Some "genocide scholars" are anti-Israel propagandists

Humanitarian aid dropped over Gaza (AFP/Getty Images)

Some “genocide scholars” are anti-Israel propagandists

By Hendrik van der Breggen

 

A recent resolution of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) claims Israel is committing genocide. But the resolution is anti-Israel propaganda—and truth-seeking people should not be fooled by it.

Serious doubt can be cast onto the credibility of the IAGS's members (at least some of them), its decision-making process, and its resolution.

Apparently, the membership of IAGS is open to people who are not genocide scholars, which is odd, to say the least. And this casts doubt onto the association of alleged “genocide scholars.” In fact, earlier today a reporter for i24NEWS who is admittedly not a genocide scholar was able to purchase a membership to the IAGS for a mere $30.00!!! (See link below.) Go figure.

Also, of the 500 members of the IAGS, only 129 participated in the resolution vote and 86% of those participants voted in favour of the resolution. If we do our math properly, that’s about 22% of the total IAGS membership. So it’s not at all clear that a whole lot of genocide scholars agree with the resolution.

This lack of clarity, however, did not stop The Guardian from posting this news headline on September 1, 2025: “Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say: International Association of Genocide Scholars resolution backed by 86% of members who voted.” But the headline (and article) fails to mention that only about a mere quarter of the whole IAGS membership voted at all. So it’s a big stretch—i.e., propaganda—to say “world’s top scholars on the crime say….”

Moreover, according to Sara E. Brown, PhD, an actual genocide scholar and member of IAGS (who does not agree with the IAGS resolution), there was no critical discussion among members prior to the passing of the resolution. This is odd, too. And casts more doubt onto the legitimacy of the resolution.

If this isn’t disturbing enough, it turns out that the IAGS resolution itself has several problems—problems anyone who thinks critically and cares about truth can discern. I will examine three of those problems here. (I strongly suspect there are more problems, but I’ll leave that examination for another time.)

First, the resolution fails to notice that attacks on civilian infrastructure (hospitals, homes, mosques, etc.) are legitimate military targets, according to international rules of war (i.e., Geneva Conventions), when such infrastructure has been co-opted for war purposes (e.g., for hiding terror tunnels, tunnel shafts, weapons storage, etc.). This is the case in Gaza, but the IAGS resolution ignores this.

Second, the resolution fails to notice that, according to international rules of war, genocide requires intent (that is, “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” per Geneva Convention; italics added for emphasis). As it turns out, Israel’s intent is not to destroy Gazan civilians. Rather, Israel’s intent is to destroy Hamas. This distinction concerning intent renders the genocide charge false. 

Yes, civilian casualties are tragic and, sadly, to be expected in war (as collateral damage), but, again, their destruction is not intended by Israel. In fact, blame for Gazan civilian deaths should be put on Hamas and its supporters. Hamas—the initiator of the war—intentionally placed and places Gazan civilians in harm’s way by embedding fighters among civilians and storing weapons in civilian homes and other civilian infrastructure, rendering them legitimate military targets. Thereby, by Hamas’s design, Israel would unintentionally kill Gazan civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure as it rightly seeks to stop Hamas from killing Israeli citizens (at present and in the future, if Hamas is allowed to regroup). So, again, Hamas and its Gazan supporters, not Israel, are to blame for the deaths and destruction in Gaza. Intent to destroy civilians—Gazan civilians—rests with Hamas and its supporters, not Israel.

And, yes, some Israeli politicians have made angry genocidal remarks, but—significantly—this does not constitute Israeli policy. Israeli policy, as demonstrated repeatedly in the war, has been to minimize civilian casualties. The fact is that before and during the war with Hamas, Israel engaged in extraordinary efforts to protect Gazan civilians from potential harm. How? By warning them of Israel’s invasion by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text and voice messages, and “knocking” (hitting a building’s roof with an low-yield but noisy “bomb” to warn residents that the next bomb will be more dangerous). And Israel has provided humanitarian corridors and safe zones (often made unsafe by Hamas). And Israel has provided tons and tons of food (often stolen by Hamas). These are not characteristics of genocidal intent.

Third, the IAGS resolution makes dubious claims about casualties. It states that there have been “more than 59,000 adults and children” killed in Gaza. Yes, if true, that’s a lot—and it’s horrible. But, significantly, the resolution fails to distinguish between civilians and combatants in its body count. It turns out that a very large portion of the casualty number consists of Hamas combatants, not just civilians. The Times of Israel reports that the fatality proportion of women and children is 51%, so the remaining 49% consists of male adults, many of whom are Hamas fighters.

The loss of civilians, especially children, is of course tragic. Horrible, in fact. Nevertheless, perspective is needed for getting at truth. When compared to other  recent urban wars, in the Israel-Gaza conflict fewer civilians have been destroyed per destroyed combatant. And this comparatively lower number of Gazan civilian casualties in the Israel-Gaza conflict is the case even though Hamas has, unlike the other cases of urban warfare, spent years not only embedding itself among civilians in Gaza but also fortifying its underground war machine (tunnels, weapons stores and manufacturing, booby-trapped buildings, etc.) without providing protection for civilians. Add to this the fact that the misfiring of many Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets has caused many Gazan casualties, too. Indeed, according to New York Times, about 10 to 20 percent of Hamas’s thousands upon thousands of rockets fail and many fall into Gaza. That’s a lot of self-inflicted damage—and would no doubt also be a significant cause of the rubble and civilian casualties in Gaza. Moreover, the resolution fails to make explicit the fact that many of the “children” in the casualty count are teens who are child soldiers, taught from an early age by their parents and school teachers to hate and kill Jews. Surely, Gazan parents and teachers, not Israel, should be blamed for this evil exploitation—abuse—of their own children! 

