The straw man fallacy occurs when “someone distorts their opponent’s argument by oversimplifying or exaggerating it, for example, and then refutes this “new” version of the argument.” In her radio and video broadcast entitled: “Building bridges together one year after Oct. 7,” CBC host Nadia Kidwai was guilty of this, as she purported to bring together both points of view on the Hamas-Israel conflict and to blend them.

Watch the full segment below:

The CBC Manitoba program Weekend Morning Show saw host Kidwai interview Ramsey Zeid, president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba, and Emet Eviatar, co-founder of Manitoba Friends of Standing Together. The CBC website says that they “meet for a conversation about building bridges between communities one year after Oct. 7, 2023.”

Standing Together is an Israeli left-wing organization that Eviatar represents, trying to engineer social change through grassroots action. It is a marginal organization, not representative of the Jewish or Israeli communities as a whole. Eviatar appeared to tacitly acknowledge that Israel was committing genocide, and referred to Israel’s relations with the Palestinians as a “regime.” Pretending that Eviatar represents the Jewish community and that having her on with Zeid representing “building bridges between communities” is a strawman, with both guests thinking that Israel is guilty of genocide.

Kidwai gave considerable attention to the connection between Zeid and Eviatar, asking them about their meeting up and whether Zeid will end up joining Standing Together. He doesn’t commit. Kidwai also maneuvered the conversation towards a discussion on the use of the word genocide, regarding Israel’s actions in Gaza. The sole reference to the Israeli point of view is when she gave her viewers some “context” by stating that “The charge that Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians in Gaza is currently before the International Court of Justice, Israel denies this.”

Israel has every reason to deny this, given that there is no evidence whatsoever genocide is occurring, and in fact, Israel’s efforts to protect civilians have been lauded by experts in urban warfare, not professional activists. Yet neither Kidwai nor her guests troubled themselves with the opposing view, scarcely acknowledging that there is one.

During the interview, Zeid stated that “We’re all about peace and dialogue. The Palestinian and the Muslim community that’s who we are.” Yet his own Facebook post calling for attendance at a pro-Palestinian event on October 5th says, “ALL OUT FOR PALESTINE!!!! ALL OUT FOR LEBANON!!!! ALL OUT FOR IRAN!!!! ALL OUT FOR YEMEN!!!! ALL OUT FOR HUMANITY!!!”

After the interview, on October 9, Ramsey Zeid took to Facebook to promote an anti-Israel protest on October 12, Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the calendar year for Jews, where he continued the same hateful rhetoric, spreading anti-Israel disinformation, including the false claim of genocide, and stating that Zionism “is a disease that must be destroyed”

Being “All out for Iran” is not synchronous with being pro-peace. It is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism that arms, funds and trains Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and more.

But Kidwai did not raise this point or challenge her guest. Instead, much of the discussion on the program surrounded giving undeserved credence to the genocide lie as if it were credible.

Claims of genocide are usually based on the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty figures. These combine combatant and civilian deaths and are extremely unreliable. Additionally, Hamas’s core strategy of hiding behind its civilians means that they put their people at risk. As Alan Dershowitz, emeritus law professor at Harvard Law School, writes, “Genocide is directed against an entire people, not just criminals and terrorists among them. To accuse Israel of genocide is to fail to distinguish between the legitimate military goal of ending a terrorist organization, such as Hamas, and the illegitimate goal of ending the existence of an entire ethnic or religious group.”

Kidwai’s anti-Israel sympathies have been evident previously. In this lengthy video and radio report, she continued in that theme, whitewashing Hamas terrorists, and bringing accusations that Israel is committing genocide to the fore. In hosting Zeid, she was hosting someone who supports Iran, yet she did not inform her viewers of this. Kidwai’s show is a poor representation of balanced, quality journalism, yet is unsurprising in light of the CBC’s anti-Israel bent in its reporting.