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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.