So, yes, and sadly, many people, including children, have been killed in Gaza, but many of those deaths—especially the civilian deaths—are not intended by Israel, contrary to what the IAGS would make it seem.

Clearly, then, the resolution of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, which claims Israel is committing genocide, is a piece of anti-Israel propaganda.

Again, truth-seeking people should not be fooled.

 

For additional thought

Joe Brown, “Want to be a renowned genocide scholar? Pay 30$,” i24NEWS, September 3, 2025 (3 minute video).

Sara Brown, “Genocide scholars: Israel rebuke passed without debate,” i24NEWS, September 2, 2025 (8 minute video).

Olivia Flasch, “Rebutting Allegations of Genocide Against Israel,” EJIL: Talk! Blog of European Journal of International Law, January 10, 2024.

International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) Resolution on the Situation in Gaza.

Jeremy Sharon, “Hamas fatality figures for Gaza war are ‘clear disinformation,’ according to newstudy,” The Times of Israel, May 6, 2025.

Luke Tress, “Member of genocide association says group’s leadership pushed through Israel condemnation without discussion,” The Times of Israel, September 2, 2025.

Hendrik van der Breggen, “Gaza is a war machine,” APOLOGIA, March 24, 2025.

Hendrik van der Breggen, “Settler-colonialism and ethnic cleansing: Two false assumptions about Israel’s inception,” APOLOGIA, October 8, 2024.

 

I noticed the following Free Press article just after I published my above article (it’s a good read, though the headline should not suggest we don’t trust all experts, because some experts are trustworthy and have genuine expertise; we need to think critically to sort out the trustworthy experts from those who are not trustworthy, to avoid throwing out the baby with the dirty bathwater): 

The editors, “Another Reason Not to Trust the ‘Experts,’” The Free Press, September 3, 2025.

Here are a few more thoughts about experts, from my friend and former colleague Patrick Franklin, PhD, Associate Professor of Theology, Tyndale University (Facebook, September 3, 2025): 

Genuine, legitimate experts are important in helping us to understand complex fields and issues. We need experts. However, in a culture increasingly duped by propagandist ‘authority’ pieces, we need to dig into the details a bit when someone or some publication says “experts say.” Which experts? What proportion of them within the total population of their field? What are their credentials? Are their very specific areas of expert knowledge actually related to the topic at hand? Do they have any conflicts of interest that are relevant? 

Also, experts should be able to communicate the logic of their conclusions and point people toward the evidence. They should not seek to silence or suppress dissenting views, but welcome them as opportunities to demonstrate the truth more clearly. (On the flip side, it is rational to trust experts when they are speaking within their expertise and communicate with clear logic and reliable evidence, even if we don't fully understand all the details ourselves). 

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Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor (formerly at Providence University College, Canada) and author of Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War (paperback can be purchased at Amazon or pdf can be downloaded for free here or book can be read also-for-free at APOLOGIA). 

Gaza is a war machine

 

A Hamas jihadist in a tunnel under Gaza. “Hamas” is an acronym for the Arabic words Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya which in English mean Islamic Resistance Movement. Gaza is 25 miles long and its width varies from about 4 to 8 miles, yet the length of the military-grade tunnel network under Gaza has been estimated to be between 350 and 450 miles. (Photo credit: Ashraf Amra, a pro-Hamas Gazan.)

 

Gaza is a war machine

By Hendrik van der Breggen

 

Gaza is tiny, but it’s dangerous. From my personal research over the past year and a half (as I’ve been following the Israel-Gaza war during my retirement), I have come to the conclusion that Gaza is, for lack of a better description, a war machine.

Gaza is 25 miles long and its width varies from about 4 to 8 miles. Yet the length of the terror tunnel network under Gaza has been estimated to be between 350 and 450 miles. Since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, many tunnels have been destroyed by Israel, but many remain.

Moreover, there are (were) an estimated 5,700 tunnel shafts coming out into Gazan homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, chicken coops, and fields. And there are (were) huge stockpiles of rockets and other weapons distributed throughout the underground landscape. Much has been destroyed by Israel, but much remains.

Led by Hamas, Gaza has been building its tunnels for almost two decades (reminder: Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas was elected by Gazans in 2006). In fact, many Gazan tunnels were built through the 1990s and 2000s prior to Gazans voting in Hamas. Some tunnels were built between Egypt and Gaza for smuggling purposes (weapons, soldiers, and other supplies were smuggled into Gaza), and some were built as attack tunnels into Israel (used in the early 2000s and in 2014). Many—most—of the tunnels were built within (under) Gaza in recent years and are a part of a war effort. The tunnels facilitate troop movements throughout Gaza, provide access to rocket-launching sites, serve as command centres, protect troops and leaders, provide weapons building areas, facilitate easy access to weapons caches distributed throughout Gaza, store supplies, and imprison hostages. Connected by a web of hundreds of miles of tunnels, Gaza’s towns and cities have been tooled for war—war against Israel.[1]

