By Shaiel Ben-Ephraim Shaiel, reposted from Shaiel Ben-Ephraim Shaiel Twitter/X, August 7, 2026
An incredible expose by Ronen Bergman shows how Israel invents quotes from Iranian officials in order to manufacture “evidence” that Iran is building nuclear weapons. This event took place on August 5th, when it was reported globally that Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the IRGC had…
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) August 7, 2026
An incredible expose by Ronen Bergman shows how Israel invents quotes from Iranian officials in order to manufacture “evidence” that Iran is building nuclear weapons. This event took place on August 5th, when it was reported globally that Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the IRGC had admitted that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. The only problem? It wasn’t true:
- Netanyahu’s pet network in Israel, Channel 14 spent months building Vahedi up as “the strongest man in Iran,” priming audiences to treat any dramatic quote from him as coming from Iran itself. In reality, he is one power player among several.
- An Indian Hindu nationalist account posts an earlier fabricated quote from Vahedi that says that nuclear weapons are a “necessity” for Iran. It does not get much traction.
- The same account publishes a quote saying that Vahedi stated that Vahedi said that Iran will keep developing nuclear weapons as long as the US and Israel have them. There was no source.
- The Mossad Commentary account, a large account with no affiliation to the actual Mossad posted the quote in English.
- Channel 14, a mere 33 minutes later, covers this and claims that this is “the first time” an Iranian official directly admitted to building a nuclear bomb.
- Three minutes later Yair Netanyahu, son of the Prime Minister, retweets Mossad Commentary, then three minutes later retweets Channel 14 English, followed later by Israel War Room.
- Two hours later, Netanyahu senior cites the fabricated quote in an official speech at Mount Herzl, now the made up Tweet had become state policy.
- The Tweet makes it to the US, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz shares it saying that Iran is “finally admitting what was clear for years,” then deletes it without explanation.
- Mark Levine shares it and then Fox News reports it as fact, including an on-screen headline.
- Channel 14 now reports this again with FOX and Netanyahu as the source. Mossad Commentary, the original source of the English version, now cites Channel 14 as its source, completing a circular citation loop.
- Israel’s Foreign Ministry spreads Netanyahu’s remarks to Persian-speaking audiences.
- Indian news agency ANI reports the story back in India, attributing it to “Israeli media,” completing the round trip.
This is a well oiled machine of disinformation emanating from Netanyahu and his circle designed to create a false narrative which will destroy negotiations with Iran and renew the war. Similar frauds have been perpetrated in the past like the Jewish Chronicle/Bild affair, when a made up journalist planted stories in the press to justify blowing up a hostage deal with Hamas. But this time he is dragging the entire world into endless war and not just Israel.
*Additionally*
GOOGLE TRANSLATED FROM HEBREW:
The dramatic quote that was not said, and the incarnation of Pike: “Once again, someone is making an illegal influence, and this time in the United States as well”
By Ronen Bergman, reposted from Ynet, August 7, 2026
There is news that develops slowly. A reporter hears something, tries to verify it, calls a second source, looks for a document, asks for a response, and wonders if there is enough to publish. And there is another kind of news. It doesn’t need all that old-fashioned hassle, because it comes into the world already equipped with almost everything it needs: a narrative, an enemy, a conclusion, a television channel, a prime minister’s son, a prime minister, an American ambassador, and even Fox News.
Netanyahu this week: “Today we heard Vahidi explicitly state Iran’s intentions”
Only one thing was missing from this news: that it be true.
On August 5, Wednesday of this week, a very dramatic piece of news made a miraculous journey. In about 15 and a half hours, it left a dubious Indian X account, passed through an account that proudly bears the word Mossad in its name even though it is not the Mossad, received a kosher certificate from Channel 14, was embraced by Yair Netanyahu, ascended to a state stage on the Prime Minister’s behalf, landed with the US ambassador to the UN and on Fox News, and then returned respectfully to India, where it had already been reported as news originating from the “Israeli media.”
The entire globe’s coffee. At each station the pike received a new passport.
The bottom line was truly shocking: Ahmad Vahidi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, supposedly admitted that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. Not a hint, not a “threshold capability,” not another one of those convoluted Iranian formulations. After 4 decades of staunch denials, and endless Iranian lies – finally an admission. And if it were true, it would truly be a world headline.
But an extensive search reveals no Iranian source for the story. Not a speech, not a video, not a transcript, not an Iranian news agency, not an independent report by Reuters, AP, or AFP. Just one chain, which does a fascinating thing: it quotes itself over and over again, until it’s almost impossible to see where it started.
And the ground, it must be said, was well prepared.
Channel 14 did not suddenly meet Ahmad Vahidi on August 5. For months, it had been building him up as a super figure for the regime: “the most powerful man in Iran,” “the whisperer for Khamenei,” the man who “dictates the line in Iran against Israel.” In July, the channel even claimed that messages attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei were actually written by Vahidi and the top brass of the Revolutionary Guards. Thus, when a dramatic, world-changing quote appears from his mouth in the future, the audience already knows that it is no longer hearing an Iranian general, but almost Iran itself.
