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Israel is gleefully copying Nazi imagery in the propaganda war with Iran
The octopus — with tentacles splayed, gripping the globe — was a staple of European antisemitic caricature in the lead-up to the Holocaust. It was first popularized at the turn of the 20th century, and Nazi propagandists later developed it into a recurring motif: the Jewish people as a malevolent, multi-armed creature strangling the nations of the earth.
That imagery became so infamous, so freighted with historical horror, that when climate activist Greta Thunberg posted a pro-ceasefire photograph with a small stuffed octopus toy in 2023, the resulting outrage pushed her to issue a public apology.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, it seems, feels no such compunctions. This weekend, the ministry’s official account on X posted an image depicting the Iranian government as an octopus extending malevolent tentacles — precisely the visual grammar that organizations like the ADL have long trained the world to recognize as antisemitic shorthand.
The irony might seem almost too pointed to be real. Sadly, it fits a pattern that has been developing for years: the Israeli government has increasingly adopted the symbolic vocabulary of classical antisemitism and redeployed it, directing its logic not at Jews, but at Iran, Gaza, progressive diaspora organizations — and sometimes even at diaspora Jews themselves.
The puppet master
Consider the case of George Soros.
The Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire has long been the target of a global antisemitic conspiracy theory, one in which a cosmopolitan, stateless Jewish financier is suggested to have secretly orchestrated the erosion of national borders and democratic governments. This myth has inspired mass murder. In 2018, Robert Bowers slaughtered 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in part because he believed Soros was orchestrating a Jewish plot to replace white Americans.
In September 2017, Yair Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, posted a meme to his Facebook page captioned “the food chain.” The image showed Soros dangling the world before a reptilian humanoid, who in turn dangled an Illuminati symbol before a hooded, hook-nosed figure — a direct echo of the “Elders of Zion” caricatures that served European antisemites.
The ADL condemned the image as containing “blatantly antisemitic elements.” But while Yair Netanyahu deleted the image — without issuing an apology — his father declined to comment. The implicit message: Netanyahu did not see the image, which also took aim at several of his political enemies including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as beyond the pale.
The episode was not an isolated youthful indiscretion. As J Street noted at the time, the younger Netanyahu drew the image from an extremist Israeli Facebook page with aesthetics transparently borrowed from the American alt-right. While the page was taken down after the incident, a replacement immediately appeared in its place.
This is not a story of a young man carelessly sharing content he did not understand. It is a story of an entire media ecosystem — developing in parallel in Israel and the American far-right — in which the enemies of the right wing are mocked with an antisemitic iconographic vocabulary.
The Israeli government has not merely tolerated this conspiracy theory. It has, at times, actively promoted it — albeit in more covert terms.
When Israel’s ambassador to Hungary condemned an antisemitic ad campaign by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that targeted Soros in 2019, Netanyahu officially countermanded the ambassador, insisting that the Foreign Ministry issue a statement saying that Soros “continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected government.” The words clearly invoked a widespread antisemitic trope that suggests Soros works to insidiously undermine governments across the globe. And in 2023, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, whose portfolio included combating antisemitism, doubled down on similar attacks against Soros — despite widespread criticism from the Hungarian Jewish community that the rhetoric was an antisemitic trope.
The “fifth column”
Another example of the Israeli government’s growing penchant to draw from the catalogue of Nazi rhetoric and imagery: an August 2025 post by the country’s official Arabic-language X account warning that the growth of mosques across Europe — from “fewer than a hundred” in 1980 to “over 20,000 today” — represented the development of a “fifth column.”
The phrase “fifth column,” which originated during the Spanish Civil War, will be immediately familiar to any student of antisemitism. It is intrinsically connected to one of the oldest and most lethal charges in the repertoire of European Jew-hatred: the idea that the Jew is not merely a foreigner, but a domestic enemy — an agent of alien interests lurking inside the body of the nation. The accusation that Jews constituted a fifth column, loyal not to their country of residence but to shadowy transnational forces, was used to justify expulsion and extermination across Europe.
As one observer on X pointed out in response to the post, with devastating brevity: “I remember when another entity called Jews a fifth column in Europe. How did that go exactly?”
