Americans, especially Jews, and Israelis are targets of a more threatening Iranian government than ever before. Tehran is overtly waging war against America, Israel and other allies with tentacles spreading hate and incitement online, hijackings on the seas and drones in the air. The Islamic Republic’s nuclear arsenal is nearly ready to launch, and its alignment with China and Russia magnifies the mortal danger.
Anti-Jewish hate spread on social media
The Iranian regime is now aggressively exploiting social media to promote anti-Jewish hatred in America and around the world. A new ADL report, State Hate, proves how Iran’s state-owned Press TV and other news platforms evade broadcast bans by taking advantage of social channels to “target the U.S. with disinformation campaigns and malign influence operations.” The “foreign state hate operation” adopts classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories historically associated with white supremacists and even published an article, “American Zionists incubating another Hitler.”
Iranian hate is also delivered through sermons. The most important daily sermon in Islam is Friday’s congregational prayer, where a representative of Iran’s supreme leader delivered a recent message that Muslims who do not complete the hajj pilgrimage “might die as a Jew.” Another cleric declared that “Jews killed in the Holocaust during Hitler’s rule was not 6 million.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt stressed the importance of the “U.S. government’s pushback against the Iranian regime’s nefarious behavior over the years [that] has included sanctions and other measures against Tehran’s propaganda tools.” Tehran is the Iranian capital.
Nuclear-weapons umbrella shields terrorists
Iran is near to reaching its decades-long drive to become a nuclear power. Israel’s defense minister recently reported that Iran has amassed enough uranium for five nuclear weapons, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned a visiting bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation that “Iran is 50 North Koreas.” An important part of its weapons program is the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads—a threat to America. Iran is already violating a U.N. missile embargo set to expire in October.
Bipartisan House and Senate bills would maintain U.S. sanctions on Iran. Bill co-sponsor Rep. Michelle Steel described Iran as a “rogue state [that] continues to make threats against democracy and actively sponsors terrorism around the world.” Two of Iran’s most important terror proxies are the Syrian government and Palestinian terrorists. The Syrian regime has killed an estimated 500,000 of its own people since 2011 and is believed to have used chemical weapons against them. Iran continues to bankroll Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad at the expense of its own citizens.
Secret files recently revealed that Iran smuggled weapons camouflaged as earthquake aid to Syria and imported phosphates from Syria to produce weapons-grade uranium. The secret U.S. report cited weapons transfers “hidden in aid convoys to support future attacks on U.S. forces in Syria.” Iran and Syria also inked long-term oil and trade agreements. The U.S. Navy is alarmed by two recent Iranian hijackings of oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, endangering global trade.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi traveled to Syria to meet with the leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations and the Syrian dictator. Senior officials from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—both Iranian-backed terrorist groups—met with Raisi. The leader of the Syrian government-supported Alliance of Palestinian Forces stated: “Palestinian leaders thanked Iran for its support to the resistance and the Palestinian cause.” Speaking with a Lebanese TV station that supports Iran’s Hezbollah terrorist proxy, Raisi described “Iran’s power in the region is of an unmistakable magnitude.”
Iranian regime targets innocent civilians: At home and abroad
The Iranian government’s crackdown against its own citizens, often women, is escalating. The regime is implicated in more than 300 poison attacks at girl’s schools across the country. Iran is planning on installing cameras in public places and on roads to identify and penalize women who violate mandatory hijab laws. Iran officially broadcast a TV public-service announcement that told how women caught without wearing their hijab inside a car risks the car being impounded.
Iran recently hanged two bloggers sentenced to death for blasphemy for criticizing Islam. The Iran Human Rights Organization stated that “without urgent international action, the Iranian authorities will continue to deploy the death penalty to torment and terrorize the entire population, crush protests and other forms of dissent, and enforce silence and subservience through brute force.” By early April, more than 500 civilians were killed in recent street protests.
Iran has also fueled Russia’s aggression against Ukraine providing it with thousands of armed drones that have wreaked death and destruction across Ukraine. Iran is aiding and abetting the slaughter of innocent Ukrainian civilians, as well as devastating the nation’s infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and shopping malls.
Points to consider:
- Iranians want the same freedoms Americans and Israelis enjoy.
The Iranian people are ruthlessly controlled by their autocratic Iranian leadership. Many Iranians share the same desire for freedom, democracy and human rights that Americans and Israelis enjoy. They want a society where they can express themselves freely, participate in the political process and enjoy basic civil liberties without fear of repression or persecution. Despite the challenges they face, Iranian citizens have demonstrated remarkable resilience and determination in their quest for a more open and democratic society. They organize protests, speak out against injustice and work tirelessly to promote change. The Iranian crown prince in exile called for a secular, democratic Iran and peaceful coexistence with Israel. Americans must raise their voices in support of the Iranian people and their aspirations. The promotion of freedom and democracy is not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic imperative for global security and stability.
- Iran uses social media to spread anti-Jewish propaganda.
The “Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it has happened, it’s uncertain how it has happened,” tweeted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2014. Khamenei is one of the world’s most powerful Jew-haters, and Twitter continues to allow him to use an account with nearly 1 million followers to spew venomous bigotry. Facebook and Twitter are platforms regularly used by Iran to disseminate dangerous anti-Jewish hate in America. Iranian state-owned “news” organizations are allowed to publish content to millions of followers despite being banned by YouTube and the U.S. government from airing in America. The Iranian government is a leader in promoting and disseminating international propaganda against Jews and is continuing its campaign to infiltrate Americans’ social-media feeds.
- Iran’s nuclear weapons program is a danger to Israel and America.
The Iranian regime is not only a hostile threat against Israel, “little Satan.” Its leaders have a long history of targeting America, “big Satan.” Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism and the terrorist groups it controls could potentially gain access to nuclear weapons or materials if Iran achieves its nuclear ambitions. This would put America at risk of another catastrophic terrorist attack. Iran has killed hundreds of Americans in terror attacks and is now targeting critical infrastructure in America, including power plants and seaports. The stakes are simply too high to allow Iran to become a nuclear power.
- Iran is a serial human-rights abuser.
Iran is second to China in the number of its own citizens it executes every year. From the use of torture, arbitrary detention and the mistreatment of prisoners to the restrictions on freedom of speech, assembly and association, Iran has shown a complete disregard for the basic rights and dignity of its own people. Women and girls are subjected to gender-based violence; discrimination and restrictions on their rights; and limits on access to education, employment and other opportunities. Iranian leadership discriminates against religious and ethnic minorities, including the Baha’i and Kurdish communities. Iran also continues to provide weapons to Russia’s war machine against Ukrainian civilians.
- Anti-Israel activists launch verbal rockets against Israel.
Anti-Israel activists often seize on Iranian lies to launch verbal attacks against the Jewish state. Following House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where he described how U.S.-Israel ties make the world safer, Rep. Rashida Tlaib claimed on Twitter that “McCarthy wants to rewrite history but the apartheid State of Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.” Twitter fact-checked her claims. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan responded that “Tlaib’s ignorance and hate toward Jews and Israel know no bounds.” The Michigan congresswoman just spoke at an event in a side room at the U.S. Capitol, sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, celebrating the nakba—the “catastrophe” of modern-day Israel’s establishment in 1948. This event comes at a time of growing concerns over Islamist anti-Jewish hate in America.
