CONTENTS

Introduction
Sellers' Market
Will to Believe
Rules of Thumb

"The truth is out there "
Use & misuse of words
False information signals more false information
Technical whiz-bang
Understand the Context
Lies, More Lies, Damn Lies and Newspapers
Beware of Generalizations
Theology and scripture
Misleading Statistics
Smoke in your eyes: a picture can be worth a thousand lies
What is Missing?
Myth versus fact versus narrative
The past was not like the present; the future will be different

Fallacy Recognition in the Middle East

Fallacies and Arguments
Cause and Effect
Slippery Slope
Gambler's Fallacy
Ad Hominem
Authority
Beliefs
Appeal to Novelty
Appeal to Emotion
Appeal to Tradition
False Dilemma or Black and White Thinking
Special Pleading
The Spotlight Fallacy
Who is to Say?

Fallacy Handbook

Beware of articles and theses that base themselves on a unitary concept of "the Arab mind," "Islamic thought" or "Jewish thought" or "Zionist thought" as if there were only one individual of each kind, or all of them thought alike, without exception at all times. Arab thought, Islamic thought, Jewish thought and Zionist thought (or anything else thought) are each universes of logical and cultural constructs. Ideas within each universe are related to each other, but not the same, and they evolve over time. It is useful to talk about Arab culture or Jewish Culture and to talk about the many facets of these cultures. It is very misleading to try to characterize any group as a whole or to reach conclusions about what the group "wants." '"The Jews" want to dispossess the Arabs' or '"The Arabs" want to kill all the Jews' are both statements that are not likely to be literally true, though many Arabs and Jews may have ill feeling toward each other.