There is a further layer of irony here. The post was published in Arabic, not in any European language, meaning its primary audience was not the European governments it claimed to be warning, but the Arabic-speaking population within Israel. It was, in this sense, not so much a diplomatic communiqué as a declaration of civilizational alliance with Europe’s far-right, broadcast to audiences who would understand its implications most keenly.
A shared ideological structure
In late 19th and early 20th century nationalist antisemitism, the figure of the Jew represented a specific kind of threat to the nation-state: the enemy of hard borders and ethnic particularity — the solvent that dissolved the nation. The octopus was an effective image for this threat because it depicted placeless power — power that extended everywhere because it was rooted nowhere.
Where European nationalists said Jews were a problem because they had no land, early Zionists offered to solve the problem by giving Jews their own territory. If the antisemitic nationalist historian Heinrich von Treitschke could call Jews “a foreign element that has taken up too much space in our life,” then the Zionist activist Leon Pinsker could respond by agreeing that “the Jews are not a living nation; they are everywhere aliens… the only remedy would be the creation of a Jewish nationality, of a people living upon its own soil.”
The far-right revisionist politics that came to characterize the strand of Zionism originated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, from which Netanyahu’s Likud party directly descends, fetishized national identity, biological determinism, and hierarchy, while building heavily on the frameworks of European nationalist thought. The diaspora Jew, in this view, was not merely unfortunate but defective — a rootless product of historical deformation.
This means that right-wing Zionism has not come to use antisemitic tropes opportunistically. Instead, it does so through a quality it shares with classical antisemitism — that of a deep suspicion of the values that the “globalist” and “fifth column” tropes were designed to attack. Internationalism, universal human rights, liberal diasporism; in this vision, all are dangerous.
Soros embodies a diasporic Jewish archetype that right-wing Zionism has long defined itself against: that of the cosmopolitan Jew, the liberal committed to abstract principles rather than to one particular nation. And when the Israeli state deploys the fifth-column accusation against Muslims in Europe, it is not merely borrowing far-right vocabulary as a tactical convenience. It is expressing a genuinely shared ideological premise: that pluralism, open borders, and minority religious communities are threats to the integrity of a national body.
This explains something that might otherwise seem paradoxical: the Israeli right’s simultaneous performance of Jewish victimhood and its actual hostility to large segments of actual Jewish life.
The Israeli government has refused to recognize non-Orthodox conversions, blocked left-wing Jewish critics of the occupation from entering the country, and treated liberal American Jewish organizations — the majority form of Jewish communal life in the United States — as adversaries.
The same ideological movement that styles itself the defender of the Jewish people treats the largest Jewish community in the world with contempt, because that community is largely defined by exactly the values that nationalist antisemitism — and nationalist Zionism — were both built to oppose.
That’s why the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s octopus post matters. Not just because its resonance with hateful imagery used against Jews is shocking, but because that resonance helps to reveal the structure of a worldview in which the central categories of antisemitic ideology have been detached from their original target — and retrained on new enemies.
The post Israel is gleefully copying Nazi imagery in the propaganda war with Iran appeared first on The Forward.
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The Netherlands will return to Eurovision after boycott over Israel
(JTA) — The Netherlands will return to the Eurovision Song Contest, overriding a broadcaster that withdrew over Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The Dutch organization that oversees public broadcasting, the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep, said on Wednesday that it will take over the country’s entry to Eurovision after Avrotros, the broadcaster that usually takes part in Eurovision for the Netherlands, pulled out of the 2027 event in Burgas, Bulgaria.
Avrotros said last month that it withdrew because the event “can no longer be considered neutral,” citing Israel’s inclusion amid “the severe humanitarian suffering in Gaza and the ongoing restrictions on press freedom.”
Avrotros dropped out of the most recent contest in May 2026, and the Netherlands did not participate after the NPO ruled out identifying another broadcaster. Spain, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia also boycotted this year’s Eurovision. Israel’s participation in the world’s largest music contest has become a source of intense controversy, sparking mass protests. The contest drew 35 million fewer viewers this year.
For the next Eurovision, NPO is assigning the broadcaster NOS to provide coverage of the event and an “independent team of experts” to select the Dutch act.
“We understand that participation in the Eurovision Song Contest evokes mixed feelings in the Netherlands,” said Jet de Ranitz, the chairman of the NPO’s executive board. “We have explicitly asked the [European Broadcasting Union] to once again make the unifying character of the festival an important part of the event, in recognition of a time of geopolitical unrest, war, and polarization.”
