Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (37 page)

Other American Jews have spoken out against Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as well. The American Council for Judaism is growing in influence in the American Jewish community, especially with the younger generation. Though it’s argued that Jews are motivated to immigrate to Israel because they were exiled from Palestine, only a small fraction of American Jews ever moved to Israel.

Even given all of this, my position on Israel is the same as my position with regard to any other country. I favor a noninterventionist position, consistent with what the American Founders favored and what the Constitution enshrines. I would like a policy of peace, friendship, and trade—and no intervention in any country’s internal affairs.

I’m convinced that this would serve Israel’s best interest. Since we generously subsidize Israel, the potential of stopping our aid means that Israel must get tacit approval from the United States for its policies toward its neighbors. We have been known to hinder friendly outreaches by Israel in the Middle East, as well as Israel’s use of force to protect her borders. Israel is not a truly sovereign nation as long as it depends on getting U.S. permission to do what it sees is in her best interest.

But this is a two-way problem. If Israel would be so bold (something that I do not believe it will be) as to attack Iran without explicit approval of the United States, we’ll be blamed anyway, and if war spreads to include Iran, we’ll be in the middle of it as long as today’s conditions persist.

A principled stand against all foreign aid is a net benefit to help Israel. Foreign aid breeds dependency and sacrifice of sovereignty and removes an incentive to promote a free market economy. We subsidize and protect Arab nations with money and weapons, and many of those are not even close to Israel in supporting democratic elections. No aid means Arab Muslim nations suffer more, giving Israel a military plus. But unfortunately, that will never happen because we must protect “our” oil and we will remain in the region for the foreseeable future.

Our strong support for Israel practically eliminates any desire for it to work out differences in the region by direct negotiations with organizations like the Arab League. Alliances among moderate states to maintain peace and in opposition to the radical mullahs would be more likely than when we control the whole process. And when we do achieve a peace agreement like the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, it costs the American taxpayers plenty—in perpetuity. This bought peace has cost us well over $150 billion since 1979, and yet friction remains. Artificial peace treaties hinder the need for all involved to rely on commerce and trade to improve the standard of living for both sides and to work out their differences locally.

An alliance between Israel and moderate Arab nations may well have developed to deal with Saddam Hussein. That type of a solution would have been a blessing to all Americans.

Voluntary support for Israel either by joining its army or sending money there is quite different from taxing, borrowing, and inflating to pay for the additional debt burden to support both sides of this constant fight in the Middle East.

Zionism and the politics of the entire Middle East are
international. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot be separated from the general acceptance of our two major political parties that our obligation to support Israel at all costs is deeply embedded in our political culture. The threats toward Iran and the sanctions come at the constant urging of the Israeli right-wing government and their supporters here in the United States. The dissidents who speak out in Israel are rarely quoted here in the United States, and any opposition arising in the United States is rarely reported in our media.

As historically controversial and emotionally charged as the Middle East is, logic is not likely to prevail and allow a peaceful solution anytime soon. Misplaced religious passion of the three great religions—which are theoretically supposed to worship the same God—prohibits the universal sharing of the Golden Rule, love for our fellow man, and desire for peace.

But first, we must see more admission of mistakes made as Ronald Reagan did after the Marines were killed in Beirut in 1983. In his memoirs, he admitted he did not realize how complicated Middle East politics were and that he had made a serious error. That is why he went against his own proclamation that he would never “turn tail and run,” because he decided that it was in the best interests of the United States to change a failed policy.

If we were to stay out of the Middle East, militarily and politically, I’m convinced it would be most helpful, in that a “neighborhood” solution would more likely occur without us stirring the pot and jeopardizing more Americans being killed in wars yet to come. This policy, I am certain, would be in the interest of Israel and the United States and world peace.

Carter, Jimmy. 2007.
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Saenz-Baillos, Angel. 1996.
A History of the Hebrew Language
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Slezkine, Yuri. 2006.
The Jewish Century
. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

M
any people are deeply discouraged at the state of affairs in America. They look at goings-on in Washington and see graft, power grabs, senseless regulation and spending, and a government completely out of control, having grown far beyond the size and scope that a free people should ever permit. They are confused about ongoing wars around the world. They are puzzled by the dampening of economic opportunity. People are worried about the future.

