There is currently an all out war brewing with Libertarians and Paleo-Libertarians on one side and Conservatives and Neo-Conservatives on the other.
The first salvo was fired on August 18th when Ilana Mercer of World Net Daily wrote an article entitled Libertarians Who Loath Israel. Towards the end of her column, Ilana writes the following:
I understand that libertarians like Sheldon Richman (and the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review) believe, mistakenly, that all “the land” belongs to the Arabs. No doubt, American libertarians speak with the authority that comes from having the finest fathers a nation could wish for.
Understandably, Sheldon Richman (of the Future of Freedom Foundation) took offense to the smear as the Institute for Historical Review has nothing to do with Libertarianism. World Net Daily was gracious enough to offer space on their pages for a rebuttal. Mr. Richman had this to say:
Ilana Mercer inserts, strangely, “I understand that libertarians like Sheldon Richman (and the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review) believe, mistakenly, that all ‘the land’ belongs to the Arabs.” After making this hit-and-run charge, she blithely moves on to other matters. As readers might suspect, there are serious problems with this sentence.
By writing “I understand …” Mercer was declaring that she had not confirmed what she was about to say. In the first version of her article, no citation or link to anything I wrote or said was provided. This self-proclaimed advocate of reason expected readers to take her on faith. (A real champion of reason would know that readers care more for hard facts than a writer’s vague “understandings.”)
To which Ilana Mercer responds in an article entitled Foaming at the Mouth Over Israel
Meanwhile, one particular paragraph in “Libertarians Who Loathe Israel” caused another libertarian scribe, Sheldon Richman, considerable apoplexy, eliciting some strange interpretations. I wrote:
I understand that libertarians like Sheldon Richman (and the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review) believe, mistakenly, that all “the land” belongs to the Arabs.
To begin with, and for some unreason, Richman decided that the phrase “I understand” was an expression of uncertainty on my part: “By writing ‘I understand,’ Mercer was declaring that she had not confirmed what she was about to say,” he writes in a bizarre retort published by WorldNetDaily. I was, he asserts, unsure about his position on Israel in “Cant and the Middle East” and was hazarding a guess.
Now, Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation and a recent candidate for a Senate seat from the state of Virginia, jumps into the fray with an article entitled Shame on World Net Daily:
Ask yourself: In comparing positions on who has title to land in Israel, why didn’t Mercer simply select libertarian organizations that have taken the same position as Sheldon? After all, wasn’t the title of her article Libertarians Who Loathe Israel? Or why not simply compare Sheldon’s land position to, say, that of Arab organizations?
Why, indeed? There is one and only one answer: Mercer doesn’t like Sheldon’s position on the land issue and decided to use the comparison with the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review as a way to smear him for his position on the land issue.
This raises the role of the conservative WorldNetDaily in this entire sordid affair.
Now things start to get personal as Robert James Bidinotto enters the picture. I don’t know much about Mr. Bidinotto but from what I can glean from his webpage, he appears to be an Objectivist. Mr. Bidinotto has this to say:
Ilana (she’s a friend, so I’ll call her that) has a perfectly good point. There’s a curious moral asymmetry among some self-styled lovers of Liberty and Justice, who rage against Israel for targeting the likes of Hamas terrorists in self-defense, yet who simultaneously exude boundless sympathy toward those who encourage their kids to strap on explosives and blow themselves up, along with scores of innocent noncombatants in buses, restaurants, and nightclubs. For most Americans, this is an easy moral call; but then again, most Americans aren’t libertarian anarchists.
And this:
I would have stayed out of this particular little spat except for two things.
First, I don’t much like it when men gang up on a lady–especially a lady whom I know to be honorable.
Second, it so happens that I’ve had a bit of first-hand experience with Mr. Hornberger concerning the matters that he says so concern him: false and despicable insinuations, smears, and deliberate misrepresentations of the truth.
Finally, Mr. Bidinotto lays into Jacob Hornberger for what appears to be a past slight in one of Hornberger’s Articles. He finishes his defense of Ilana Mercer with this parting shot:
If Mr. Richman needs a defender concerned with the truth, it should be someone other than Bumper Hornberger.
Now Wendy McElroy, a gifted writer and founder of the Libertarian ifeminist.com steps into the fight with a very well reasoned and accurate synopsis of the whole affair.
I have no axe to grind. I am on cordial terms with Mercer and I do not know Bidinotto. The Middle East is not a “flash point” issue with me, although I once addressed the subject at length in an audio-documentary (more on this later). Sheldon Richman (hereafter Sheldon) is a good friend but I would not hesitate to disagree with him on issues or theory because I know he views honest disagreements as interesting rather than offensive.
I write because it is unconscionable that Sheldon’s name has been linked to Holocaust denial and that his views are distorted to make it appear that he condoned the terrorist murder of innocents.
And
I do not know why Bidinotto decided to “up the ante,” so to speak, on Mercer’s attack and inquiring after motives is usually fruitless. Instead I will simply state that he also owes Sheldon an apology — one that is as public as the offense.
The broad movement of libertarianism/Objectivism is very quick to malign. Perhaps that is human nature. But let’s also be quick to correct any misstatements that threaten to harm the lives of fine and decent human beings.
No answer yet from Ilana Mercer or Mr. Bidinotto. However, World Net Daily has published two more articles about the issue. The latest from Ilana Mercer titled The Nature of the Jewish State begins like this:
Just when you thought the extremist anti-Israel campaigning could not get any worse, from the palsied haters come more charges: Zionism is intellectually consistent with Jim Crow racism. And Israel practices institutional racism – indeed, is an apartheid state, as one libertarian (who else?)
Also, Tom Abrose published a particularly vile column in World Net Daily entitled Big, Bad Israel?. Here is the opening paragraph to this screed:
There has been a recent rise in revisionist rants and sycophantic screeds promoting the pro-Palestinian pap normally associated with the lunatic left, Holocaust deniers (who claim to have no position on Israel but who promote literature which indicates otherwise) and radical Islamists. However, it is not these usual suspects who are responsible for this rise in rubbish, but rather a fringe faction of prominent libertarian pundits who, in thinking themselves wise, have proven themselves to be intellectual Pygmies.
Looking back at the entire argument, I see the Libertarian side acting in an honorable manner, always relying on their arguments instead of vile name calling. Contrast that with any given article either written by or in defense of World Net Daily.
Intellectual Pygmies? Tsk, tsk…
