Iranian and Israeli media have an ecosystem of quoting each other and also quoting other regional sources, such as Arabic-language media. This can be part of the war of words in the region or used to spread information and misinformation, or in other cases to confirm and affirm what is already known.
This sometimes creates a kind of laundered affect for information, whereby Iran boasts of various threats which then get reprinted in Israeli media and then get “reported” on in Iran, as though Israel is concerned about the threats. The threats become facts through this process, such that Iran can pretend that its threats paid off, whether they did or didn’t.
This was the case in a report by Iran’s Tasnim media that said that Iran’s nuclear threat and new missiles in the Hezbollah arsenal were a threat to Israel and a “strategic challenge” to the “Zionists.” This was based on an Israeli think tank’s report, which Iran’s Tasnim quoted but didn’t actually mention by name correctly. “The Zionist think tanks reported strategic challenges to the head of the Zionist regime, saying that Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are the most important challenges of this regime.”
The irony here of Iran is that it is the regime saying it is a major threat to Israel and then as “proof” showing off reports from Israel. The key here is that Iran’s media are saying its precision-guided missiles are a major threat to Israel, a fact that has been reported in the past by commentators in Israel and abroad. Iran apparently wants its own readers to know this.
“The Israeli regime’s Internal Security Institute issued a report on strategic challenges,” the report says. “The report is based on developments in the world, the region and domestically over the past six months, and includes developments such as the establishment of a new US administration, Biden’s decision to return to a nuclear deal with Iran, and the establishment of a new regime. Israel has dealt with internal tensions in the regime, as well as clashes between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in the occupied Palestinian cities.” This report, Iran says, was presented to Israel’s president.
Now Iran has a chance to learn about its own threats, the ones that it openly boasts of. Among these are Iran’s Tasnim assessment that Iran has a nuclear enrichment program. “Researchers at the Israeli Institute of Internal Security [that is, INSS – Institute for National Security Studies] have argued that the regime has a duty to secure a military option against Iran and to prepare for a ‘failure to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program.’”
Tasnim says that Israel wants to prove that Iran is a country on the verge of a nuclear war and capable of producing a nuclear bomb in a matter of months.
Iran is apparently very interested in the “deterrent power” of Israel. It quotes the Maariv newspaper, noting that Israel’s goal is to use its “power against its enemies to avoid widespread military conflict... this power is still in place, but a conflict like this could take place as the conflict intensifies on the northern and southern fronts.”
Iran then affirms what it is already doing: “According to the think tank, Iran will continue to expand its influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, including military influence and equipping forces in these countries.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked media didn’t need to read Israeli sources to figure this out, but it presents it as a fait accompli of its accomplishments, as if to say “we need Israeli affirmation,” or perhaps to say “if the Israelis say it, then it really is serious.”
What else does Tasnim say, ostensibly based on Israeli sources, which themselves may be based on Iranian or regional Arabic media?
“Israel’s challenges on the Lebanese border with occupied Palestine: The Zionist regime’s Internal Security Institute [i.e., INSS] has also pointed to the dangers and challenges of the regime from the northern axis and has stated that in the light of the ‘disintegration in Lebanon and the continuing lack of integration in Syria,’ there is a possibility of a security threat from these countries to Israel.”
Iran now praises itself because “this situation will give the Iranians the opportunity to increase their intervention and create the tools of war.”
How? Since reports say Iran drew down some of its own forces in recent years while boosting local pro-Iran militias, Iranian media say it is sending precision-guided missiles (PGMs) “based on precise combat capability that will target the depths of occupied Palestine.”
The PGM threat has been known for years, a threat revealed by the IDF in August 2019 and in other reports. “The researchers warned of Hezbollah’s ongoing efforts to develop its ‘point [PGM] missiles’ to become a real and dangerous threat to the regime.” Again, Iran is merely reporting what was known before. It is fascinated by Israel’s assessment of Israel’s strategic challenges.
“The dilemma that Israel will face in the near future is that if it seeks to target the [PGM] project inside Lebanese territory, it must take this into account, which will lead to a war.” A war with whom? is the question. Iran hints that it could be just with Hezbollah but could be wider as well. “The missile precision development program is now a source of threat to the military and civilian front in Israel,” the Tasnim report stated.
IRAN NOW turns its gaze to Syria. “As long as Syrian President Bashar Assad is in power, Iran and its proxy forces cannot be expelled from the country,” Iran’s media conclude, based on what they say is the Israeli assessment, despite admitting that Syria is fragmented.
It then quotes the report as saying it “recommended that the [Israeli] regime continue its attacks in the form of ‘conflict between the two wars [“war between the wars” campaign]’ in Syria and elsewhere, and that Israel, in addition to military operations, should pursue a policy of ‘expelling Iran from Syria through international cooperation with other parties.’”
The report about the report concludes that Israel may strengthen the Palestinian Authority, since a strategy of dividing Gaza and the West Bank has strengthened Hamas. This was a key objective of the Netanyahu era. Iran may be concerned about this.
The overall conclusion from this is the degree to which Iran’s IRGC and its media are fascinated by Israel’s self-assessments. This is a kind of dance of the analysts, but with real-world consequences.
It is interesting how Iran has adopted terminology from what it says is Israeli media, often English-language translated versions of Israeli media, discussing things like precision-guided munitions and the “campaign between the wars.”
It shows how much Iran is carefully studying what is being said about it in both Israeli media and also by voices it sees as linked to Israel.
By laundering and repeating what it has read, it can reveal both its own intentions and how it wants to be perceived.
If the PGM and “war between the wars” issues were not seen by Iran as a success on its terms, the chances it would openly report them now would appear slim. There is likely a wider context and reason, therefore, of Iran wanting to re-report this information.