Iran's 'soft war': How Tehran turned antisemitism into a weapon against the West

A Simon Wiesenthal Center report published Wednesday details a decades-long Iranian campaign that weaponized antisemitism to erode trust in Western institutions. The report, titled 'The War on Western Minds,' traces how Iran exploited religious narratives, anti-imperialism, and conspiracy theories to mainstream claims of Jewish control over US foreign policy, using media outlets, cyberattacks, and alliances with Western figures.

A report published Wednesday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) details a decades-long Iranian campaign that weaponized antisemitism as a tool in its ideological 'soft war' against the West. The report, titled 'The War on Western Minds: Iran's 30-Year Campaign to Divide the West,' argues that the Islamic Republic has exploited nationalism, religious narratives, and anti-imperialism to spread anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric across ideological divides. Unable to match US military power, Iran focused on undermining Western social cohesion and trust in democratic institutions, the report said. The SWC found that Iran helped bring claims of Jewish control over American foreign policy into the mainstream, allowing such narratives to spread without continued Iranian involvement. The report traces this strategy to methods first developed in the Soviet Union. Iran tailors its narratives to different audiences: among religious Christians, it uses apocalyptic language and biblical prophecy; it has also exploited grievances in Black and left-wing communities. The report cites Iranian-linked media outlets like Press TV and MintPress News, as well as Western figures like David Duke and Jackson Hinkle, as part of an interconnected influence network. By 2026, Iran's operations had expanded to include fake news websites and fabricated online personas.