These people are right. Some are active in politics and trying to make a change. Others are discouraged to the point of utter cynicism. There is a third path here that I highly recommend, and that is the path of winning hearts and minds through education, first of the individual, and then of others through every way possible.

We must recapture what it means to be free. By this I do not mean that we should all become policy wonks or waste our time studying the details of this or that political initiative or sector of life. I mean that we need to form a new approach to thinking about society and government, one that imagines that we
can get along without such central management. We need to become more tolerant of the imperfections that come with freedom, and we need to give up the illusion that somehow putting government in charge of anything is going to improve its workings, much less bring on utopia.

To embrace the idea of liberty is not a natural condition of mankind. In fact, we are disposed to tolerate far more impositions on liberty than we should. To love liberty requires an act of the intellect, I believe. It involves coming to understand how all the things we love in this world were given to us under conditions of liberty.

We need to come to see government as it is, not as we wish it to be and not as the civics books describe it. And we need to surrender our attachments to government in every aspect of life. This goes for the right and the left. We need to give up our dependencies on the state, materially and spiritually. We should not look to the state to provide for us financially or psychologically.

Let us give up our longing for welfare, our love of war, and our desire to see the government control and shape our fellow citizens. Let us understand that it is far better to live in an imperfect world than it is to live in a despotic world ruled by people who lord it over us through force and intimidation. We need a new understanding of what it means to be a great nation; it should mean, as George Washington said, that our nation is a beacon unto the world, not that we conquer the world militarily, impose our will on everyone, or even remain number one in the GDP rankings. Our sense of what it means to be great must be defined first by morality.

We must come to imagine liberty again, and believe that it
can be a reality. In order to do this, we do not need songs, slogans, rallies, programs, or even a political party. All we need is access to good ideas, some degree of idealism, and the courage to embrace the liberty that so many great people of the past have embraced.

Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization. And when the tides turn and the culture again celebrates what it means to be free, our battle will be won. It could happen in our time. It might happen after we are gone from this earth. But it will happen. Our job in this generation is to prepare the way.

The ten principles of a free society:

1. Rights belong to individuals, not groups; they derive from our nature and can neither be granted nor taken away by government.

2. All peaceful, voluntary economic and social associations are permitted; consent is the basis of the social and economic order.

3. Justly acquired property is privately owned by individuals and voluntary groups, and this ownership cannot be arbitrarily voided by governments.

4. Government may not redistribute private wealth or grant special privileges to any individual or group.

5. Individuals are responsible for their own actions; government cannot and should not protect us from ourselves.

6. Government may not claim the monopoly over a people’s money and government must never engage in official counterfeiting, even in the name of macroeconomic stability.

7. Aggressive wars, even when called preventative, and even when they pertain only to trade relations, are forbidden.

8. Jury nullification, that is, the right of jurors to judge the law as well as the facts, is a right of the people and the courtroom norm.

9. All forms of involuntary servitude are prohibited, not only slavery but also conscription, forced association, and forced welfare distribution.

10. Government must obey the law that it expects other people to obey and thereby must never use force to mold behavior, manipulate social outcomes, manage the economy, or tell other countries how to behave.

Young people, especially, ask me what I read in pursuit of these goals of freedom, peace, and prosperity. I reference many important works, old and new, in this and my other books, of course. But on the Internet, about which I am questioned the most, I especially value
Lewrockwell.com
, as well as
Mises.org
,
Antiwar.com
, and
Campaignforliberty.com
.

Front Cover Image

Welcome

Dedication

Introduction

Abortion

Assassination

Austrian Economics

Bipartisanship

Business Cycle

Campaign Finance Reform

Capital Punishment

Central Intelligence Agency

Civil Disobedience

Conscription

Demagogues

Democracy

Discrimination

Education