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Walter Block's avatar

Dear Gail: Wow. What a very powerful statement! Inspirational! Thanks. Best regards, Walter

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Gail's avatar

Walter, I feel as though inhabiting a parallel universe without a way out. Rod Serling , Ray Bradbury, Huxley, Orwell, Asimov and Mathieson are turning in their graves. We’ve entered the 1984 Twilight Zone of the Brave New World in real-time.

If you have the opportunity, search “ Aldous Huxley/ Mike Wallace interview 1958”. Either he was a prophet of “ Brave New World” is being used as the Great Reset playbook. Either way, Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Glenn Beck , Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk and a handful of others are among very few with integrity and guts . Called out the truth on the corporate media. Nary a peep from our vaunted “ elected representatives” but for DeSantis.

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Walter Block's avatar

Robert, why do you say that?

Block, Walter E. and Alan Futerman. 2021. The Classical Liberal Case for Israel. With commentary by Benjamin Netanyahu. Springer Publishing Company;

https://rd.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-3953-1;

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Danny Buchanan Woods's avatar

It just seemed a bit off the cuff, scatter-shot and not so moderate! hahahah.

We all know that you are moderate Walter Block.

But personally I believe that Israel has every right to the land. It is theirs, and has been, ever since God/Yahweh decided that it was. And, as to how it is governed, I also believe that it should be even more strict, lest Israel get judgment rain down on it/them again.

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Gail's avatar

Walter is truthful. It matters not whether one is a Kahane acolyte. His party was about Israeli Judaic nationalism as a foundation.

Gandhi and Modi was/is Hindu Nationalst. Pakistan is an Islamic entity. Anybody can reside in India and worship as they wish, but not commit acts of violence and hijack the tenets of the Hindu majority. Including the sovereign borders, undo influence and jihadist propaganda. India refrains from intervention and warmongering, but fiercely protects her borders from invasion.

For Israel to ban an Orthodox Jewish Party, but allow an anti-Israel, antisemitic party advocating Israel’s delegitimization is suicidal.

The EU has destroyed itself. Erased the cultural heritage of individual nations to pacify the Islamists given the red carpet. The US is leading the charge.The UN is literally the enemy of humanity .

The irony of the western mantra claiming Putin’s goal is to recreate the Soviet Union is almost comedic. Anybody with knowledge of history who isn’t brain dead should be able to glean reality. The US, EU, NATO’s build up, open border advocates and the constant provocation and attempt to oust Putin is the new and far greater soviet enterprise. Putin didn’t act as the initial aggressor. We did. Pat Moynihan got it right.

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Walter Block's avatar

Biden is horrid. And not for the first time.

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Walter Block's avatar

Dear Gail. Brilliant. The only "problem" I have with what you say is that you shouldn't confine your comments to a note for me and this group. I urge you to write up this material more formally and get it published. Best regards, Walter

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Gail's avatar

Thank you, Walter. I’m “ farklempt”😂

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Walter Block's avatar

Dear Vincent: I have one "problem" with what you wrote: so few people will see it. I think you should consider publishing these insightful remarks of yours. I think I'm more of a fan of Kahane than you are. Best regards, Walter

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Walter Block's avatar

We're on the same wavelength

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Walter Block's avatar

I agree with Gail

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Walter Block's avatar

Dear Vincent: In my essay, I did acknowledge that Kahane had many and serious flaws, which I didn't mention. You certainly touched on some of them. Where you and I disagree is that you see him as pretty much all bad: I also see much good in him. Certainly, it is problematic that his Kach party was banned, while the Arab parties, whose members wish to end Israel, is allowed in government. Best regards, Walter

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Gail's avatar

Bravo Walter! Israel has been infected with the disease of the “ Great Reset” Kleptocorporate multinational monopolistic, megalomaniacal, Malthusian globalist tyranny thinly disguised as comity, peace, equality and belonging to something greater than oneself. Collective mass psychosis cheering on surveillance, asset forfeiture, eradication of family, human connection, national sovereignty, independent thought, free speech, civil liberties, medical freedom, bodily autonomy, competition, education, historical truths, civics, the arts, science, empirical math, peace, representative elected government, achievement by virtue of work ethic,home ownership, freedom to worship or not, decimating normalcy, equal Justice, erasing history, , male/female dynamic and recognition of the natural order of all things living.