Not only has the land of Gaza been tooled for war, but also Gaza’s people have been tooled for war. Gazan children (now young adults) have been indoctrinated over the past two decades (or more) to serve not only as fighters but also as human shields—martyrs—in Gaza’s Islamist jihad against Israel. (An Islamist martyr is one who is killed or dies for the cause of Allah, typically via jihad/war, and thus skips Allah’s judgment and gains immediate entrance into paradise/ heaven, which is filled with sensual delights.) The parents and grandparents of Gazan young people also drank heavily at the well of Islamist jihadist doctrine. It should be remembered that many of the older Gazans were original so-called Palestinian refugees who moved to Gaza in 1947–48 and did so to facilitate the (failed) war on Israel by Islamist neighbours bent on wiping out Jews.[2]

This means that Israel’s fight in Gaza is not similar to the urban warfare as in, say, Mosul (when US-backed Iraqis fought to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State in 2016-17). That is, the war in Gaza is not merely a fight that happens, unfortunately, to occur in towns and cities. It’s not due to mere happenstance. Rather, it is due to deliberate decisions by Gazans and years of preparation by Gazans.[3]

This should be emphasized and remembered: The choice for tunnel warfare was made by Gazans years prior to its Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. Reminder: In that invasion 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and 240 hostages taken into Gaza. Over the at least two decades prior to October 7, 2023, Gazans spent billions of dollars (repurposed internationally-supplied aid funds) building terror tunnels, stockpiling caches of weapons, and teaching (indoctrinating) its people to hate and murder Jews. By its massacre of Israelis and then taking hostages into Gaza—a land outfitted for war—it is clear that Gaza’s goal was to have a war against Israel inside Gaza.

In other words, leading up to October 7, 2023, Gaza made itself into a WAR MACHINE. This war machine includes not only its terror-tunnel-infested land abundantly seeded with rockets, grenades, and booby traps, but also its blood-thirsty Jew-hating jihadist soldiers, mostly young men, and jihadist martyr-minded civilians, whether children, mothers, or elderly, willing to die as martyrs—human shields—for the fighters.

Apparently (if my most recent news sources are correct), Hamas has been using the most recent ceasefire to re-group, re-arm, and prepare for yet another October 7-style massacre in Israel.

Yes, many civilian deaths have occurred in Gaza. This is horrible, to be sure. Nevertheless, the number of civilian deaths relative to combatant deaths is low in the Israel-Gaza conflict when compared to urban warfare ratios in Mosul and elsewhere. This is a tribute to the Israeli Defence Forces.[4]

And, yes, among Gazan’s civilians, many Gazan children and women have been killed. This is a tragedy. But keep in mind that for Gaza (led by Hamas), it’s a strategy. And keep in mind that in Gaza the line between civilian and non-civilian is blurry. 

With its many miles of military-grade attack tunnels coupled with the Islamist jihadist mindset of many of its people, Gaza remains a war machine, not a peace-seeking nation.

Westerners in general and Israelis in particular should remember this.[5]

 

NOTES

1. The news agency Reuters published an informative and visually impressive report on the Gazan tunnels about a year ago. See Adolfo Arranz, Jonathan Saul, Stephen Farrell, Simon Scarr, and Clare Trainor, “Inside the tunnels of Gaza: The scale, and the sophistication, of Hamas’ tunnel network,” Reuters, December 31, 2023.

2. For more on this topic, see Hendrik van der Breggen, “Settler-colonialism and ethnic cleansing: Two false assumptions about Israel’s inception,” APOLOGIA, October 8, 2024 (see especially reason 3 of part 1 and the whole of part 2).

3. The innocence of large numbers of Gaza’s civilians is dubious. In fact, it very much seems that large numbers of Gaza’s civilians are either terrorists or supporters of terrorists. There is much evidence to support this view. Consider the following:

 

• (a) Evidence of many Gazan civilians cheering when dead Israelis were paraded in Gaza shortly after the Hamas October 7 attack.
• (b) Evidence that many Gazans (including children) were involved in the looting during the October 7 attack.
• (c) Evidence that many Gazan young people have been for years indoctrinated with a murderous anti-Jewish/anti-Israel ideology (in UN schools) and have helped Hamas terrorists by carrying messages and munitions.
• (d) Evidence of 560 to 700 kilometres (350 to 450 miles!) of cement tunnels that were built in Gaza over the past 16 years—so surely many Gazan civilians were aware of this.
• (e) Evidence of 5,700 tunnel shafts being hosted by (i.e., coming out of) homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals all across tiny Gaza—and again, surely, many Gazan civilians were aware of this. And surely many Gazan civilians were aware that the tunnels’ purpose was for war against Israel and to wipe out Jews (per the Hamas charter), yet Gazans did not protest.
• (f) Evidence of hostages being held in civilian homes.

 

For some references concerning the above evidence, see notes for Reply 4 of “Israel’s response to Hamas is not proportional?” which is chapter 12 of my book Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War; link here.

Also, for additional evidence for thinking the people of Gaza are not innocent, see Einat Wilf, “Einat Wilf Answers 18 Questions on Gaza, Anti-Zionism, and the Israel-Hamas War,” 18Forty, December 4, 2024 (80 minute video). Einat Wilf has a BA from Harvard, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Wilf served as an intelligence officer with the Israeli Defense Forces, is a former member of the Israeli parliament, and works presently with the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons’ Office. Also, Einat Wilf is co-author of the book The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace (St. Martin’s, 2020), which I highly recommend.

Many Gazans—especially children—are innocent, of course. And some adult Gazans no longer support Hamas. The following recent report from Gatestone Institute is relevant. “Although many Palestinians continue to support Hamas and the ‘resistance’ against Israel, a growing number are speaking out against the terror group.” “If the Palestinians living in Gaza want to end the war, they must revolt against Hamas and provide Israel with information about the whereabouts of the hostages. Sadly, most Palestinians seem unwilling to do so, either out of fear of Hamas or because they simply identify with the terror group and its goal of destroying Israel.” Khaled Abu Toameh, “Palestinians: ‘We Are Dying Because of Hamas,’” Gatestone Institute International Policy Council, March 20, 2025.

