Israel's cartoon propaganda claims Iran 'just like IS'

Israeli prime minister releases new cartoon comparing Iran to the Islamic State group, sparking angry reactions.

2 min read

Dalal Jebril-Rogers

03 Jul, 2015

A snap image of the video taken from YouTube

Bibi has done it again. It has become a habit that the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses simple cartoons to explain complicated issues of the Middle East.

This time @PMIsrael released a new video via Twitter comparing Iran to the Islamic State group. The video was titled: "The Islamic State of Iran – like ISIS. Just much bigger."

The video begins by showing IS militants in armoured vehicles running over captives in orange suits. Soon after, the scene morphs from IS militants into fighters with Iranian flags.

The American-accented narrator then invites the audience to "imagine how dangerous the IS group would be if it had armored divisions, fighter jets and ballistic missiles, imagine the Islamic State building atomic bombs."

The narrator pauses: "Well, maybe it's not that hard to imagine, the Islamic State of Iran."

The video's ending shows an imam standing next to a nuclear power station holding missiles with the flags of the US, Israel and a rainbow on them.

The release comes as Iran and world powers continue to negotiate over Iran's nuclear programme, which Israel vehemently opposes.

Responses on social media were overwhelmingly angry.

Twitter Post

Some Twitter userssaid they were disgusted that the Israeli post was promoted on their timelines.

Twitter Post

The cartoon is the latest in a long line of Israeli claims about Iran. We haven't quite forgotten this one yet.

The cartoon also comes weeks after a simialr sketch in which a foreign journalists is mocked for his reporting on Gaza and Hamas. The cartoon showed Hamas militants running around in the background with missiles as the report said the strip was peaceful.

It was removed from the internet after a storm of criticism and an angry blog for the New York Times, an organ not traditionally known for its stinging criticism of Israel.