Israel has always had inner disagreement, but never so perverse as forfeiting the right to exist… until now. The devolution began during Obama’s reign. It became global. A contagion of self loathing and suicidal ignominy. The abject and inexplicable hatred targeting Republicans, Muslim Reformists, fellow Jews who didn’t worship at the altar of leftism… basically anybody who advocated for Israel and protested BDS, the scourge of true antisemitism, the Iran Deal, Arab Spring, Libyan invasion, the ouster of Mubarak in favor of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions, nation building, propping up Iran’s terror proxy Qatar, advocating borders, national sovereignty, decries globalism, NATO buildup, constant provocation targeting Russia,, criticism of kapos Soros, Kissinger, Zelenskyy, Bourla, Bancel, Hotez, Schiff and the “ new” ADL, a literal branch of CAIR.

Never imagined the day Ayaan Hirsi-Al,Rudy Giuliani,Asra Nomani, Mike Flynn,Tulsi Gabbard,Larry Elder,Bernie Marcus,Nigel Farage,Pat Moynihan, Dov Hikind,Brandon Straka, Ric Grenell, Pasternak,Drs Salk, Sabin, Risch, Zelenko,Ladapo,Makary, Battacharaya, Jasser,Yeadon,Cole,Hatfill,McCollough,Malone,Kuldorff,Ebright, Mercola, Mikovits,Levitt,Atlas,Gold,Shiva , Ionnides,,Montagnier…personalities Tammy Bruce, Steve Hilton, Gutfeld,Tyrus, Leo Terrell ,Harris Faulkner, Dave Webb, Mark Levin, Ami Horowitz, David Horowitz, David Harsanyl, Mark Steyn, Bret Weinstein,Caitlyn Jenner, Schellenberger, Jordan Peterson, Jamal Altamini, Raheem Kassam, Lee Zeldin, Jon Voight, Seinfeld, Neil Oliver, Martina Navratilova, Charles Barkley, Bill Maher, Enes Freedom, Gene Simmons, Eric Clapton, Ian Cheong, Dave Rubin, Dan Greenfield, Jon Solomon, Jonathan Turley, Glenn Beck, David Marcus, Joel Pollock, Richard Pollock, Andrew Pollack, Dave Reaboi and historical figures- Pasternak, Tolstoy,Disraeli,Hammerstein, Billy Wilder,Paul Robeson,MLK, Rushdie,,etc are all “ Racist, White Supremacists, Nazis, misogynists, antisemites, homophobes, xenophobes,transphobes,,…

Tucker Carlson, Lara Logan, Sharyl Attkisson, Nan Hayward,James O’Keefe,Tom Fitton, Chris Farrell, David Schoen, Barry Goldwater, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsinaro, King Hussein, Attaturk, Reza Pahlavi… So NOT racist or antisemitic

Now the hatred has extended to include once icons, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Kim Iverson, Naomi Wolf,Assange, Snowden, Russell Brand, Charles Ortleb, Kary Mullis, the founder of Greenpeace, Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Bertrand Russell, Hesse, Huxley, Orwell, Vonnegut, Mathieson, Bradbury, Rod Serling, Chris Carter, Nabakov, Jim Morrison, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Gershwins , Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Seymour Hersh,…

Who do they advocate? Linda Sarsour, the Squad, Tamika Mallory, Noem Chomsky, Soros, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Fauci, Kapernick,Alice Waters, Ellison, Jeffries, Soros,Harari, Samantha Powers, Blinken, Clyburn, Benny Thompson, Kinzinger, Cheney, Abbas, Sullivan, Tedros,Mugabe, Marx, Angela Davis, Kerry, Iibrim Kendrick, Patrice Cullers, Angela Davis,Lula, Trudeau,Macron, Zelensky,Sharpton ,Steyer, Bernie , Gupta,Mayorkas, Hotez,Brennan,Comey,Mueller, Avril Haines, Larry Fink, Mark Elias , Merrick Garland,Vindman, Disney, Jamie Dimon,BLM, Randi Weingarten, Gina Raimondo, Bloomberg,, Xi, Antifa, CAIR, , Zuck, Thomas Friedman, Jen Rubin, Tim Kaine, Chris Murphy, Valerie Jarrett, Fiona Hill… essentially, whoever hates them most.

For the record, though I agree with much of Lew Rockwell’s ideology, he has a peculiar habit of singling out Israel and Jews . It isn’t my imagination. Albeit he publishes many pieces written by Jews and is a Mises Institute enthusiast, he always “ circles back” to the blame game.