4. Yes, we should keep in mind the fact that the civilian-combatant death ratio in Gaza is low when it is compared to other cases of urban warfare in recent history. That is, the other cases of urban warfare by Western democracies have more civilian deaths per combatant death than is the case in Israel’s war against Hamas (even though Hamas has, unlike the other cases, spent years not only embedding itself among civilians in Gaza but also fortifying its underground war machine). And add to this the fact that the misfiring of many Hamas rockets caused many Gazan casualties.

It also is important to keep in mind that before and during the war with Hamas, Israel engaged in extraordinary efforts to protect Gazan civilians from potential harm. How? By warning them of Israel’s invasion by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text and voice messages, and “knocking” (hitting a building’s roof with an unexploding “bomb” to warn residents that the next bomb will explode). And Israel has provided humanitarian corridors and safe zones (often made unsafe by Hamas).

5. And we should remember that the Gazans, led by Hamas, started the war with Israel, a war in which it was foreseeable and planned by Gazans, led by Hamas, that Israel’s military response would appear to Western observers to be lacking proportionality and thus be deemed unjust. How so? By using Western moral qualms (which Hamas does not have) against Westerners. Reminder: Hamas/Gazan terrorists embedded themselves among Gazan civilians (of whom many have aided and abetted the terrorists; see evidence in note 1 above), knowing there would be huge numbers of civilian casualties which constitute, for Hamas, a military strategy, not a moral tragedy. Moreover, the foreseeable-to-Hamas vividness of the horrors of dead civilians, especially children—vividness provided by the terrorists themselves to the world in abundance via photos and video on the internet—is intended by Hamas to play on the oft-emotion-based moral reasoning of Western observers. For many Westerners, bloodshed of civilians is repulsive, full stop, and no further moral reasoning is done to discern who is actually responsible. This is sometimes called “the CNN effect.” The byline of ethicist Shlomo Brody’s article “Israel and the CNN Effect” is helpful here: “Images of bloodshed in Gaza should upset anyone with a healthy moral sense. But they don’t help determine whether the actions that brought these scenes about were ethical.” (Shlomo Brody, “Israel and the CNN Effect,” Mosaic, January 4, 2024.) Brody adds: “We might be saddened by these deaths, but our moral analysis must remain sober. Good reasoning must overcome our instinctive revulsion to bloodshed. We cannot fixate on body counts or CNN coverage. Instead, we must determine with whom culpability lies.” Sober-minded moral reasoning based on evidence shows that the culpability lies with Hamas-led Gaza, but Gaza hides its culpability (along with its fighters) behind the broken and bloody bodies of its Gazan human shields, children included. Thereby Gaza, led by Hamas, gains world sympathy and Israel loses it. The alleged lack of proportionality and alleged injustice, then, are more apparent than real—and more by Hamas design than by Israeli intent—due to Hamas’s wicked machinations coupled with Gazan civilian help and Western gullibility.

 

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Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. Hendrik is author of the book Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War.

 

Is Hamas a legitimate representative of Islam? Yes, it is.

 

Is Hamas a legitimate representative of Islam?

Yes, it is.

By Hendrik van der Breggen

 

HAMAS (Hamas) is an acronym for the Arabic words Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, which in English means Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas, in other words, purports to be a representative of Islam. But is it? That is to ask: Is Hamas a legitimate representative of Islam?

Before I answer and set out my reasons, let’s review some recent goings-on in Gaza.

Last Thursday (February 20, 2025), Hamas staged a macabre carnival-like ceremony in Gaza for its release of four dead Israeli hostages.

Dead hostages included three members of the Bibas family, i.e., two very young boys Ariel and Kfir and their mother Shiri (the father Yarden was released alive two weeks earlier). Also, the dead hostages included an 84-year-old gentleman, Oded Lifschitz.

Well, at least that was the morbid plan of Hamas, according to its ceasefire agreement with Israel.

It turns out that Israeli forensic investigators determined that the dead woman was not the children’s mother. There was a “mix-up of bodies,” per Hamas. Instead of Shiri Bibas (i.e., the children’s mother), the Hamas terrorists gave Israel an unidentified dead Palestinian woman. Israel rightly complained, so Shiri’s dead body was handed over the next day.

Subsequently, and what is worse (though it was hard to believe things could get worse), forensic investigation also revealed that the young Bibas boys—Ariel and Kfir—were strangled to death and later mutilated to look like they were killed by bombs. (They were later mutilated by Hamas because Hamas falsely claimed the children were killed not by Hamas but by Israeli bombs.)

Let this sink in. Ariel and Kfir, who were, respectively, 4 years old and 9 months old when abducted on October 7, 2023—these precious little red-headed boys were strangled to death by Hamas.

Strangled to death. 

This is evil. And should be condemned by the whole world as such. Surely.

Back to my question: Is Hamas a legitimate representative of Islam?

Interestingly, two Islamic Grand Muftis, one from Saudi Arabia and one from the United Arab Emirates, spoke up on the matter. (In Islam, a Grand Mufti is a very high-ranking religious figure like, say, a Bishop is for the Catholic Church.)

