As ‘classical liberals’/libertarians/etc. with a solid understanding of economics and how economic freedom/privatization leads to social harmony, we should see the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as not only something to solve in order to prevent the coming WWIII and related tyranny/suffering, but also as a tremendous opportunity to spread our free-market ideas and thus unimaginable socioeconomic prosperity.

Somewhat shockingly, as things currently stand, there does not seem to exist a brief and clearly defined solution to this conflict based on simple free-market principles, much less a solution that is both easy to understand, relatively just, and (with a little econ education) in the best interest of all.

The intellectual giants upon which our understanding of the world stands, men like Ludwig von Mises, 1974 Nobel Laureate in Economics F.A. Hayek, and polymath Henry Hazlitt, not only explained the socioeconomic order and provided the blueprint for solving our problems by stressing the monumental importance of economic education, they also provided the building blocks needed to solve this civilization-ending crisis. Prior to men like Darwin who helped us understand the emergence of the biological order, and then the aforementioned men who helped us understand the socioeconomic one, mankind was pretty much lost in a world of mysticism where things worked or failed based on whatever our cultural values defined as “good” or “evil”. But eventually certain monumental ideas coalesced in the minds of these and like-minded men which helped us overcome the massive ignorance and intellectual errors that kept us in relative misery and mysticism. One of the most vital lessons these men provided was to focus, not on ill intent or moral failings, but on “intellectual error”/ignorance. Hayek tells us:

“When I stressed that is genuine intellectual error that we have to fight, what I meant to bring out is that we ought to remain aware that our opponents are often high-minded idealists whose harmful teachings are inspired by very noble ideals. It seems to me that the worst mistake a fighter for our ideals can make is to ascribe to our opponents dishonest or immoral aims.”

And Mises nails it even better when he writes in a section aptly titled “The Fight Against Error” of his great book “Human Action” :

“The problems involved are purely intellectual and must be dealt with as such. It is disastrous to shift them to the moral sphere and to dispose of supporters of opposite ideologies by calling them villains. It is vain to insist that what we are aiming at is good and what our adversaries want is bad. The question to be solved is precisely what is to be considered as good and what as bad. The rigid dogmatism peculiar to religious groups and to Marxism results only in irreconcilable conflict. It condemns beforehand all dissenters as evildoers, it calls into question their good faith, it asks them to surrender unconditionally. No social cooperation is possible where such an attitude prevails.”

Although these men were focused on economics, the core of their wisdom applies to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well. We MUST not get into the “moral sphere” by just blaming one side ‘Palestinians/Islamic world’ or the ‘Israelis/Jews’ regardless of how horrific some of the things some do/say/etc. We must focus on that complex sequence of thoughts and circumstances intertwined with a human nature we all share to get to the real causes of the problems and have mutual sympathy, understanding, and just as importantly, a workable solution whose benefits can easily be grasped and be brief enough to be easy to explain and thus somewhat viral. Unfortunately most of what goes on is “good vs. evil”, ‘administering “justice” ’ which means one side is the ‘good guys’ and the other the ‘bad guys’, etc. thus “It condemns beforehand all dissenters as evildoers, it calls into question their good faith, it asks them to surrender unconditionally. No social cooperation is possible where such an attitude prevails.” Quite understandably the Palestinians and a large part of the non-Jewish-(and especially many Jews)-world are all about “Justice”, about painting the Israelis/Jews as some racist conquerors who constantly undermine international law, etc. Yes, there are some who clearly fit this label, yet these types are abhorrent even to the Anti Defamation League.

Unfortunately this “Justice”/moralist approach is simply not going to work, it will only keep leading to the polarization we are seeing and the continued engulfing of the entire planet into this conflict, causing more pressure/sparks until WWIII starts which seems like it could happen any minute now. The rate at which sparks are going off in Syria, with the latest being the shooting down of a Russian spy plane leading to the deaths of 15 crew-members and the Russians thoroughly convinced that it was due to Israeli intent or at least significant negligence, basically guarantees that a civilization-ending disaster will occur relatively soon. Anyone who has a cursory understanding of how WWI and WWII and other major disasters got started should have little doubt that with the dice being rolled so often it is only a matter of time, a very short time.

Israelis/Jews can easily point to all the horrible things many say about Jews, the old ‘pound of flesh’-type antisemitism of more religious days in the past, the conspiratorial accusations of being the masterminds or plotters behind Capitalism and also Socialism/Communism and countless hateful statements by Islamic clerics/leaders etc. How they see the world and the actions they take seem very understandable from their perspective. The short clip below by famed American Black leader Louis Farrakhan gives and example of the errors/dangers Jews understandably feel they must work against.

The Palestinians and Islamic world too can easily point to the racist/ethnocentrism/‘religious fanaticism’ of many Jews, the British Empire-type racism which all white Europeans (including many leading Zionist Jews obviously) had towards the non-European world and so much more to make their case.

This is a 2 video playlist featuring one of the leading Israeli and Zionist historians Benny Morris. He does a wonderful job of showing a narrative that is much more sympathetic to the more mainstream Israeli perspective and is packed with truth/wisdom.

The below is part I of a similar talk but this time given by Ilan Pappe showing a perspective that is far more critical of the Zionist/Israeli view which rightly brings attention to British Imperialist-type racism which was also a factor in our current troubles.