Welcome to India
Then comes “Ritika”.
This is a very pro-Israeli, Hindu nationalist account that in the weeks leading up to the event gradually built a campaign around Vahidi and the Iranian nuclear program. According to an investigation by “Bodekim,” a fact-checking organization that specializes in fighting fake news, the account has a history of spreading fake news and at least one of its profile pictures is from Pinterest. On July 28, the account already tried a first version: another quote attributed to Vahidi, according to which nuclear weapons had gone from a “wish” to a “necessity.” The post didn’t really take off. Eight days later, an improved version arrived.
On Wednesday at 09:14, the Hindi publication “Ritika” published that Shahid said that as long as the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, Iran will continue to work on them. This time there is not even a pretense of a source. There is no video, no reference, no Iranian media outlet. The quote simply exists, because someone typed it.
At 1:49 p.m., four hours and thirty-five minutes later, the upgrade arrives. The account Mossad Commentary publishes a neat, polished English version of the same story. The account is not the Israeli Mossad, and the Mossad has denied any connection to it. But the name does its job. Borrowed credibility is one of the cheapest and most effective raw materials on the Internet, and the account has amassed over a million followers.
Only thirty-three minutes pass. At 2:22 PM, Channel 14 English, a remote corner of the Hebrew source that mostly uses translated materials from the channel, turns the claim into news, even though Channel 14 in Hebrew had not published it at all until then. And not only does it publish it: it adds the jewel in the crown – this is, it says, “the first time an Iranian senior official has directly admitted to developing a nuclear bomb.” Something that didn’t even have a source five hours earlier is now a historic event.
Yair Netanyahu echoes the quote on the “Mossad” account, which is not the Mossad. How did two disconnected publications end up on the same powerful amplifier?
Then comes Yair Netanyahu. At 2:49 PM he tweets Mossad Commentary; at 2:52 PM, three minutes later, he also tweets Channel 14 in English. Later, he will echo Israel War Room. Do these three minutes prove coordination? No. Algorithms exist, people follow the same accounts, and there are also coincidences. But within the overall sequence, this is definitely a question worth asking: How do two seemingly independent and disconnected publications, which do not refer to each other, which do not give credit to any source, which stand alone in the world, meet almost immediately at the same powerful amplifier?
From a distribution chain to a washing machine
Then the fake goes through a phase. It stops being a post and becomes a policy.
Even before 5:02 PM, in a state speech on Mount Herzl, the Israeli Prime Minister says : “Today we heard the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and Vahidi explicitly declare Iran’s intention to continue developing nuclear weapons. ‘To continue,’ he said.” Here is the second moment of the news’s birth: Until now, Pike had a dubious source; now he has a prime minister.
At 5:35 PM, the US ambassador to the UN, who until recently served as President Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Walz, shares the Channel 14 post in English and writes: “Finally admitting what has been clear for years.” This is a strange event. Walz is a man who has all the resources of the American intelligence community at his disposal. How could he not check that such a dramatic statement was actually made? This post was later deleted, with no explanation given as to why the US ambassador to the UN would write something and then delete it.
Channel 14’s post in English. The US ambassador also echoed – and did not explain why it disappeared
From here the echo is almost automatic. Mark Levin, one of the prominent spokesmen for the Republicans who support Trump in the United States, shares the same quote. Channel 14 in Hebrew reports Netanyahu’s words. At 7:10 PM, on the channel’s live broadcast, Yaakov Bardugo presents the words as fact: “Vahidi, the Iranian general, who said today… if the United States and Israel do not get rid of nuclear weapons, we will continue with the nuclear incident.” At 7:44 PM, a segment of Netanyahu’s own speech is broadcast.
This is the really beautiful part. At noon, Channel 14 helped spread the quote. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister quoted it. In the evening, Channel 14 broadcast the Prime Minister quoting the same quote. The news, like a particularly talented media snake, eats its own tail and receives a reference from it.
At 20:56, something happens that almost deserves to be included in textbooks on disinformation: Mossad Commentary, from which the story was leaked to Channel 14, now refers to Channel 14 as a source.
Immediately afterwards, Avishai Ben-Haim draws the political conclusion: The citizen who prefers someone else to manage relations with Trump and the campaign against Iran in the coming years is, he says, “an irresponsible person.” Within a few hours, we went from an anonymous Hindi calculator to the question of who deserves to be the prime minister of Israel. An impressive shortcut.
At 8:38 PM, the official account of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Persian also disseminates Netanyahu’s words to the Iranian audience. At 8:56 PM, something happens that almost deserves to be included in textbooks on disinformation: Mossad Commentary, from which the story rolled to Channel 14, now refers to Channel 14 as a source. This is no longer a distribution chain; it’s a washing machine.