The Grand Muftis attempted to distance Islam from Hamas and its macabre spectacle involving the return of dead hostages, including the Bibas children. According to one of the Grand Muftis, “What we saw today in Gaza is a disgrace to Islam, an act of blasphemy against Allah.” The other said, “Hamas has brought shame on Islam, on a level never seen before.”

What are non-Muslims to think about this? On the one hand, Hamas—the Islamic Resistance Movement—sees itself as doing the work of Islam. On the other hand, high-ranking Islamic religious officials condemn this work as a “disgrace to Islam” and a “shame on Islam.”

So, again: Is Hamas a legitimate representative of Islam?

I believe the answer is yes.

To arrive at this answer, I have found helpful a distinction made by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ali is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University), a Somali-born former Dutch politician, and a former Muslim.

Ali distinguishes between what she calls Medina Muslims and Mecca Muslims.

Background historical notes: The Prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632) began the religion of Islam in Mecca (in what is now Saudi Arabia) and a few years later he moved to Medina (about 340 kilometres away from Mecca). Muhammad’s alleged revelations from God/Allah are recorded in Islam’s holy book the Qur’an. Muhammad’s sayings and actions are recorded in the Hadith. For Muslims, the Hadith is a significant supplement to the Qur’an.

Muslims themselves may not apply the Medina-Mecca distinction to themselves. Nevertheless, the Medina-Mecca distinction provides important insight into the motivations of followers of Islam (whether Sunni, Shiite, or whatever).

According to Ali, Medina Muslims are those Muslims who follow the violent teachings of the Prophet Muhammad when in the city of Medina the prophet effectively became a warlord after his peaceful approach to spreading Islam in Mecca was rejected. Subsequently, Muhammad killed Jews and ordered the killing of Jews.

It would be reasonable, then, to describe Hamas—whose goal is to kill Jews in the name of Islam—as what Ali calls “Medina Muslims.” Medina Muslims take the violent Prophet Muhammad to be their role model.

On the other hand, those Muslims such as the above-mentioned Grand Muftis could be described as “Mecca Muslims.” That is to say, they follow the Prophet Muhammad’s peaceful teachings when he first began his religion in Mecca. But they downplay or ignore Muhammad’s later violent teachings that abrogate—cancel—the earlier peaceful ones.

Why the popular confusion over whether one should follow the earlier peaceful teachings or the later violent teachings that cancel the earlier teachings? It may be, it seems to me, because the Qur’an is not ordered chronologically. Instead, the Qur’an begins with the longest chapter and ends with the shortest chapter. Such an ordering may be aesthetically pleasing, but historical chronology gets lost. The result is that it is not clear that the violent verses come after—and thus abrogate/cancel—the earlier peaceful verses.

The upshot: Muslims who follow closely Muhammad’s violent later teachings are scripturally correct in doing so.

Thus, Hamas does legitimately represent Islam. At least it does in so far as Hamas takes seriously all of the Qur’an’s and the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings, including the later ones, which cancel the earlier peaceful ones, and which include the brutal killing of Jews.

Jews such as Ariel, Kfir, and Shiri Bibas and the elderly Oded Lifschitz.

 

For additional thought

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Islam Is a Religion of Violence, Foreign Policy Magazine, November 9, 2015. (Article)
• Raymond Ibrahim, How Nazism Explains the Difference Between ‘Moderate’ and ‘Radical’ Islam, The Stream, February 20, 2025. (Article)
• Robert Spencer et al., Islam: What the West Needs to Know, produced & directed by Gregory M. Davis & Bryan Daly (Lorain, Ohio: Quixotic Media Productions, 2006). (98 minute video)
• R. C. Sproul & Abdul Saleeb, The Dark Side of Islam (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2003). (Book, see chapter 8)
• Hendrik van der Breggen, Appendix 1: Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic? Part 1 of 2, APOLOGIA, March 26, 2024. (Article/chapter)
• Hendrik van der Breggen, Appendix 2: Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic? Part 2 of 2, APOLOGIA, March 26, 2024. (Article/chapter)
• Hendrik van der Breggen, Islam and Christianity, APOLOGIA, March 16, 2017.

 

Objections and replies

Objection 1. Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic.

Reply: No, it’s not. My pointing to Islam’s negative view of Jews and my call for careful thinking about Islam—especially about its founder Muhammad who encourages the killing of Jews (and others) and whom Islamists such as Hamas take very seriously as a model for their violent behaviour—are not instances of Islamophobia. Rather, these are reasonable, evidence-based concerns. Think about it. A phobia is an irrational or ungrounded fear, aversion, or hatred. Consider arachnophobia, an irrational ungrounded fear or hatred of spiders. But, clearly, it’s possible to have reasonable, non-phobic concerns about some spiders if the spiders display evidence of being harmful or lethal to humans. Again, thinking carefully about Islam is not Islamophobia. One can have non-phobic, reasonable concerns about a religion that displays evidence of being harmful or lethal to people who do not agree with that religion. It turns out that Muhammad was an extremely violent man bent on world domination by force, and he teaches his followers to be and do likewise. It is not phobic to say this.

Objection 2. The Bible also has calls to war, so the Bible is as bad as the Qur’an.

