As the U.S. military masses its largest military presence in the Middle East in more than 20 years, Iran is waging a parallel information war aimed at destabilizing Western societies and legitimizing violence against not only America, but against Israel and Jews worldwide. Iran is using propaganda as digital missiles across traditional and social media. Iranian state TV aired an AI-simulation of its military sinking the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.
Social-media feeds and AI systems have made it easier than ever for false narratives to spread faster than facts, often with no cost to those spreading them. Disinformation no longer operates only on the fringes; it is deliberately amplified by hostile countries, terror organizations and influencers peddling power and profit over facts. Ultimately, lies can shift public opinion and affect national policy.
Iran: A coordinated disinformation threat
American embassy staffers in Lebanon are being evacuated, and Israel is on high alert for potential Iranian strikes against the Jewish state.
In Latin America, the Islamic Republic’s HispanTV “elevates the Iranian regime as a moral and strategic alternative to Western democracies, positioning Tehran as the defender of truth and justice,” according to a new ADL report.
The report describes how Iran operates a sophisticated influence network in Spanish, targeting an audience far beyond the Middle East. Iran’s TV channel also glorified terrorist organizations that target the United States and Israel, celebrated the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter of more than 1,200 innocent men, women and children, including 46 Americans, and recycled common anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.
Additional reporting by Fuente Latina documents how Iranian agents have infiltrated countries in South America and how Venezuela is a narco-terror state that supports Iran and its proxy terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Iran uses “access diplomacy” to filter its narrative – granting select Western activists and influencers tightly controlled entry and the “red carpet” experience that produces state-friendly content for foreign audiences. There is no free press in Iran, only a “state-controlled narrative.”
American activist Calla Walsh, co-founder of Palestine Action U.S., echoed Iranian state propaganda in a recent visit to an Iranian military exhibition by stating: “It’s incredibly powerful to stand among the missiles and drones that are resisting U.S. imperialism and Zionism.”
Qatar: Laundering influence through media
The Washington Free Beacon recently published excerpts of Al Jazeera’s style guide that bans reporters from calling Islamic State (ISIS) and Hamas “terrorist” organizations and prevents journalists from using other terms. The media organization, which operates an American news channel and maintains a massive social-media presence, was founded and funded by the Qatari government.
The small but very wealthy Gulf monarchy publicly portrays itself as a moderate partner and global mediator while simultaneously funding organizations and media outlets that consistently undermine Western interests. Al Jazeera routinely promotes anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda.
Hamas: Manufacturing victimhood through disinformation
The Iranian-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas unleashes disinformation as a core military and political strategy, especially to shape its perception of Israel’s two-year war with Hamas in Gaza. The terror organization routinely fabricated or manipulated casualty figures and other information that was then fed to charities, reporters and international organizations, which often echoed its claims with little to no scrutiny. A Hamas leader recently blamed Israel for the massacre at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, despite Hamas terrorists recording video of themselves perpetrating the attacks.
Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist terror group that builds influence through political activity, news organizations, and, increasingly, social-media networks. The Muslim Brotherhood launched a digital strategy targeting Gen Z youth in Arab countries and Europe. Like past authoritarian movements, these campaigns downplay religion in favor of anti-Western themes, victimhood and social-justice language. Recent reports have also revealed how pro-Palestinian networks exploit social media and younger audiences to achieve diplomatic victories.”
There is also a strong connection between Qatar, Al Jazeera and Hamas. An expert on Qatar described how Al Jazeera and Qatari government officials helped spread the famine libel. He also explained how “Qatari media knew which content was suitable for the institutional network of Al Jazeera, and those suitable for more subversive platforms, such as AJ+, the Middle East Eye website or Qatari-financed influencers.” Iran also used its broadcast partners controlled by its proxy groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
Tucker Carlson: The convergence of extremes
The same narratives promoted by Iran, Qatar and Hamas are increasingly echoed by Western influencers with massive audiences. Former Fox News host and current podcaster Tucker Carlson, often ridiculed as “Qatarlson,” visited Qatar twice in 2025, interviewed its prime minister and announced that he was buying a home there.
He has routinely amplified false claims questioning if Jews are a “real people” and are foreign to the Middle East, including in a recent interview at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Carlson used his interview to repeat long-standing antisemitic libels used to deny the Jewish people’s historical and ancestral connection to the Land of Israel, and to delegitimize Jewish self-determination itself, also known as Zionism.
Huckabee pushed back against this bogus claim: “We know from genetics and rich volumes of written literature that the Jews of today can trace their lineage back thousands of years to Israel and the Jewish people of the Bible.”
Carlson and other major influencers, including far-right political commentator Candace Owens and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, along with pro-Palestinian activists, have also promoted false narratives about Christians in Israel and the Middle East. They falsely claimed that the number of Christians living in Israel is decreasing and that they do not have equal rights. Israeli Ambassador George Deek responded to Carlson’s interview:
Points to consider:
1. Iran and Qatar exploit democratic societies to spread disinformation.
Anti-American and anti-Israel narratives do not spread in isolation. They move through state-funded media and platforms that present themselves as neutral and credible. Iran combines military aggression with an extensive propaganda campaign, while Qatar launders extremist narratives through media outlets and partnerships that obscure their origin and intent. Together, they exploit open societies to amplify falsehoods.
2. Repetition, not evidence, amplifies beliefs on the internet.
In today’s algorithm-driven media environment, repetition can turn lies into truths. Corrections are buried and outrage travels farther than the truth. Claims repeated often enough are accepted as fact, even if they come from terrorist organizations or hostile countries. This mirrors the Nazi concept of the “Big Lie”; people will believe any falsehood if it is repeated often enough. Lacking context or additional facts, many individuals believe whatever they are most exposed to, making extremist messaging easier to absorb and harder to identify. Once a false consensus forms online, it shapes real-world attitudes, decisions and actions offline.
3. Reject the myth that extremism comes from only one side.
Far-left and far-right activists, often with opposing political goals, increasingly share false narratives targeting Jews. Many of today’s claims originate in white supremacist and Islamist movements and are promoted by Iran, Qatar and Hamas. These narratives are echoed by influencers who reframe them through different ideological lenses, ultimately arriving at the same conclusions. From conspiracy theories about power to denials of Jewish peoplehood, extremist narratives at both ends of the political spectrum illustrate a tightening ideological “horseshoe” where hostility toward Jews becomes common ground.
