iran is reportedly paying editors to alter Wikipedia content so that “when you go to AI to ask it a question, you’re going to get a garbage answer.”

The Gino Germani Institute’s 141-page report by researcher Massimiliano Di Pasquale traces Russia’s use of antisemitism as a political tool from the tsarist era through the Soviet period to Vladimir Putin’s regime. The report details how the Kremlin continues to employ false historians and conspiracy theories, including the infamous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” to spread hatred and undermine Western democracies.

According to the report, the period between 1967 and 1982 under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev saw intense antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism, with Moscow helping to “sow the seeds of the current anti-American and anti-Israeli hatred in the Arab and Muslim world.”

During this period, then-KGB chief Yuri Andropov launched five major antisemitic propaganda narratives that continue to circulate today: that Jews are responsible for antisemitism, that Zionist organizations engage in global espionage, that Zionism is a vehicle for imperialism, that Jews collaborated with Nazis, and that Israelis are comparable to Nazis.

Former Soviet bloc spymaster Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, who later defected to the West, described Andropov as “the father of a new era of disinformation that revived antisemitism and spawned international terrorism against the United States and Israel.”