When Van Jones Blamed “Iranian Propaganda,” the Real Propaganda Was Coming from Israel
For years, Israeli-government linked networks have attacked Iranian Americans and peace advocates — and the U.S. has looked the other way.
On Friday, CNN pundit Van Jones provoked outrage when he claimed that opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza among Americans is Iran and Qatar’s fault. In claiming that the problem was too many ‘dead Gaza baby’ videos on social media that were the product of a vast Iranian and Qatari conspiracy, he wasn’t just trafficking in atrocity denial or trying to change the subject – he was pedaling the very disinformation and manipulation that he claimed to condemn.
Just hours before these heinous remarks, two explosive investigations — by Citizen Lab, one of the world’s leading digital-forensics teams, and Haaretz, Israel’s own newspaper of record — revealed, yet again, the actual propaganda machine: an Israeli-operated network of inauthentic social media accounts utilizing sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to manipulate public opinion in favor of Israeli government interests.
The reports revealed that, during Israel’s June war on Iran, Israeli government operatives and contractors used armies of fake personas to push doctored videos, false news, and emotional calls to try to coerce Iranians to rise up against their government.
While Iranian civilians sheltered from bombs, this bot network spread doctored AI videos—like one showing Evin Prison under attack—then urged citizens to rush there and ‘free prisoners’, even as the prison was a war zone. Other fabrications included images of fake bank runs and even an AI video of beloved musicians like Shervin Hajipour, with lyrics of his famous song “Baraye” turned into urgent calls for an uprising.
As shocking as these revelations may be to some, this type of deceptive online manipulation by Israel in the service of war is nothing new.
A Campaign to Silence Iranian-American Voices
When our organization, NIAC, began receiving waves of online attacks in the midst of the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement that had galvanized so many Iranians and the diaspora, we commissioned Social Forensics – an independent digital-forensics firm – to investigate what was going on. Their report unearthed significant evidence of a coordinated propaganda campaign that included sock puppet accounts and inauthentic coordinated activity to amplify attacks on journalists, experts, and civil society. These efforts were clearly at the level that only a state actor could undertake, and there were numerous ties to the Israeli government.
The online attacks targeted journalists, experts, human rights advocates, and civic organizations like ours who had ever spoken out against war on Iran, and they didn’t stop at disinformation – they unleashed real-world consequences.
Iranian-American journalists and activists received death and rape threats, events at universities were targeted with bomb threats, and elected officials like Washington State Rep. Darya Farivar endured harassment fueled by online lies.
The effect was chilling — silencing dissent, isolating community leaders, and discouraging others from speaking out.
For NIAC, the campaign was designed to collapse political support for diplomacy, intimidate pro-peace voices into silence, and ultimately manufacture consent for a U.S.–Israel war on Iran.
The Social Forensics report analyzed 1.5 million tweets attacking 23 individuals and groups — including journalists from The New York Times and BBC Persian, diplomats and elected officials, and our organization.
The findings were chilling:
125,000 tweets per day targeting NIAC during a 10-day smear wave in October 2022 — an unheard-of number for a small, advocacy-focused nonprofit.
Hundreds of thousands of fake accounts, many newly created, using crown-emoji profiles to simulate “grassroots” monarchist movements.
Dozens of these fake accounts are directly followed by official Israeli government handles, including @IsraelPersian — the state’s Persian-language channel — and its New Media Director.
This was not organic outrage; it was algorithmic warfare aimed at creating a mob mentality — an effort to create the illusion of mass hostility toward Iranian-American voices who oppose war and support diplomacy.
The report traces many of these accounts back to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which openly experiments with what it calls “algorithmic diplomacy” — using code and automation to steer online narratives.
Former MFA officials now run private firms that specialize in social-media “narrative dominance.”
Add to that an army of state-linked influencers — from Netanyahu’s digital adviser Hananya Naftali to marketers like Emily Schrader — and the picture becomes clear: a government-contracted propaganda ecosystem masquerading as grassroots activism.
The Double Standard
Imagine if any other government — Russia, China, or Iran — were caught running such an extensive covert propaganda effort against Americans. Congress would have already held hearings, and some actors in the offending state would have been held accountable.
But when the culprit is a U.S. ally and the victims are Middle Eastern Americans, the silence is deafening.
When the New York Times reported the Israeli government was targeting U.S. lawmakers with bots and coordinated online activities, NIAC and our partners called for a federal investigation into these operations — and for stronger protections for U.S. journalists, activists, and civic groups targeted by foreign influence campaigns. The Biden Administration did nothing. And we’re not holding our breath that the current administration will act any differently.
Van Jones and others were quick to blame “Iranian propaganda” for Americans’ moral outrage over Gaza. I am sure that Iran engages in online propaganda and targeting of civil society, because we have been subjected to attacks from them as well.
Yet the evidence shows that the true powerhouse of online disinformation is Israeli influence networks — not Iranian bots — that have sought to manipulate Americans, smear journalists, and target our community for years. And, until now, they’ve done so with zero transparency and complete impunity.
ooops, the corporate jones