Mark Changizi: The Great 10/7 Litmus Test on Misinformation and Credibility

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Mark Changizi has a blunt warning about the October 7 aftermath: many people rushed into the most extreme accusations imaginable, and he thinks their credibility should not survive the collapse of those claims. This isn't about a few mistakes—it's about a deeper failure of judgment.
Right, and he gets very specific. Take the claim that Israel did October 7 to itself. Changizi completely rejects these conspiracy theories—that Israel funded Hamas, secretly wanted the massacre, or used the Hannibal Directive to kill its own people. Hamas planned it, carried it out, filmed it, and bragged about it. Israel's real failure was intelligence and defense, not collusion. Then there's the genocide accusation, which he says appeared before the ground war even started and before casualty figures were settled. What's crucial here is that the ICJ never ruled Israel was committing genocide.
Changizi points to evacuation orders, warnings, and precision weapons as evidence of a fundamentally different military approach.
Building on that, the expulsion narrative follows the same pattern. Evacuation orders were twisted into stories of mass removal, even though moving civilians away from active combat is standard military procedure. That predicted expulsion? Never happened. What about the hospital claims? Those got massive attention. Exactly. Hospitals and schools were presented as proof of deliberate targeting, but evidence showed Hamas using those sites for tunnels, command centers, and holding hostages. Israel issued warnings and gave civilians time to leave.
The starvation narrative is particularly interesting. Changizi says predictions of mass starvation didn't materialize. He cites a 2026 UNICEF survey showing relatively low acute child malnutrition in the accessible population, despite Israel facilitating large amounts of food and supplies into territory controlled by an enemy force. And on UNRWA, warnings about Hamas infiltration were dismissed too quickly. U.S. investigators later referred over 100 current or former UNRWA employees for involvement with October 7 or Hamas's military wing.
Then there's the "open-air prison" framing and calling Hamas "freedom fighters." Changizi describes Gaza as a proto-state with its own institutions. Hamas seized power in 2007, and the people under Hamas rule aren't the same as the armed regime ruling them.
His closing challenge really drives it home: save the posts, videos, and headlines, because these weren't cautious criticisms. They were confident accusations made with "110% certainty and zero evidence."
As he puts it, "That is how reputation works."