The NPO added that the EBU, which owns the contest, has “taken significant steps regarding the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest.” The EBU introduced changes in August that included barring countries involved in armed conflict from hosting the competition. It also made adjustments to the voting process after accusations of politically motivated voting.
Avrotros said the new rules were not sufficient to ensure that Eurovision remains “independent and neutral.”
Martin Green, the director of Eurovision, said in a statement that the contest was “delighted to welcome the Netherlands back” in 2027.
Ireland is set to boycott Eurovision again in 2027 after RTÉ, the national broadcaster, said last week that its position “remains unchanged.”
RTÉ cited “the appalling and ongoing loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk,” adding that it was “deeply concerned by the continued denial of independent access to international journalists to the territory.”
Spain could also stay out of Eurovision next year. José Pablo López, the president of Spanish broadcaster RTVE, announced at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that he supported a continued boycott, saying it was “painful that Israel continues to participate.”
Meanwhile, Belgium confirmed its participation despite calls for a boycott by its public media unions.
“Participation is in no way an endorsement or normalization of what is happening in Gaza and the rest of the world,” said Frederik Delaplace, the CEO of the Flemish broadcaster VRT. “We do note, however, that the EBU is no longer shying away from these difficult societal and geopolitical issues.”
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Police label shooting in Belleville, Ontario, a hate-motivated attack against the Jewish community
(JTA) — TORONTO – The shooter who opened fire on a Belleville, Ontario, synagogue Sunday evening committed an anti-Jewish hate-motivated offense, according to the city’s police chief.
“This was a deliberate attack directed at members of the Jewish community during one of the holiest observances of the year,” Belleville police chief Murray Rodd said at a press conference on Thursday, adding that the shooter had combustible materials, including gasoline, in his truck.
He said the threat posed to Jewish communities required increased alertness on the part of Canadian law enforcement. Police stationed outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue had engaged in a shootout with the assailant, Sean Ward, that prevented him from entering the building as members of the congregation were about to begin Yom Kippur services.
Rodd noted that the force had a long-time relationship with the Jewish community that involved “our proactive pre-positioning of on-duty staff” to ensure the safety of Jewish worshippers. “One of the messages to my colleagues around the province and the country is: It is clearly time that we all be proactive.”
Rodd said the efforts of Constables Jeff Smith and Michael McCurdy prevented the attacker from using the explosive materials he had with him, as well as a “significant” amount of ammunition.
Smith, who was stationed outside of Sons of Jacob to provide security, remains in critical condition but is making progress, according to Rodd. Ward later died of his wounds from the exchange with police.
“[The shooter] had the means, the mechanism, and the motive to perpetrate a greater act. The only thing that stopped entry into the synagogue to execute the intent were the two officers,” said Rodd. “He was equipped with other weapons and the means to carry on a gun battle for a long period of time.”
The CBC reported that police obtained a video of the attack in Belleville, a town over 100 miles east of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario. On the video, Ward is heard shouting. Police report he is saying, “You are going to die for the Jews.”
Rodd confirmed that before Ward targeted the Sons of Jacob, he scoped out the synagogue grounds. “We know that there was a reconnaissance in the presence of our officer, but nothing that would have alarmed him or would have triggered him to be on the defensive,” Rodd said.
Ward was a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces. Rodd noted.
“He was shot multiple times in multiple places,” Rodd said. “He has everything extending from fractures to wounds, and is still bearing shrapnel.”
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US Senate Democrats seek sanctions on those facilitating controversial West Bank settlement project
(JTA) — A slate of U.S. Senate Democrats, led by staunch Israel supporter Chris Coons, is seeking to sanction individuals and businesses linked to a controversial settlement expansion in the West Bank.
The massive E1 project, which would add 3,401 housing units east of Jerusalem, would effectively bisect the West Bank, inhibiting the prospects for a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank. It would also further separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state. Israel recently issued new construction tenders for the project, following the government’s approval of the plans last summer.
Coons, of Delaware, introduced legislation this week that would target “any foreign person” deemed “responsible for or complicit in” the construction or financing of, or investment in, the planned E1 settlement, as well as the leaders of any entity that has engaged in such activities.
