I have been fired from the Advisory Board of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

By Walter E. Block

(Photo by IowaPolitics.com – 100_2212, CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Walter E. Block

Ron Paul needs to be taken down a peg or two. Many people think he speaks for all libertarians with his very critical views on Israel. He does not.

Here is a series of letters documenting my firing from the Ron Paul Institute. It is verbatim, except for very minor editing. For example, my hopefully still friend Ron has asked me not to share his e mail address with anyone, so I have deleted it. I also added the material in parentheses. Daniel McAdams is the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Letter 1.

—— Original Message ——

Received: 09:54 AM CDT, 06/11/2024

From: Walter Block <wblock@loyno.edu>

To: (Ron Paul’s email address)

Subject: FW: Some Questions about Your Removal of Block as Senior Fellow

Dear Ron:

Tom DiLorenzo (President of the Mises Institute which has broken all connection with me for my defense of Israel) says I have been “dropped from the Ron Paul Institute advisory board.” Is this true? I have not been notified of any such change.

Best regards,

Walter

Ron did not respond. Instead, I got this response from the CEO of the RPI.

Letter 2

From: Daniel McAdams <dlmcadams@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2024 10:14 PM

To: Walter Block <wblock@loyno.edu>

Subject: Re: FW: Some Questions about Your Removal of Block as Senior Fellow

Dear Walter:

We removed you from the Ron Paul Institute Academic Advisory Board a week ago and I am sorry I had not given you notice at that time.

While we all retain enormous respect for the bulk of your career as a libertarian intellectual, we are an antiwar institution and your open and enthusiastic embrace of Israel’s slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians – particularly with US weapons and funding – is incompatible with our mission.

I can personally remark how disappointed I have been to read your horrific endorsement of statist mass murder of an “inconvenient” ethnic group and can only reflect on my own revulsion over a similar German position some 85 years ago. I do not believe in untermensch – we are all God’s children – and I am sadly disappointed to learn that you do. Every human being – especially civilians – has dignity and deserves life and liberty. That is the basic core of libertarianism.

I will refund your most recent contribution to the Ron Paul Institute, as it was made after your expulsion but before your notification.

I pray that someday you will come to see that cheering death on other ethnic groups – especially children – is reprehensible and that you will repent.

Sincerely yours,

-Daniel

Letter 3

6/11/24

Dear Daniel:

Thanks for your polite, civil, letter. No name calling, unlike some others I could mention.

Please keep my donation. I’m still a big fan of the RPI and your work, even though we will have to agree to disagree not on war per se, but on the Israel-Hamas war.

Please allow me to correct you: The RPI is not “an antiwar institution.” Rather, it is anti unjust war, but supports just war. The former is initiatory, or offensive war, the latter is defensive war. If country A for no just reason invades country B, all libertarians, you, I, Ron, the RPI, favor and support the war between the two on the side of B. Correct? We are only disputing which is which: is Israel A or B, is Hamas A or B?

Let’s get to that point. I now am running at you with blood in my eye, waving my knife around, yelling, “I’m gonna kill you.” You have a gun and are an excellent shot. I have strapped in front of me my two year old child. You’re a good shot, but we stipulate, you’re not good enough to shoot me and leave him unharmed. No, the only way to save your life is by killing me, but, necessarily you must also “slaughter” him, a totally innocent child. What are you going to do? You believe in self-defense. You are not suicidal. So you plug me, and also “slaughter” (your word) an innocent child.

Whose fault is it that this civilian perished in collateral damage? Mine of course! Of course you realize that in this scenario I am playing the role of Hamas, you, Israel. I am the bad guy of the piece; the murderer. You are the good guy, the victim. Golda Meir once said peace will take place when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us. We have not yet arrived at that point. Bibi Netanyahu said that if the IDF put down its arms, there would be no more Jews and no more Israel. If Hamas put down its arms, there would be peace.

Hamas had a peace treaty with Israel. That terrorist organization broke it on 10/7/23 a day that will forever live in infamy. They purposefully murdered Israeli civilians. Their sacred covenant stipulates that all Jews, not just Israelis, must be murdered. The IDF is a defensive operation. They send out leaflets trying to save civilian lives in Gaza (Hamas does not reciprocate).

Want to stop the “slaughter” as all men of good will do? Then tell Hamas to surrender and release all hostages. Then, not a single further Gazan, child or adult, will die. Suppose, instead, Israel surrendered to Hamas. Then there would be no Jew left alive in the Middle East, and soon after that, Jewish lives all around the world would be at great risk. Who is engaging in genocide in the Middle East? A or B? A!

The problem with Hans Hoppe, Tom DiLorenzo, Ryan McMaken, is that they are not scholars (in this one case). They won’t respond to letters similar to the one I am now sending you. They ignore my requests for a formal debate. They engage in name calling.

But scholarship is the only way to get that proverbial millionth of an inch closer to the Truth with a capital T. Debate, intellectual interaction, is part and parcel of scholarship. Hans in particular has done more than anyone else on the planet, with his argumentation ethics, to make this point as the very foundation of libertarianism. Yet, he refuses to debate me. He does not even condescend to respond to my challenge to him.

I hereby request that you and I have a debate at the next convenient gathering of RPI. Please, at the very least, respond to my letter. I have been on the board of the RPI for many years. I have spoken at an RPI event. I have donated $ to the RPI. I think you owe me at least that much: not necessarily to agree to a debate with me, but at least to respond to this letter of mine to you. If you are not interested in debating me, this offer is open to any other person of your choosing who is associated with RPI. I would be honored beyond measure if Ron himself were willing to do so.

Best regards,

Walter

Post script: Daniel McAdams has not seen fit to either engage in a public debate with me on these issues, nor, even, to respond to this letter of mine. I am still a huge fan of the RPI. I think they do excellent work on all issues except for this one.