On July 24, 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the US Congress, likening the events of October 7, 2023, to the events of September 11, 2001, even arguing that they were 20 times greater in impact than what the United States experienced on September 11. Following the Israeli attack on Doha on September 9, 2025, Netanyahu again linked the Israeli attack on Qatar, a mediating state, to the September 11 terrorist act, which had its own context. The Qatari Foreign Ministry described this comparison as “false,” as there were no internationally supported mediation efforts involving an al-Qaeda negotiating delegation at the time, unlike in Doha, which was at the heart of facilitating ceasefire talks between the United States, Israel and Hamas.
In fact, Netanyahu’s comparison was not a passing remark, as some described it. He knew that the comparison was groundless, but the question that needs to be asked is: why did a person who has served as Israel’s prime minister multiple times, fully aware of mediation and international norms, push this false comparison?
The primary motive behind Netanyahu’s false comparison lies in his full awareness of the profound impact September 11 has had on the collective US and Western consciousness. By invoking September 11, he sought to cast the conflict as ideological, removing it from its political roots and context to shape the Israeli narrative as he wished in a planned and calculated manner. This approach aligns with Western Islamophobia and projects Israel as the first line of defense against global terrorism, thereby mobilizing the greatest possible support and creating a pretext for Israeli hostile actions, including violations of international law and norms, and the enabling of horrific crimes and a campaign of annihilation against innocent Palestinians.
On April 23, 2025, Netanyahu evoked the Holocaust and Nazism to justify the crimes he is committing against Palestinians and to embolden the Israeli narrative that has revolved around victimhood and grievance since the state’s founding. He said, “The horrific terrorist attack of October 7 was not a Holocaust. Not because they lacked the intent of genocide, but because they lack the ability to carry it out. The intention is the same; the Nazis acted in order to completely destroy the Jewish people. The Hamas murderers are instructed to do the exact same thing.”
Truth should be revealed to cast light on the Israeli narrative that permeates Israeli discourse and Western media across all its outlets, with Israeli officials seeking any opportunity to influence international public opinion. The Israeli media campaign is not limited to drawing a map on the ground through military means alone; it also extends to drawing a map in human minds and the collective consciousness, based on distorting concepts and inverting facts, aiming to shape global public opinion that entrenches the Israeli narrative in its various pragmatic facets.
Nowadays, the dangerous escalation in Israeli rhetoric appears to be premeditated, when Netanyahu spoke of a “Greater Israel” project extending “from the Nile to the Euphrates,” and he claimed that this is Israel’s historic right. This statement decisively embodies the extremist Israeli discourse grounded in an ideological dimension that fuels violence, hatred and the rejection of the ethnic and religious diversity in the Middle East. The conflict is no longer only about land; it extends to an Israeli political and media discourse based on the art of narrative management and the inversion of facts and concepts.
Currently, traditional media networks concentrate on presenting Israeli narratives in their various formulations and interpretations to divert attention from the crimes committed against the Palestinian people and the comprehensive campaign of extermination carried out by the Israeli army. The bias goes beyond broadcasting the Israeli narrative: some professional broadcasters who criticize Israel have been punished through dismissal and the cancellation of programs that criticize Israeli crimes against Palestinians. This international media bias is not new, but has been exposed more clearly and unprecedentedly, prompting criticism from some Israeli journalists such as Gideon Levy.
This helps explain Israel’s decline in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, where it fell to the position of 112 after holding the position of 101 last year — particularly in light of the prevention of foreign media from covering Israeli crimes in Gaza and the strict restrictions on local media, which has been subject to Israeli military censorship since its inception. +972 Magazine provides a revealing picture of the illusions of media freedom in Israel and the responsibility of Israeli elites in preserving the “victim” image.
On the other hand, new media has played a major role in conveying and presenting the truth to peoples around the world, distant from Israeli narratives and biased international media coverage. Journalists, activists and ordinary people have transmitted the humanitarian situation and Israeli violations in Gaza via various social media platforms. These platforms have helped expose the truth behind Israeli narratives adopted by international media, particularly as activists, celebrities and non-political actors (arts, sports, etc.) have entered the field of public awareness and truth revelation, a development that has greatly contributed to bringing Israeli crimes to the attention of Arab, Islamic and global societies on a wide scale.
Many influencers and content creators have dedicated their platforms to speaking about the Palestinian cause and play critical roles in mobilizing public support, explaining the origins of the cause, exposing the falsity of the Israeli narrative and revealing the crimes that the Israeli army is committing against the Palestinian people. For example, the Spanish content creator Siriabouker has posted multiple TikTok clips documenting Israeli crimes against Palestinians. New media has not only exposed the Israeli narrative, but has also been used to call out activists and influencers who justify Israeli crimes and the extermination campaign against the Palestinian people.
This demonstrates the vital role of new media in shifting global opinion by transforming the virtual sphere into a space that conveys the truth and disseminates the Palestinian suffering to international audiences on a large scale.
Consequently, recently the Israeli PM encourages several media activists to support the Israeli narrative and to counter shifts in global public opinion. He described all social media platforms, including TikTok, as military weapons that should be used in the new battle asserting, “TikTok is the most important weapon,” followed by X. This clearly reflects the role new media plays in guiding and shaping global public opinion regarding Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and the justice of the Palestinian cause, despite Israel’s desperate attempts to control it through electronic armies led by Unit 8200, known as “Israel’s electronic mind.”
Despite the noticeable shift in global public opinion regarding the Palestinian cause and Israeli crimes against Palestinians, the Israeli narrative still dominates global traditional media through financial control and ideological influence. Conversely, new media reflects the opinions of people and the global conscience and has proven to be a battlefield that Israel continues to struggle to control and subordinate to its narrative as it did with traditional media.
Opinions in this article reflect the writer’s point of view, not necessarily the view of Rasanah
