A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF BENJAMIN NETANYAHU'S TWEETS DURING THE CEASEFIRE OF JAN-MARCH 2025

Abstract

The purpose of using language is not only to communicate but also to serve as an effective tool to construct power relations and ideological narratives. X (formerly Twitter) is increasingly being used by political leaders in order to shape public discourse by the use of language. Taking Benjamin Netanyahu’s tweets during the Israel-Palestine ceasefire period (Jan 19 to Mar 18, 2025), this research indicates how media discourse influences perceptions and strengthens dominance in conflict situations.  This study conducts a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Netanyahu’s tweets which linguistically construct power through lexical choices, grammatical structures, and metaphorical framing. It investigates discursive strategies that relegate Palestinian narratives and reinforces Israeli hegemony; and examines the role of religious and historical intertextuality in legalizing unequal power structures. This study applies Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model on Netanyahu’s 15 purposively sampled written tweets in order to discuss how linguistic, rhetorical, and discursive resources uncover linguistic and ideological patterns. Tweets in Hebrew from Netanyahu’s official X account were taken and translated for analysis of recurrent discursive strategies. It was found that the tweets use active voices, militarized diction, and rhetoric which shape ideological narratives while political authority is legitimized through intertextuality and hegemony with reinforcing Zionist ideology. The research highlights how political discourse is used as a weapon to defend actions, control perceptions, and maintain hegemony during conflict settings. It demonstrates the hidden and inevitable role of social media in maintaining hegemony and underlines the need and importance critical media understanding to decipher power-laden narratives in digital spaces.