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In the article “How the West got the Israel-Iran war so wrong,” by Adam Slonim, Times of Israel, July 1, 2025, Adam Slonim applies Aristotelian rhetoric to analyze the false narratives being spread about Israel’s campaign to defend itself against those — Hamas, Iran — who would destroy it.
For instance, an enthymeme might look like this:
- Unstated Premise: Jews have disproportionate influence in Western politics and media.
- Stated Premise: Israel is supported uncritically by Western governments.
- Conclusion: Therefore, Jewish influence is responsible for the West’s support of Israel.
This argument, which taps into deeply rooted anti-Semitic stereotypes, shifts the blame for the conflict away from the complex geopolitical realities and onto the Jewish people themselves. It assumes that Israel’s survival is not a matter of legitimate security concerns but rather the result of a Jewish conspiracy to manipulate global politics. The enthymeme here is powerful because it plays into pre-existing biases, but it is both false and dangerous.
Aristotle’s teachings on rhetoric offer a valuable framework for analysing and dismantling the arguments put forth by pro-Hamas advocates in the West. Using faulty syllogisms and manipulative enthymemes, these audiences have created a narrative that not only misrepresents the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also fuels dangerous forms of anti-Semitism and moral relativism. By carefully examining these rhetorical devices, we can expose the false premises on which they are based and offer a more accurate and ethical understanding of the conflict.
The Jews did not arrive from some other metropolis to conquer the Land of Israel for some colonial power. The modern-day Zionists were returning to a territory where Jews had lived for 3500 years, a land where 20,000 archeological sites provide mute testimony to the lived Jewish presence in that land. Jews had, in fact, existed continuously in that land since 1500 B.C., that is, more than 2100 years before a single Muslim Arab appeared either in that land, or indeed anywhere on earth. It is the Arabs who were the true colonists, conquering vast swathes of territory from Morocco to Persia, and turning many of the peoples conquered into Arabs, who used the Arabic language, accepted the “Arab religion” of Islam, adopted Arab names, and thought of themselves as Arabs — surely that phenomenon, of the colonized so completely identifying with the colonizer, has made the Arabs the most successful imperialists in history, who have managed to convince those they conquered that they, too, were Arabs No wonder the celebrated writer on Islam Anwar Sheikh has called Islam “the Arab national religion.”
In Gaza, the Israelis by March 2024 had dropped nine million leaflets, sent 15 million text messages, and made 16 million robocalls, all in order to warn Gazan civilians away from sites and buildings about to be targeted. That is one of the reasons that British Colonel Richard Kemp has described the IDF as ”the most moral army in the world” and led West Point Professor of Urban Warfare John Spencer to conclude that “Israel has done more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any military in history — above & beyond what international law requires.
None of the naysayers’ predictions about a possible Israeli attack on Iran came true. Iran did not strike back at Israel. Iran’s already battered proxies did not join the battle. The Arab states did not come to Iran’s aid. And after the American attack on nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Iran replied with the mildest of attacks, which it warned Qatar about in advance, on America’s airbase at al-Udeid; forewarned by Qatar, the American servicemen were in shelters and no one was hurt, which was just what the Iranians wanted, for fear of an American reprisal.
It turns out that the precise and proportionate application of violence can do more to keep the peace than can endless rounds of negotiations that are only being used by one side — in this case, Iran — to continue to prepare for future aggression by working to enrich more uranium for nuclear weapons. As Churchill said, and as Netanyahu knew, jaw-jaw is not always preferable to war-war.
I’m going to have to take you to the tool shed Mr. Fitzgerald. The fact that AIPAC and Israel have influence on Western politics is.not an enthymeme. It’s a fact much like Israel is blindly supported by the US government for the most part. This is undeniable. The liar Netanyahu is constantly trying to drag the US into their conflicts.
Modern day Zionist’s? You mean Europeans who’ve never lived or have any ancestral relation to ancient Israel? Mr. Fitzgerald do you understand the difference between ancient Israel and the invented and created 1948 Israel? Ancient Israel was a theocratic monarchy with a covenant with God and under the Law of Moses. The 1948 invented Israel is a liberal secular democracy with no divine covenant, and hosts one of the largest gay pride parades in the world.
No. It’s the Zionists who are the colonizers. What confusion would ensue the world over if this principle on which the fake Jews base their “legitimate” claim were carried out in other parts of the world! What migrations of nations must follow!? Spain would have to make room for the Arabs and Moors who ruled and conquered their country for over 700 yrs.
Oh boy, Israel dropped leaflets. How wonderful. Then they slaughtered innocent Palestinian civilians! Halted food and water supplies to those people. That’s why Israel won’t let international journalists in to investigate. Why? Oh, we know why Mr Fitzgerald!
Further, you’ve had prominent Jews like Finklestein, Dave Smith and others showcase the crimes of Israel and the IDF. The court of public opinion is not on Israel’s side any longer.
Sebastian, out.
Oooo, BathhouseSebby gets tough with Hugh Fitzgerald. The tool shed? Really? The only tool here is you. Have another falafel sh*t sandwich. Is it true that Muslims can’t get laid until the f**k the goats?
Your desperate Jew hatred is getting worse. Your 3rd grade level criticism (colonizers, really?) is truly amateurish. Straight out of a 7th grade leftist action memo.
And your “court of public opinion” exists in the trash heap of Gaza, and those black neighborhoods that are the trash heaps of our blue cities.
So keep racking up those down votes Loser boy.
Sebastion out….of his mind.
My goodness. What an unhinged and inappropriate post. This doesn’t help with having a productive dialogue.
Oh, you want a productive dialogue. Marquis of Queensbury rules? pressed trousers and a moderator.
Maybe you will change your mind when you see how he responds. The guy is a Jew hating lowlife.
Maybe you should respond to him.
Just about like what the Eco-Freaks Predictions back from Silent Spring, Population Bomb and Earth in the Balance their pretty unreliable these False Prophets their Nver Right not once
The concept of colonizer is interesting here. If your family left their farm 4 generations ago and moved to California, could you arrive back and claim it? How about abandoned it after a war, say 1945 in East Prussia, could you go back today to Konigsberg and claim your family home?
This is purely a tribal struggle that is an extension of a terrible mistake made by the clowns that rebelled against Hadrian. Their descendants just want to get back what was “theirs” 1900 years ago.
Property rights depend on who has the largest gun. Currently the Jewish tribes do and they have won. There is no coverage of the 100,000 Christians that were thrown out of Ngorno Karabac a few weeks after the massacre in Israel 2 years ago. Why not? Lose the war and peace is difficult for your side.
If you are Japanese. and your family was dispossessed of its farm in California’s central valley because FDR was a pig when it came to people not very much like himself, would you say, Well, them’s the breaks, or you would you do whatever it takes to recover what was stolen from you? What is happening in Israel today is not a tribal struggle–the so-called Palestinians are a fiction, not a tribe, a cat’s paw of the delightful folks working today to compl;ete the work of the holocaust, but a battle in the continuing war between good and the forces of evil arrayed against the Jews.
Who owns all the land on earth? God does.
Can He give it to whomever He wants? Of course.
He gave it to Abram and his descendants.
Gen. 13:14-15
14 And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.