“As Palestinian civilians face a campaign of devastation and fear from violent extremist settlers, the United States must send a strong message that this behavior is unacceptable,” Coons said in a statement.
Israel, he added, must demonstrate “that it remains committed to freedom, security, prosperity, and self-determination for all Israelis and Palestinians.”
Global leaders have slammed the prospective development, as have many U.S. lawmakers. Yet even amid the increased criticism of the Israeli government, the bill is unlikely to advance in a Congress with Republican majorities in both chambers.
Coons thus far has garnered support from 18 of the Senate’s 44 other Democrats, including three co-authors: Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Ruben Gallego of Arizona. Wyden is Jewish and a longtime Israel supporter.
“For decades, American presidents from both parties have warned successive Israeli governments that construction in E1 threatened the viability of a Palestinian state and was unacceptable to the United States,” Coons said.
As unlikely as it is that the bill will pass, its introduction is symbolic of the chasm that has grown in recent years between Israel and the Democratic Party. The legislation is led by Coons, who has a solid pro-Israel record. Previous sanctions backed by Democrats, including by former President Joe Biden, have generally targeted settler violence and offensive weapons, while this bill centers on what Israel’s government would regard as a conventional building project.
Warren, Wyden and Gallego all voted in favor of a failed resolution authored by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, which sought to stop the sale of military bulldozers to Israel. Coons, who voted against the measure, was one of just seven Democrats to do so.
While Warren’s position on Israel has fluctuated in recent years, she has consistently maintained that Israel has a right to defend itself and has voted against measures to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. But she has been a sharp critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and suggested conditioning military aid to Israel on compliance with U.S. and international humanitarian law.
Regarding the E1 settlement sanctions bill, Warren said the U.S. “must use all diplomatic and economic tools available to counter rapid settlement expansion and extremist settler violence.” These “spiraling trends” risk undermining “the prospect of lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” she added.
The bill would sanction “foreign persons that have facilitated Israeli settlement construction in the E1 area,” including those who have submitted tender bids, offered guarantees to such bids, signed development or lease agreements, provided construction-related services or financed related infrastructure.
The sanctions would “block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests in property” of such a person in the U.S., with exceptions made for those providing humanitarian assistance or conducting intelligence activities in the area.
“The E1 settlement project is a move towards de facto annexation of the West Bank,” Warren stated. “Those who choose to facilitate settlement construction should understand that they risk losing access to the U.S. financial system.”
Wyden, who has a similar record of backing Israel while criticizing Netanyahu, slammed the prime minister’s “disgraceful policy of expanding West Bank settlements,” noting that such activity “crosses a clear red line and makes Palestinian statehood and lasting peace even more difficult.”
He, too, urged the U.S. to “stand up against Netanyahu’s campaign of violence and aggression against Palestinian civilians” by sanctioning those who “are complicit in this unlawful action.”
The fourth co-author, Gallego, in recent months has shifted his stance from pro-Israel centrist to a fierce and outspoken opponent of the country’s current military operations.
“Proposed Israeli construction of new settlement homes in the E1 area would cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank and threaten a viable Palestinian state,” he said.
Describing the project as “a step in the wrong direction,” he noted that “for decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have pushed for a two-state solution.”
Coons, Warren, Wyden and Gallego are not alone in hammering the advancement of the E1 project. Their bill followed collective action taken by the United Kingdom, France and Canada earlier this month, when the countries decided to ban goods from West Bank settlements and Jewish areas of East Jerusalem.
At the same time, the U.K. and 11 other nations released a joint statement announcing “their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law.”
At the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned that the E1 settlement’s construction would “threaten to put a viable Palestinian state beyond reach.”
“We want to see the suffering and death finally come to an end,” Burnham added. “We want to see Israeli and Palestinian people living side by side in peace and security.”
Back in Washington, joining the four co-authors of the bill were 15 other senators who signed on as cosponsors, most of whom are likewise long-time allies of Israel but sharp critics of the Netanyahu government.
The co-sponsors include Michael Bennet of Colorado, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Patty Murray of Washington, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Adam Schiff of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Peter Welch of Vermont.
The liberal pro-Israel group J Street welcomed the legislation, with its president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, declaring “the end of the era in which right-wing Israeli governments could ignore U.S. demands to halt settlement expansion.”
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