Libertarian cancel culture: prominent think tank dismisses scholar for supporting Israel

The Mises Institute has gone mad.

The Mises Institute is an organization I once greatly appreciated and respected. Unfortunately, they’ve changed, a lot.

The Mises Institute, which is named after the Jewish intellectual and economist Ludwig von Mises, has decided to draw a very bizarre line in the sand. Under no circumstances will Mises allow anyone associated with them to take a non-hostile position on Israel. Yes, of all the issues on this planet, condemning Israel is seemingly a necessary component of being associated with an American economics think tank.

Earlier this week, I learned that Mises had dismissed Walter Block, a renowned scholar who is widely considered one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Austrian economics. Block is 82 years old and has spent his entire life advancing the principles that Mises scholars claim to stand for. Many of the original founders and current intellectuals within the Austrian school, such as the late Murray Rothbard, considered him both a longtime friend and colleague.

Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Walter Block at Windsor Castle, 1976

Earlier this week, after hearing Block discuss the news on a podcast, I confirmed with multiple sources at Mises that Walter Block was indeed fired for the act supporting Israel. He was dismissed as a senior fellow without even a statement from the Mises Institute.

Since October 7th, it’s as if Mises (which is now led by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, a neo-Confederate author and former economics professor) has flipped a switch. Mises has published dozens of articles decrying Israel’s actions in Gaza, using hysterical language to relentlessly target the world’s lone Jewish state as a uniquely evil force.

Mises front page 5/24/24. Multiple articles condemning Israel

Block is a fellow non-interventionist, but he views the conflict between Israel and Hamas very differently from the higher ups at Mises. Block has taken to understanding Israel’s retaliatory actions against Hamas as both noble and a righteous act of self defense. Four days after the October 7th attack, Block published an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “The Moral Duty to Destroy Hamas.” He has since published additional columns in Israel Hayom making the libertarian case for Israel’s operations in Gaza against Hamas.

Notably, many Mises events are now sponsored by a Bahraini national named Yousif Khalil Almoayyed, who currently serves on the board at Mises, but it’s unclear if that has played a role in their hard turn against Israel.

I encourage you to read Block’s columns, which are level-headed and provide moral clarity and reason. Never does he call for the killing of innocents or for territorial conquest. Never does he depart from the mission of defeating Hamas, and specifically Hamas, not the overall population of Gaza. This makes his calls to action consistent with non-interventionist principles, specifically the famed libertarian Non Aggression Principle (NAP), the two predominant understandings of which are attributed to Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard. Both scholars concluded that using retaliatory force is *not* a violation of the NAP, which Mises would also uphold as a standard for the use of force.

I spoke with several Mises employees about why the organization decided to terminate their relationship with Walter Block. Only DiLorenzo replied on the record.

DiLorenzo tells me, via email:

“He supports war crimes and the mass killing of civilians, very clearly and in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.  He also advocated executing people who refused to take the covid shots.  It's not "his views on Israel" but his support for war crimes that is inherently incompatible with our mission.  He has many "views on Israel" as he is incapable of stopping writing and speaking about it and just about everything else for that matter.  And of course the crazy execute the covid shot dissenters declaration.  We cannot be associated with an outspoken proponent of war crimes and mass murder.  He does not distinguish between Hamas murderers and the civilian population of Gaza at all, and cheers the carpet bombing of the entire region that has killed thousands of women and children and babies.  "Unhinged" is how more and more people are describing him.  

Note: This is why you should read Block’s articles. There are many aggressive terms I’ve highlighted in the DiLorenzo email that are worth scrutinizing.

I replied:

But Walter Block was not canned because of his views on Covid, despite the claim that they were egregious? Why Israel?  

Can you point me to an article or statement he has made in favor of "war crimes and the mass killing of civilians"? This seems to be *your interpretation* of *his* words, and not his actual words.

Can you also point me to where he won't distinguish between Hamas and civilians? The same rationale seems to apply here.

I've followed his writing on this issue closely, and find no such declarative statements.

I fear your gross exaggerations and outright falsehoods (the accusation of "carpet bombing")  is much more "unhinged" than Block's defense of Israel's actions against Hamas. 

As a former speaker and supporter of Mises and an admirer of the Austrian school and many of your scholars, I find this behavior deeply disturbing. 

Perhaps the Mises Institute doesn't want any dissent from its hostility to Israel. But that doesn't excuse these unfounded smears. It's a shame that there is no room for debate on this issue within an institution that is supposed to support robust debate on global politics. You've seemingly determined that being supportive of Israel is grounds for termination. You've made it clear that anyone who violates your institutional "principles" is not welcome. 

DiLorenzo replies:

You're playing word games and this is not a court of law.  He is a blind supporter of everything the Israeli government is doing in Gaza, complaining that they're not bombing enough or fast enough, etc.  After Netanyahu quoted Amalek to "justify" killing just about everyone in Gaza Walter began calling him "heroic" in his writings.

I stopped replying after reading that screed from DiLorenzo. It’s clear to me that there is no reasoning with him, both because he is bastardizing Block’s position and that *his views* on the conflict are akin to that of a marxist PhD student from the pro-Hamas Columbia University encampment. It’s not Block, but Dilorenzo, who is “unhinged.”

What’s with all the unique, obsessive hatred for Israel? I’ll leave that analysis to the audience.

Under the leadership of Jeff Deist, its former president, your correspondent was frequently a welcome guest speaker at Mises events. Both in person and virtually, I was routinely asked to discuss and debate all kinds of issues, from the Covid lockdowns to the principles of economics. I was happy to oblige, and I was always treated warmly and respectfully by Mises staff and scholars, but something tells me that Mises isn’t going to have me on again anytime soon…

Here’s to Walter Block for not backing down, despite the costs. A movement that supports free societies and free people should welcome robust debate, and leave the cancel culture and microaggressions to the universities.