Murray N. Rothbard presented this speech at the Michigan Libertarian Party Convention, held in Southfield, Michigan, in May 1989. This is an excerpt where he discusses The Rich, Progressive Income Tax and Financial Elites. Relevant in terms of those interested in Occupy Wall Street.
An excerpt from a speech called “The Current State of World Affairs” by Murray Rothbard – Q & A. Recorded at the 1989 Texas State Libertarian Conference.
Apr-22-2017
At the end of last week, I was part of a televised panel called, “How many days has the Six Day War lasted?” One of the first speakers opined that Israel’s Six Day War miraculous triumph was a Pyrrhic victory. I answered as follows:
“Perhaps Israel’s victory in the War of Independence was pyrrhic, as well? Perhaps the declaration of the State of Israel was a crazy gamble that turned out to be a mistake? After all, we are still fighting wars until this very day. Why should we only count the days since the Six Day War? Why not count since the War of Independence? And why should we only go back to the War of Independence? Perhaps it was utter foolishness to build the State of Israel?
Obviously, all the above are vacuous ideas of people who have no idea what they are doing here. One thing, however, is true. The Six Day War has not finished. It cannot finish if we do not want to win, even though the victory was served to us on a silver platter – thanks to the heroism of the IDF soldiers and the blessing of Heaven. The Six Day War was a miraculous war. If you decide that you do not want to win and you do not want to apply sovereignty to the redeemed territories and if you declare from the start that you can’t wait to return all the territory that you won in the war, clearly the war will never end.”
The interviewer asked me if I mean to say that the way to end the Six Day War is to annex all the territory that we won then.
“Absolutely,” I answered. “For years we have been brainwashed that this is an impossible solution. But it is possible. There really is no demographic problem and there is no problem with international relations. The entire problem is in our heads. The problem is with our consciousness that tries to escape our identity and thus attempts to flee the Land of Israel. The problem is with our consciousness that can’t wait to be rid of that Cave of Machpelah and that Temple Mount and that entire ‘Vatican’, in the words of Moshe Dayan, who gave the Temple Mount to the Muslim wakf. The problem is not the Arabs. The problem is the Jews – it is between us. We are afraid of those “cursed territories” because those territories carry with them the kernel of our identity, and it is that very identity that many wish to escape.”
From Jewish Israel, here.
Picture Marlon Brando as the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone. He’s in your backyard threatening you with that calm voice of his. He’s making you an offer you can’t refuse. He’s making you dig your own grave, literally, with a shovel.
Suddenly, you come upon a rare archaeological find as you’re digging. It’s huge. It must be worth a fortune. Well, now you can sell it, pay back your debt to the Godfather, and you’re fine, right?
No, because Vito sees the find and says to you in that same calm voice, “Hey, that’s mine. Now pay me money to dig it out of the ground.”
Now you’re even more in debt and deader than before.
That’s exactly what the State does to people trying to build a house. If they happen to be building on top of an archaeological find, then by law they have to pay for it to be excavated and handed over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Or Marlon Brando. What’s the difference?
From The Jewish Libertarian, here.
April 25, 1986
I love Arabs. I really do. They are so much more honest than the Jews I so often meet, they are so much more normal. Consider two examples of Arabs I love.
The first is Knesset member Muhamad Miari of the pro-PLO Progressive List. Miari is the very epitome of all that the liberal, humanist, democratic, co-existentialist egalitarians of the Jewish faith boast of. A well-mannered, polite, intellectual (he is a graduate of the Hebrew University) citizen of Israel, he rose on October 15, 1985 in the Knesset of Israel to declare:
The State of Israel is not the state of the Jewish people but rather of the citizens who live there as citizens of the State of Israel. I said it, we say it and we will continue to struggle for this.
And yet another Israeli Arab, poet, intellectual, writer, Anton Shamas, publishes a column in the leftist, self-hating Kol Ka’Ir (a local Jerusalem weekly controlled by the newspaper Ha’Aretz) on September 13, 1985, and writes: “A Jewish state, by its very definition, carries with it the seed of disaster, namely the collapse of democracy.”
From Barbara Ginsberg, here.