Jude Wanniski, RIP

I first became acquainted with Jude Wanniski through his great book, The Way the World Works, which I used as a text in one of my classes when I returned to teaching in the 1990s after a stint in administration. I treasure the email exchanges that followed, especially during the last several years.

His columns on questions ranging from the economy to Louis Farrakhan, to gassing Iraqis, to bombs in North Korea, to justice for the Palestinians, were an ongoing voice of reason within America. One memorial to him would be to go back to his web site and read a few of these.

Lacking time for that, I suggest looking at his final one of Monday, August 29th, which I read shortly before hearing of his death. It is about the whole question of eventually settling the Palestine question.

He closes with the following:

“It all comes to down to Sharon having the broad outlines of a respectable settlement worked out in his own mind. He probably has no plan in mind for the demolition of the"settlements" on the West Bank, which are now closer to being thriving small cities and towns. A solution would have to involve a Palestinian democracy whereby the 400,000 Jews would be given the option of remaining where they are and accepting citizenship in the new Palestinian state."

"What might make this work would be a Palestinian state’s commitment to turn what is now the public property of Israel over to the residents, who could sell the titles if they wish to leave for residence in Israel or wherever."

"As George Melloan of the Wall Street Journal points out, most of the problems in the occupied territories flow from neither Arab nor Jew having title to the land the[y] work and live upon. The privatisation of the land would be a boon to one and all.”

Most Americans simply don’t understand that any Israeli market Capitalism, as in the high tech area, is layered over a bed rock of Corporatism and Socialism, as described above by Wanniski.

From 1987 to 1990, as Director of International Studies at Florida Atlantic University, I was involved in establishing the Florida-Israel Linkage Institute, dedicated to exchanging ideas on culture, economics and education, essentially student exchanges, between our State and that nation.

In trips to Israel, and in reading the annual Report Cards from Israel, written by the Stanford University economist, Alvin Rabushka, who was involved with a foundation there until 1998, I soon became aware of this Corporate Socialism. At one point the government controlled 94% of the land, and it is scarcely less than that today.

It soon became clear that the head of Florida’s American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) was not enchanted with the idea of spreading market economic ideas to that country.

The settlers, and their power derived from this control of land, as well as the lack thereof by the Palestinians, lies at the base of the problem.

From before the American Revolution this nation was built on the notion that ownership in land was the basis of participation in the system. How can we talk about “Democracy” in Israel, let alone in other parts of the Middle East, when the land there is essentially controlled by the State, and the other parts of the economy are so clearly Corporatist?

Israeli society itself, as well as relations with the Palestinians, suffers from this statist Socialism. Yet, American aid continues on a massive scale, and prevents any confrontation, or reform, of this basic problem.

The economist P.T. Bauer used to talk about the incredible productivity of the small market sector in some of the socialist societies. It would be interesting to see a study done on which nation was the most market oriented, Cuba or Israel!

We shall all miss Jude’s great courage in openly discussing such issues.