Ep. 311 Sheldon Richman on Israel and the Libertarian Movement
Sheldon Richman is an OG of the libertarian cause. Among other positions, he is currently Executive Editor at the Libertarian Institute. He joins Bob to discuss the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and reflects on his decades in the movement.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The YouTube version of this interview.
- Sheldon’s archives at the Libertarian Institute.
- Sheldon’s books Coming to Palestine, and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.
- John Hasnas’ paper, “Toward a Theory of Empirical Natural Rights.”
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Great conversation.
I’ve been around this whatchamcallit movement since 1976, and I think there HAS been some progress, but it’s a lot less than what we had all hoped for. But it’s still progress. Liberty not in my lifetime, or Sheldon’s or Bob’s, but maybe in another century or two. Which is good enough to keep at it — even if we don’t enjoy the shade of the trees we’ve planted, we were part of making those trees happen.
I’m late to this interview and now over half-way through when I paused and was compelled to make a comment.
Around the 51 minute mark, Richman talks of Walter Block defending Israel. He implies that Block is in error for different reasons mentioned at this time interval and at different times unrelated to Block. ie “there were people there” (in Palestine) before the Jews got there.
I have read Block’s co-authored book ‘The Classical Liberal Case for Israel”. Anyone who has read this book would realise as light as day, what Block was referring to regarding land ownership.
ie that the Arabs owned some land (approx 10%) and the Jews owned some land (approx 7%) but the rest was owned by the British Empire under Mandatory Palestine.
Leaving aside the fact that Libertarians consider all government owned land as illegitimate, the historical fact is that the British gave the Zionists land that had been unhomesteaded!
So under Lockean homesteading principles (ironically mentioned by Richman who incorrectly claimed the Arabs homesteaded ALL the land – they definitely didn’t) then the Zionist homesteading of land is legitimate and just.
Anyone who denies this fact is simply unlibertarian, and quite possibly, worse!
Sheldon has been one of my favorites in this movement for a long, long time. I’m very glad you had him on the show.
As to persuading people towards liberty, it’s true that arguments alone rarely work. We need to reach people in their “feels” in order for our words to resonate. It’s something we are learning to do. Slowly, but we’re learning.