Yaron Brook in Brisbane December 6th-8th

Dr. Yaron Brook will be speaking at the Ayn Rand conference in Brisbane. Dr. Brook is a podcaster and the author of several books including Free Market Revolution, Equal is Unfair and Neoconservatism An Obituary. Before his time at the ARI (first as CEO and later as chairman), Yaron was an award-winning finance professor.

Israel

Yaron Brook grew up in Israel and served in military intelligence. He is an incisive critic of the Western response to Islamic Totalitarianism, and of Just War Theory. See the article he wrote with Alex Epstein in 2006 here.

To hear his views on the proper response to the appalling attack in October last year, I highly recommend this dramatic talk he gave to a partly hostile audience at the University of Texas. You can link directly to sections of his speech from the table of contents below the video.

Here are some important points he makes in the talk and while answering questions:

• We can morally assess the two adversaries in this conflict just by looking at the nature of their respective societies: one a rights-respecting democracy which includes Arabs in its parliament, the other a totalitarian and tribal culture intent on the destruction of Israel.

• The defeat of Germany and Japan and their ensuing transformation show that lasting peace will come only with complete victory: when Palestinians give up on the sword and their dream of Islamic supremacy.

• Iran is the most destructive force in the Middle East. Not only does it fund Islamist movements, it also provides their inspiration. [The ARI has long argued that Iran is the main flag bearer of militant Islam, and the regime must be dismantled.]

• Although the loss of innocent lives is horrific, it is profoundly immoral to sacrifice Israeli soldiers to save enemy civilians.

• Negotiations with an enemy dedicated to the slaughter of Jews can only lead to many more of the horrors of October 7th, as history shows so clearly.

• The death toll in Gaza is the fault entirely of Hamas and the 70% of Palestinians who support them.

• The characterisation of Israel as an apartheid state is absurd, as exemplified by the fact that Arab doctors treat many Jews in Israel.

• The perpetrators of genocide are the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who presided over a population increase in Gaza and have the lowest bomb collateral death rate ever.

• Leftist hatred of Israel in the West is driven by the perverse ideology of oppressed and oppressor, an ideology that denies agency and responsibility.

You can also watch a summary of the Ayn Rand Institute’s commentary on this issue here.