At 10:01 PM, Fox News steps in. The website states as a fact that “Iran’s top Revolutionary Guard commander stated that Tehran will continue to work on nuclear weapons,” meaning that it is developing them. The next day, on the television broadcast, the headline on the screen makes it clear in Vahidi’s name that Iran will continue to work on developing doomsday weapons as long as Israel and the United States have nuclear weapons. In other words, not only is Vahidi making a U-turn in the aggressive Iranian denial policy on the subject since the days of Khomeini, through the Khamenei era, and up to and including the past six months since the attack that killed him, but he also says that Iran will not stop as long as Israel and the United States have weapons – meaning that it will not stop.
Back to Israel
Bill Hammer says it’s “the closest thing to a confession” he’s heard. The American viewer has no way of knowing that he’s looking at a product that was born the day before in an Indian account without a primary source.
Fox News presents the quote as fact; the television broadcast featured a headline stating that the head of the Revolutionary Guards will continue to go nuclear as long as the US does so.
At 00:45, the Indian news agency ANI already brings the story home and attributes it to the “Israeli media.” The irony is almost perfect: a week earlier, the same ANI had covered an unusual statement by the Iranian embassy in India that rejoiced in “fabricated fake news” about Iran and its leadership. Now it itself has closed the circle.
India invented it, Israel confirmed it, America echoed it, and India reported that Israel said it.
Does all of this prove that someone sat in one room and handed out instructions? No. We do not have a WhatsApp group, an operational document, or testimony that connects all the links. Anyone who claims that it has already been proven who activated “Ritika,” who entered Mossad Commentary, or who coordinated each retweet, will go further than the evidence.
Once again, someone is conducting an illegal influence operation on Blue, only this time it’s also on Red – that is, on the US. And here too, the seams are not invisible.
But the opposite is not serious either. It is not just a “tweet that everyone fell for.” The “Bodekim” investigation points to a series of familiar signs of disinformation dissemination: whitewashing the source, circular reporting, planting in prepared soil, borrowed credibility, mixing truth and lies, political timing, rapid flooding between platforms, and blurring of traces. Even before the main tweet, a gradual campaign was built on the same account on the same issue; Wahidi was prepared in advance in the mind as a figure who actually speaks on behalf of the regime; within five hours the anonymous post became a “historical confession”; and within less than eight hours it was already uttered by the prime minister.
A memory that doesn’t sleep
And if this route sounds familiar to anyone, then they’re not imagining it.
In September 2024, the Jewish Chronicle and Bild published stories that matched almost miraculously the messages Netanyahu sought to promote at exactly the same hours and days surrounding the hostage deal and the Philadelphia axis. These are not the same cases, and it has not been proven that the same mechanism or the same people are involved. But the structure of consciousness is similar in a way that is hard to ignore: information goes abroad, receives a disguise as “publicity in the foreign media,” and returns to Israel as external, supposedly independent, evidence for a political claim already circulating here.
In the case of the Jewish Chronicle, it was particularly blatant. The newspaper published a false claim about documents from Sinwar that were supposedly seized by the IDF, according to which there was a plan to smuggle hostages through the Philadelphia route to Iran – a story that exactly echoed Netanyahu’s identical statement in a public speech, and the general claim that it is forbidden to withdraw from the route even for a short time. Parents of the hostages heard the claim from Sara Netanyahu, who quoted the Chronicle, and became alarmed. A senior official in the Prisoners and Missing Persons Unit defined its basis as “zero facts and 100 percent lies and poisoning.” It later turned out that the image of the writer, who presented himself under the pseudonym Ailon Perry, was also largely built on false stories about his past. The Jewish Chronicle apologized for false publications, fired him, and deleted all of his articles from the newspaper’s website . Later , Yuval Robovich and I revealed here that a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office was behind the operation. This pike array.
Two years ago, sources in the defense establishment called that affair of leaks and distortions “an illegal influence operation on the blue side,” meaning on the Israeli side, against which state officials are prohibited from conducting propaganda and disinformation operations. One of them then added the more precise definition: “Operation influence de la shamate” – gross seams, mistakes and forgeries that are not difficult to expose. This morning, the same person said: “Again, someone is conducting an illegal influence operation on the blue side, only this time it is also on the red side, meaning on the United States. Here too, the seams are not invisible. You only have to look at them before the fake is enough to accept a prime minister, an ambassador and an American television channel.”
Because that’s the whole trick: The fake doesn’t have to be credible when it’s born. It just has to survive long enough to reach someone more credible. Then the more credible person becomes its source.
And when the truth finally comes out, she discovers that Pike has already spoken on Mount Herzl, appeared on Fox News, received a rebuke from an ambassador to the UN – and returned home to India with an Israeli kosher stamp.
Not bad for something that was never said.
The Prime Minister’s Office responded: “The State of Israel fully stands behind the Prime Minister’s statement that the Revolutionary Guards regime in Iran aspires to develop nuclear weapons
*Further reading here*
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim Shaiel is a freelance writer and editor living in Hollywood, California. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Calgary and was a post-doc at UCLA
Ronen Bergman is an Israeli investigative journalist and author. He is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv, and a senior political and military analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth
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