העורך Editor

Someone sent me this:

I sometimes hear the anti-Zionist claim — e.g., by Rabbi* Yaakov Shapiro — that perhaps in the 50s and 60s the Israeli State was a source of Jewish pride and caused diaspora Jews to only marry Jews, because the State was quasi-Communist, enlightened, etc. (Not that his type opposed it any less for that!) But now with ascendant liberalism, leftism, anti-“Occupation” sentiment, and ethnonationalism regarded as an embarrassing relic, the Jewish state repels secular Jews from their Judaism, forcing them to choose between their present course and a Jewish identity mixed up with a backward and troubling chavinism\nationalism\Right wing\triumphalism\particularism\foreign state patriotism\colonialism\etc.

In other words, the Jews in Israel [the State be hanged] can do nothing right. If they are too goyish, that’s no good (as Vayoel Moshe says, better not to control the land at all if Avoda Zara will be left intact). But if Israeli Jews are too Jewish, that’s counterproductive, as well!

Just imagine what the anti-Zionists will say if the country really becomes Jewish! Like  a cross between all the smeared and sneered States: Hungary, Russia, Islamic State, and Iran (but worse).

An interviewee by Rabbi Shapiro adds an interesting claim: He says the Jewish anti-Israel activists on college campuses tend to be those with the strongest sense of Jewish identity (not the weakest, as you might expect). How so? Because they all, all assimilated diaspora Jews oppose Israel’s treatment of the “Palestinians”, but only those who feel connected to Jewry even worry that Israel reflects badly on them! Wow.

*Not sure if this man should be given the title “rabbi” in light of the many rumors of immorality (there used to be more in the comments, now missing).

אם הוא יוכל למשוך אליו בטענה שהוא תלמידו של הרב שמואל וואזנר זצ”ל, מנחם יאווע יטען זאת:

הנה מתוך כותרת דף היוטיוב שלו:

מאידך הנהלת “ישיבת חכמי לובלין” בזכרון מאיר ב”ב הוציאה הודעת הכחשה לעיתונות עוד בחיי הרב וואזנר (כנראה בשנת ה’תשע”ב):

אם הוא יוכל למשוך אליו מהציבור האמריקאי בטענה שהוא תלמידו של הרב אביגדור מילר זצ”ל, מנחם יאווע יטען זאת.

הנה כותרת דף היוטיוב לשיעוריו באנגלית:

לא כ”כ מתאים לעובדות…

אם הוא יוכל למשוך אליו בטענה שהוא תלמידו של מנהיג כת שובו בנים ימ”ש, מנחם יאווע יטען זאת:

מכתב שפורסם בתקשורת:

(נראה שהיה קשר ביניהם, אבל כעת עכ”פ טוענים חלק מאנשי הכת שהמכתב עצמו זיוף…)

בתשקורת החרדית אין כמובן זכר לכל זה, לא אז ולא עתה.

Find an English translation of this article here.

The “libertarian” opponents dishonestly distort Walter Block and Friends’ actual position, and ignore its whole essence. As the old joke goes about book reviewers, they don’t bother to first read the book they bash, because they don’t want to be biased…

I see zero evidence any of the critics ever actually read the book: Hoppe, Jonathan Goodwin, Jeff Deist (UPDATE: I originally confused J. Tucker with J. Deist, see the comments here), Stephan Kinsella, LRC editors (by the way, that site has fallen greatly in recent years), Saifedean Ammous, Scott Horton, Tom Woods, Ryan McMaken, DiLorenzo, etc., etc. (except David Gordon who only utterly misreads the book to the point of raising suspicion). Maybe they read the Table of Contents.

To be fair, though, the co-authors hide the full argument in a book. The critic has to pay to disagree?!

One could almost argue they are doing this to themselves. But, that’s what search engines are for. You can find a summary here:

Block, Walter E., Alan G. Futerman and Rafi Farber. 2016. “A Libertarian Approach to the Legal Status of the State of Israel.” Indonesian Journal of International and Comparative Law. Vol. 3, Issue 3, June, pp. 435-553

https://thejewishlibertarian.com/tag/the-legal-status-of-the-state-of-israel/;

https://thejewishlibertarian.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/israel-rothbard-defense.pdf;

https://thejewishlibertarian.com/israel-vs-rothbard/

(Or see my own version of it here. Or listen to a summary here.)