Iran Is Using Antisemitism to Fuel Its War on the West
You’ve already seen how Iran manipulates cyberspace. In our 2024 blog post, we wrote about fake accounts, troll farms, and disinformation campaigns aimed at twisting online conversations. But behind all that, something even more sinister fuels the narrative.
Iran isn’t just spreading lies – it’s reviving centuries-old antisemitic hate and deliberately orchestrating a campaign that permeates anti-war protests, digital memes, cartoons, and tweets. It’s strategic, state-sponsored, and aimed at young people who simply don’t have the tools to recognize the manipulation.
Iran’s playbook relies on weaponizing classic antisemitic tropes – blood libels, Holocaust denial, media and banking conspiracies – and giving them a modern “resistance” rebrand. From its state-sponsored Holocaust cartoon contests to platforms like Holocartoons, the regime celebrates grotesque images that portray Jews as bloodthirsty, greedy, or subhuman. One cartoon literally showed a Jewish figure drinking from a bag labeled “Palestinian blood.” Another merged the gates of Auschwitz with Jerusalem’s Old City. This isn’t criticism – it’s dehumanization.
Iranian state media and official messaging regularly rely on visual and verbal antisemitism to delegitimize both Israel and the West.
Cartoons in Iranian outlets echo Nazi-era propaganda: hook-nosed figures controlling global banks, Jewish characters orchestrating wars, and Israel portrayed as a vampire sucking the blood of innocents. These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re part of a propaganda machine built to spark emotion, embed conspiracy, and justify violence.
The regime fuses these antisemitic conspiracy theories – Holocaust denial, Jewish control of media, finance, and global power – with its broader anti-West, anti-imperialist messaging. In this worldview, Israel becomes the West’s colonial outpost in the Middle East, and Jews are blamed as both architects and beneficiaries of global injustice. The result is dangerous: opposition to the West becomes inseparable from hatred of Jews.
And this rhetoric isn’t confined to cartoons – it’s spoken aloud by Iran’s leaders. In May 2024, Supreme Leader Khamenei praised Western student protests, then claimed, “Jews manipulate global media.” He’s called Zionists a “plague” and Israel a “cancerous tumor.” We’ve heard this language before. We know where it leads.
It’s not just online. According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement, recent pro-Iran, anti-West protests from Washington to São Paulo have featured chants echoing Holocaust inversion, signs comparing Israel to Nazis, and calls for a global intifada. What begins as an anti-war message quickly mutates into an attack on Jewish identity.
Online, it’s even more coordinated. During Operation Rising Lion, over 240,000 posts tied to Iranian bot networks flooded X with antisemitic conspiracy content – blaming Israel for global wars, depicting Jews as puppet masters, and targeting students and activists where they’re most vulnerable.
Iran knows its audience: young people. Especially students. People who are curious, angry, and looking for moral clarity. Iran gives them a cause – but laces it with hate.
So let’s call it what it is: state-sponsored radicalization. Antisemitism isn’t a side effect of Iran’s strategy – it’s the fuel.
This isn’t just about misinformation. It’s about Holocaust denial repackaged as “art.” It’s about demonizing Jews through manipulated imagery. And it’s about turning antisemitic hate into a rallying cry for violence.
But now it’s out in the open. Now, we see the coded messages. Now, we can push back.
And that’s where we come in.
We all have a role: to stay alert, speak up, and educate our communities – especially the next generation. When students can spot the manipulation, they’re less likely to fall for it. When parents and educators are informed, they can challenge it. When platforms are held accountable, the spread slows down.
Here’s how you can help fight back:
📥 Download our free resources to learn how antisemitism hides in today’s media
🎓 Sign up for our educational webinars – great for students, teachers, and activists
🛡️ Join the FOA network and be part of the global push to take hate offline
Iran’s leaders are using antisemitism to drive their anti-West agenda – and they’re aiming it right at the next generation.
Let’s be louder. Let’s be smarter. Let’s not let them win.
