Abstract
This paper sheds light on the significant role of politically and socially driven language ideologies in the process of manipulating and dominating the public persona. Case in point is the racist discourse of politicians, namely the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, that takes the form of language wars to demolish the target through the power and control of speech. The study adopts a critical discourse analysis to scrutinize selected texts from Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to the American Congress. Indeed, the aim of the study is two folded, where on the one hand the paper seeks to critically analyse the role of the elites in the reproduction of racism, manipulation, domination, and inequality in their discourse structures. While on the other hand, it seeks to pinpoint the different argumentative strategies that are utilized by Netanyahu to express his pseudo-argument and ideo-political point of views against Islam and Iran. Significantly, the critical discourse analysis of selected political speeches proved that politicians, namely Netanyahu, are equipped with key language strategies, which help in enforcing power and domination upon others. Such strategies include the use of a broad range of discursive structures and devices such as topoi of argumentation and rhetoric that are regarded as linguistic weapons for enforcing racism and manipulation. Notably, the study observes the excessive use of hyperbole and metaphor as veils for Netanyahu’s racist ideology, which seeks to denigrate the image of the Muslim World and spread Islamphobia. Such findings prove the researches hypotheses correct, namely the adoption of ideological techniques as strategies to demonize enemies, then legitimize and justify taking action against them.