Reply: Yes, the Bible has calls to war in the Old Testament. But the Bible’s calls to war are specific and limited to particular times and places, whereas the Qur’an’s call for war against unbelievers is Muhammad’s latest revelation and is open-ended—and continues. Moreover, according to the New Testament, Jesus promotes his message by allowing his blood to be shed on a cross, and Jesus teaches his followers to love their enemies. But Muhammad, according to the Qur’an and tradition, promotes his message by shedding the blood of others. To promote Islam throughout the world, Muhammad calls his followers to kill infidels, i.e., those who don’t agree with his views about God. Yes, most Muslims don’t follow the violent Muhammad, which is, I believe, good. These Muslims elevate Muhammad’s peaceful traits above his violent ones. But the peaceful Muslims are mistaken, according to the Qur’an and Hadith, because Muhammad’s call to violent jihad is his latest revelation and his latest revelation abrogates—cancels—the earlier peaceful revelation.

The Qur’an, then, has an ongoing call to subdue or kill non-believers—Jews, Christians, and other so-called infidels—whereas the Bible does not. Yes, some followers of Jesus have done evil things, but they did so contrary to Jesus’ teachings, unlike followers of Muhammad who do and have done bad things in accordance with Muhammad’s teachings.

Significantly, the Bible, unlike the Qur’an, has good news: According to the Bible, the God of the universe loves us; the God of the universe became a man—Jesus—and lived among us; Jesus showed us the way of love, suffered for us, and was killed for our sins; and Jesus resurrected physically to defeat the powers of death and darkness. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We should repent and accept Jesus as Lord.

 

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. Hendrik is author of the 2024 book Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War.

 

The Problem of the Misleading Headline

 

The Problem of the Misleading Headline: Yet another way news media promote anti-Israel bias

By Hendrik van der Breggen

(Originally published May 22, 2024, at The Stream.)

For many in today’s TikTok world, awareness of news is limited to mere headlines. Instead of carefully reading reports, screen-fatigued people tend merely to scroll from one headline to the next. I’m guilty of that. Probably you are, too.

Enter: The problem of the misleading headline.

This is a mistake (or is it?) whereby a news headline doesn’t convey the truth (or full truth) contained in the story. Those who’ve been made stupid by their smartphones are especially susceptible to this issue.

Sadly, misleading headlines can create or reinforce propaganda and distort public opinion about any number of issues. But for our purposes, let’s focus on the anti-Israel protests in major cities and university campuses. (For my assessment of anti-Israel propaganda, such as the idea that Israel is committing genocide, apartheid, and oppression, see my recent Stream article “Untangling Anti-Israel Propaganda for Today’s College Students.”)

Let’s analyze three recent headlines.

 

Misleading CNN Headline

“Nearly half of the Israeli munitions dropped on Gaza are imprecise ‘dumb bombs,’ US intelligence assessment finds.”

This headline gives the impression that Israel is bombing Gaza indiscriminately (because “dumb bombs” are not guided). Such bombing is a concern because it violates the just war principle of distinction. In war, combatants should distinguish between civilians and enemy soldiers, and aim only to destroy enemy soldiers. Israel claims to be targeting Hamas terrorists, not Gazan civilians, so this headline suggests Israelis are liars — and war criminals.

But if we read only the headline, we would be misled. Deep in the article we read the following:

“A US official told CNN that the US believes that the Israeli military is using the dumb bombs in conjunction with a tactic called ‘dive bombing,’ or dropping a bomb while diving steeply in a fighter jet, which the official said makes the bombs more precise because it gets it closer to its target. The official said the US believes that an unguided munition dropped via dive-bombing is similarly precise to a guided munition.”

Even deeper in the article we read that: “the US also provides Israel with systems that can transform those dumb bombs into ‘smart’ ones….”

Clearly, a headline that’s less biased against Israel would go something like this:

“US assessment: Israel uses precision to strike Gaza — even with ‘dumb bombs.’”

(Acknowledgment: I learned about this CNN example from former Israel spokesperson Eylon Levy in his excellent interview with military reporter and defense analyst Yaakov Katz on Israel: State of a Nation with Eylon Levy.)

 

Misleading Headlines from Various News Sources

“Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbs to 34,844.”

This is another headline that can shape public opinion against Israel in its war with Hamas, and may even encourage allies to withhold military aid. Even President Joe Biden used the headline’s casualty number in a speech. This headline and slight variations of it have been often presented in recent news reports around the world. See links above and see Google.

That is a large number of casualties, for sure. The impression the headline leaves is that Israel is simply doling out a whole lot of death!

But we should think for a minute. Yes, that’s a lot of ended human lives. And, yes, we should mourn such a terrible loss.

It turns out, however, that the number comes from Gaza’s Ministry of Health — run by Hamas — so it’s dubious at best. Reminder: Hamas is the terrorist group that murdered 1200+ Israelis, injured many more, and took 240 hostages on October 7.

Reminder: Hamas lied about the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, saying it was destroyed by an Israeli bomb that allegedly killed nearly 500 civilians when in fact, the bomb was a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket (Islamic Jihad is a Gazan ally of Hamas) that landed in the hospital’s parking lot, killing, according to US intelligence, about 100 to 300 people.

Surely, numbers provided by known murderers and liars lack credibility.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say the number of almost 35,000 is accurate. (Keep in mind that more recent news tells us Gaza’s Ministry of Health cannot verify about 10,000 of the alleged casualties, which makes it reasonable to suspect the actual number is considerably lower.)

But even if we say 35,000 Gazans have been killed in the war so far, we should realize that this number (and the new, perhaps lower number) fails to indicate that a large portion are Hamas fighters, not just Gazan civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces estimate they have killed 14,000 Hamas fighters (if we take a terrorist’s number seriously we should at least take a democratic state’s number seriously). Now, let’s do the math.

The number of Hamas fighters killed is about 40% of the total casualties in Gaza. This means that for every combatant killed, 1.5 civilians are killed.

