LOS ANGELES (Press Release) – The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading global Jewish human rights organization, this week released The War for Western Minds: The Iran Report, a comprehensive examination of a campaign most Americans have never heard of: Iran’s decades-long disinformation war against the United States and the broader West. The report examines how Iran built an influence infrastructure that used antisemitism to appeal to extremists across the political spectrum, deepen divisions in the U.S. and advance its strategic objectives.
The report’s central findings reframe how antisemitism should be understood. Rather than treating it only as prejudice or hateful rhetoric, the report documents antisemitism functioning as a precision instrument of state power — one Iran has used to unite ideological movements that agree on almost nothing else. In conferences organized by Tehran, American extremists from the far left and far right sat in the same rooms: white nationalists alongside Black nationalists and Holocaust deniers alongside anti-war progressives, brought together by a shared hostility toward Jews, Israel, and the United States — and sent home connected and emboldened.
The report also documents the ideological kinship between the Iranian regime and Alexander Dugin, a Russian political theorist with ties to Vladimir Putin who has outlined a strategy of emboldening extremists on both the left and right to undermine the political center, the same divide-and-weaken logic the report identifies at the heart of Iran’s campaign.
“The War for Western Minds: The Iran Report compels us to see antisemitism differently,” said Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “In the hands of a hostile state, it becomes a weapon, one Iran has used to turn Americans against one another and against their own institutions. Understanding that is essential not only to protecting Jewish communities, but to defending American democracy and western civilization itself.”
The report traces this influence infrastructure from its origins in the 1990s to today’s digital environment, showing how relationship-building, conference networks, state media and coordinated online campaigns evolved into a sophisticated ecosystem capable of reaching millions. Central to that infrastructure was the New Horizon Conference, which the U.S. Treasury designated as a platform for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to recruit operatives, gather intelligence, and build a network of disinformation influencers.
“This report also shows how Iran has used antisemitism and hatred of Israel as a tool to exacerbate racial divisions in the US. Although digital platforms did not create this ideaological infrastructure. They have inherited and amplified it.” said Vlad Khaykin, EVP, Social Impact, North America, at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The report also documents what it calls the “72-hour window,” the critical period following a major news event when coordinated narratives can take hold before journalists, governments and fact-checkers have time to respond. According to the report, when a fully formed geopolitical narrative appears almost immediately after a breaking event, using similar anecdotes or talking points, it may have been prepared in advance rather than developed organically in response.
Alongside the report, SWC is releasing companion media literacy resources designed to help educators, students, policymakers and the public recognize manipulation, propaganda and coordinated influence campaigns. The FIGHT Disinformation Guide provides actionable tools for recognizing foreign propaganda and coordinated influence campaigns, while the SMART Guide offers a broader framework for critical thinking and source evaluation. Both will be available as free resources.
The War for Western Minds: The Iran Report is the first in a series from SWC examining how hostile states wage influence campaigns against Western societies.
The full report is available here: https://wiesenthal.org/research/iran-report
The War for Western Minds: The Iran Report was made possible through the generous support of Allen Adler.
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Preceding provided by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.