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Vincent Cook's avatar

Back in the 1980s I listened to Meir Kahane speak at UC Berkeley. The man had flaws in the same sense that Adolf Hitler had flaws--his ideological stance as expressed in the speech was that Israel should become a theocratic state that subjects the entire population to Jewish religious law, and that all non-Jews remaining in Israel (Moslems, Christians, Samaritans, Druze, etc.; including millions of Arabs residing in the territories to be annexed, which happened to include parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and even Iraq) should be forced into exile.

In terms of turning such an ideology into action, Kahane was well-known for founding a terrorist organization in the U.S. and plotting a bombing campaign against Soviet diplomatic missions (Kahane was convicted of manufacturing explosives for this campaign), and then moving to Israel where he was accused of plotting to carry on similar violent activities against Palestinians. To the extent Kach Party insiders were plotting to initiate violence, banning their party was undoubtedly the correct libertarian thing to do.

He later slightly moderated his call for ethnic cleansing by acknowledging that Jewish religious law does permit non-Jewish resident aliens in Israel, subject to their acceptance of a special subset of such religious laws that apply to resident aliens and to their loss of civil rights as non-Israelis. The title of the book Kahane wrote while in an Israeli jail, _They Must Go_, is probably a more accurate reflection of his true feelings though, even if his theology obliged him to concede that the Lord had endorsed a more tolerant policy.

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Vincent Cook's avatar

It should be noted that the original form of Zionist ideology, formulated by Theodor Herzl, was decidedly opposed to imposing Jewish religious laws on Israeli Jews, let alone imposing them on non-Jews. Herzl's vision for the Israeli state was that its primary mission would be to protect Jews against religiously-based persecution, his belief being that being a part of even a fairly liberal European nation or the American nation did not provide Jews adequate protection, meaning that Jews would need a modern state of their own with its own territory. On the other hand, Herzl didn't think Arabs would have any reason to fear being ruled by a relatively secularized Jewish majority, and that they might actually welcome the liberalization and progress that such a majority would bring to a backward land that was already ruled by an oppressive foreign nation (the Ottoman Turk regime being neither Arab nor remotely liberal). He was more afraid of orthodox Jews undermining his vision for Israel than he was of the Arab residents.

Herzl gravely underestimated the political significance that religious orthodoxy and numerous other ethnic/cultural differences would ultimately have among both native-born non-Jews and among Jewish immigrants, which is now preventing any kind of peaceful coexistence or voluntary assimilation of the two communities into a single nation-state. Even so, Kahane's maximalist, illiberal form of Zionism represents a radical departure from the founding principles of Israel, not to mention a form of statist extremism that has more to do with a love of violent domination than a love of one's nation.

The only thing Kahane neglected to talk about at length was what exactly he would do with the non-Jews who refused to leave his Greater Israel or with the Jews who refused to conform to his ideas about religious law, but there is ample precedent in the 20th Century concerning what their fate would have been in a Kach-run Israel. Anybody who understood what the man was saying could easily infer that his form of nationalism was in the same category as the bogus "patriots" who equated German ethnic identity with an anti-Semitic Ayran purity and with the conquest of _lebensraum_ for the German fatherland.

Kahane's views were in no way an expression of a traditional love of country. Perhaps this was more obvious in the 1980s, when Kahane's open advocacy of ethnic cleansing and wars of conquest provided a shocking contrast to virtually every other political tendency in Israel at the time; no other Israelis back then would have thought it "patriotic" to try to resolve the long-running conflicts with their non-Jewish neighbors by attempting to conquer more of their lands and impose a final solution on any non-Jews present in a Greater Israel. Many Israelis (though not Kahane) had already personally participated in fighting four tough wars, three of them posing existential issues for the country and one or maybe two of these wars putting the world on the brink of World War III. Israel had also just entered into a vitally-important peace treaty with Egypt. Everybody back then knew what the stakes were, and took the quest for peace seriously. In the 1980s, Kahane was properly dismissed by Israelis as a dangerous loon who would wreck the country, not lauded as a patriot.

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Lens of Truth's avatar

Seems like you've been hacked Dr Block

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CreoleGenius's avatar

This writing hardly seems like that of the Walter Block I know. Someone is trying to harm his reputation through Identity theft.

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