Of course, each civilian death is tragic. But the combatant-civilian death ratio shows how careful and precise Israel actually is when compared to other instances of recent urban warfare.

For example, in Mosul, Iraq, US-backed forces killed 4,000 Islamic State terrorists and 10,000 civilians. This means that, for every combatant killed, 2.5 civilians were killed. And, in the fight against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, for every combatant killed, five civilians were killed.

Keep in mind, too, that in Gaza many civilians are killed by misfired rockets launched by Hamas and its Islamic jihadist friends. Since October 7, 2023, Hamas has fired well over 10,000 rockets into Israel. And it’s estimated that between 10% and 20% of those rockets (1,000 to 2,000 rockets) misfired and landed in Gaza. That’s a lot of Hamas’s rockets landing in Gaza — which is populated densely with Gazan civilians.

There’s no doubt, then, that many Gazan civilians are killed by Hamas, not the IDF. Clearly, this reduces the IDF’s combatant-civilian death ratio even more.

Moreover, keep in mind that Hamas — unlike ISIS in Iraq and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan — has had nearly 20 years to embed itself in the Gazan population, where it routinely uses civilians as human shields, and to build hundreds of kilometers of attack tunnels under Gazan homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques. This has made it all the more difficult for the IDF to target Hamas and minimize civilian deaths.

Clearly, in view of these difficult circumstances of war, the above combatant-civilian death ratios demonstrate that Israel has minimized civilian deaths in a way that will no doubt be hailed by Western democracies which value human life as the gold standard in urban warfare.

All this to say: Without further details, the headline “Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbs to 34,844” makes Israel look bad — but misleadingly and unjustly so.

 

Misleading Headline from Reuters

“Satellite images show 35% of Gaza’s building destroyed, UN says.”

 

Wow. That is a lot of destroyed buildings! If you scroll on without reading the article (or without reading it carefully), you can’t help but think: Those darn Israelis.

But wait. The article tells a significantly different story.

Consider this (from the article): “In its assessment, the United Nations Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, used high-resolution satellite images … [and] found that 35% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip—88,868 structures—had been damaged or destroyed.”

Put on your thinking caps.

 First, notice that to say 35% of all buildings are damaged or destroyed (according to the article’s text) is not the same as saying 35% of all buildings are destroyed (according to the article’s headline). Logic (and common sense) tells us that something can be damaged but not destroyed.

So the headline misleads us by telling us that 35% of the buildings are destroyed, while neglecting to tell us that the 35% includes buildings that were merely damaged. That is an important difference.

Second, and more significantly, notice that the article goes on to say: “Among these [the 88,868 damaged or destroyed buildings], [UNOSAT] identified 31,198 structures as destroyed, 16,908 as severely damaged, and 40,762 as moderately damaged.”

That means of the 88,868 damaged structures 35% were destroyed, 19% severely damaged, and 46% moderately damaged.

Here’s the rub: The headline makes it seem that 35% of all of Gaza’s buildings were destroyed, when in fact only 35% of the damaged structures were destroyed.

That’s a huge difference in meaning. And terribly misleading.

 

Don’t be bamboozled by misleading headlines, especially if you are interested in truth about the Israel-Hamas war and wish to avoid anti-Israel bias.

Read more — and read more carefully.

P.S. On the broader theme of misleading articles about the Israel-Hamas war, this recent article by Douglas Murray is important: “All eyes should be on Al Jazeera for being founded, funded — and directed — by terrorists,” New York Post, June 20, 2024.

 

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Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor (formerly at Providence University College, Manitoba, Canada) and author of the recent book Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War. A PDF of this book is available for free at his blog APOLOGIA or the paperback can be  purchased at Amazon.

Untangling Anti-Israel Propaganda for Today’s College Students

 

Untangling Anti-Israel Propaganda for Today’s College Students

By Hendrik van der Breggen

(Originally published at The Stream; reprinted here with permission.)

 

If recent encampments and protests on university campuses have demonstrated anything, it’s that many of today’s university students are woefully ignorant about Israel and the Israel-Hamas war. Clearly, students have been bamboozled by anti-Israel propaganda and need actual schooling rather than woke indoctrination.

Surprise Quiz!

Here, then, is a surprise quiz. (I have added answers to minimize “triggering” those students who confuse vandalism and waving placards with studying and seeking truth.)

TRUE or FALSE?

1. October 7 didn’t happen.

False. The footage from the Hamas fighters’ bodycams, the testimony of survivors, and forensic investigation provide ample evidence that on October 7, 2023, Hamas brutally murdered more than 1,200 Israelis, injured many more, and took 240 hostages.

2. Israel was occupying Gaza immediately before October 7.

False. Israel gave Gaza its independence in 2005, hoping for peace. In turn, Gaza embraced Hamas — a terrorist organization — and over the past nearly two decades has launched thousands of rockets against Israel and constructed a vast underground war machine.

3. The Israel-Hamas war is about land.

False. See above answer (i.e., Israel gave Gaza back to Gazans in 2005).

Also, Gazans (more generally, Palestinians) have repeatedly rejected Israel’s offers of peace in exchange for land.

In fact, Gaza — led by Hamas — is fighting a religious war against Israel. Hamas is an Islamist terror organization that seeks to exterminate Jews and their Jewish state. Islamists see Israel as a satanic affront to the “true religion” of Islam. Israel is the “Little Satan” (and the U.S. is the “Great Satan”).

