ליברטריאנים בישראל

The Tel-Aviv University Students for Liberty has had its first meeting today.

The audience braved the horrible Tel-Aviv traffic jams.

It opened with a brief lecture by yours truly (Boris Karpa). In that lecture, I outlined the prospects of libertarian political thought in Israel. I argued that though the political tradition of the country was statist rather than libertarian, and though libertarians are rather few in Israel,we still have several opportunities to triumph in the long-term.

I pointed out the theoretical possibilities of this: specifically, Jason P. Sorens’ research regarding the fact that, in the political process, those who are most active have an influence on political events disproportionate to their numbers in society, and the fact that there are several issues that, if they are addressed in a libertarian fashion, will tap into the existing resentment in Israeli society against the welfare state and the government bureaucracy. I pointed out that the bureaucracy was anti-democratic in nature, and that it is not possible to have real democracy and a managerial state at once – something, I said, has to give. At this point I moved on to explaining what the group was already doing – building local chapters, establishing cooperation with existing groups, and preparing for activism.

The future is looking good, comrades!

After that, other members contributed too. Jonatan Krovitsky explained about his work to translate Mises’ writings into the Hebrew language – he, and our friends in Haifa, are slowly working on translating these, on a volunteer basis. He also argued that as an Orthodox Jew, he believes that the only form of state consisted with Jewish values is a minarchist state. Yaron Lerman talked about his work for the Movement for a Professional Army – a cross-ideological group aiming to abolish the military draft. It turns out that several key members of that movement are ideologically libertarian, and will be happy to cooperate with us. Yaron argued very passionately that the military draft is the most important issue facing libertarians in this country – after all, he stated, ‘the military draft is actual slavery’.

Yaron Lerman (left) and Jonatan Krovitsky (right).

After this, discussion moved, at my behest, to grounds of an immediate practicality. It was decided that the group would meet at some time before the next meeting, to put up flyers and advertisements on and around the Tel-Aviv University campus promoting the next meeting, which takes place on April 8^th, after the Passover vacations. Those in attendance all pledged their participation. The topic of the next meeting will be decided by email consultation among the membership and announced in advance.

For additional information about the TAU Students for Liberty, contact Boris Karpa at microbalrog@gmail.com or 054-5508182.