4. Israel is committing genocide.

False. Israel is fighting a war of self-defense — a war started by Hamas. And it is Hamas that is the genocidal regime.

In the Israel-Hamas war, Israel is targeting Hamas fighters and is not trying to wipe out Gazans. Hamas, on the other hand, targets all Israelis and wants to exterminate all Jews — whether women or men, children or aged, civilians or soldiers. That is genocide!

Yes, sadly, in targeting Hamas fighters Israel has killed many Gazan civilians. This is a tragedy. But for Hamas it’s a strategy.

Hamas hides behind (and below) Gazan civilians, knowing Israel is reluctant to kill civilians, yet also knowing Israel is morally obliged to risk killing Gazans to stop Hamas and thereby protect Israeli citizens. To Israel’s credit, the civilian-combatant death ratio is low when compared to other cases of urban warfare in recent history. And this is all the more impressive when we also realize that many Gazan casualties are due to the misfiring of many Hamas rockets.

Again: Israel is not committing genocide. Rather, Israel is engaging in self-defense against a genocidal Islamist-jihadist regime — a regime that deliberately sacrifices its own citizens so gullible Westerners will believe it is the victim, and thus not support the only democracy in the Middle East. (In view of the campus anti-Israel protests and the Biden administration’s waffling support for Israel, Hamas is playing its wicked game all too well!)

5. Israel’s military response is not proportional.

False. Class, please put down your placards and put on your thinking caps.

Proportionality in war is not mathematical equality (one side rapes and murders 100 people, so the other side rapes and kills 100 enemies in response — that’s gang warfare). Rather, it involves weighing, on the one hand, possible deaths on one’s own side if opposing military targets are not struck, and, on the other hand, possible deaths of civilians on the other side if the military targets are struck.

Hamas, which the majority of Palestinians (and Iran) support, has vowed to commit the atrocities of October 7 over and over and over again in order to wipe Israel off the map and exterminate Jews. Therefore, Israel has been forced to defend itself against Hamas by striking Gaza.

And this is no easy task. Why? Because Hamas has spent nearly 20 years embedding its fighters in hundreds of kilometers of tunnels located under Gaza’s hospitals, homes, schools, and mosques. And this task is all the more difficult because Israel is attempting to target Hamas without targeting civilians, even though many of those civilians have helped Hamas build its war machine.

Therefore, Israel’s military response is proportional. Israel is doing what is needed to prevent a death cult — Hamas — from murdering millions of Israelis.

6. Israel is an oppressor.

False. Again, Israel is acting in self-defense. Again, Hamas brutally attacked Israel on October 7.

If any country is an oppressor, it’s Iran. Iran explicitly advocates for (and even shouts,) “Death to Israel” (and “Death to America”). Also, Iran supports and surrounds Israel with terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. Via this “ring of fire,” Iran is attempting to exterminate Israel. That is oppressive!

But aren’t Israel’s Gaza border policies oppressive? Perhaps, though certainly not like that of Iran’s oppression via its proxies (including Hamas). Keep in mind that the efforts on Israel’s part to ensure secure borders between Israel and Gaza are a result of Gaza’s deadly actions against Israel. Remember the almost two decades of rocket fire? Remember the attack tunnels? Israel’s border policies protect Israel from Hamas.

7. Israel should agree to a permanent ceasefire before eliminating Hamas.

False. Hamas (Gaza’s leadership) started the war and so should lay down its arms, return all hostages, and agree to an unconditional surrender. If Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire before Hamas surrenders and releases all hostages, Hamas will regroup and continue its promised genocidal war against Israel. Moreover, other terrorist groups around the globe will be emboldened by Hamas’s success.

As an Israeli spokesperson said: If there’s a fire, you don’t just put out 80% of it — you put out all of it. It’s the same for Hamas.

Think about it. We didn’t let Nazi Germany or Imperialist Japan off the hook until they were thoroughly defeated. And rightly so.

8. Israel is an apartheid state.

False. Israel is a democracy in which Arabs and other minorities (and women) have full rights. There is no apartheid in the State of Israel.

At this juncture, a student might try to justify the apartheid charge against Israel by pointing to the West Bank. But this would be a(nother) mistake.

First, the West Bank is not Israel. It is a disputed territory, of which parts are controlled by the Palestinian Authority and parts by Israel (it’s messy).

Second, yes, Palestinians and Israelis are segregated in the West Bank. But segregation in the West Bank is done for security reasons, not apartheid.

This segregation is no doubt difficult for Palestinians, but it’s not an instance of apartheid (or racism). The segregation and Israeli occupation in West Bank is Israel’s response to the many past Palestinian attacks and suicide bombings against Israel.

Again, it’s not apartheid. It’s not discrimination or oppression based on race or ethnicity. Rather, it’s an attempt to restrain hostile actors. This is an important difference!

To see what real apartheid states look like — which includes discrimination and oppression based not only on race or ethnicity but also gender and sexuality — look at Israel’s neighbors and ask: Why are there so few (if any) Jews living in those countries? Why are women less than first-class citizens? Why does Gaza toss gay people off tall buildings rather than celebrate Gay Pride Month?

End of quiz. Class dismissed. Please leave your placards in the garbage can, clean up your mess on campus, and apologize sincerely to all Israeli and Jewish students on your way out the door.

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For additional thought, see my article (also at The Stream) “The Problem of the Misleading Headline.”

 

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor (formerly at Providence University College, Manitoba, Canada) and author of the recent book Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War. A PDF of this book is available for free at his blog APOLOGIA or the paperback can be  purchased at Amazon.