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Troubling Views

Anti-Israel tweets surface from Democratic
running mate for Michigan governor.

JACKIE HEADAPOHL MANAGING EDITOR

G

arlin Gilchrist, the run-
wasn’t as clear as it should be,
ning mate of Michigan
but I bet she’s clearer the next
Democratic guber-
time.”
natorial candidate Gretchen
In an Aug. 31 press release
Whitmer, has come under fire
to the Detroit Jewish News
for Twitter posts from almost a
from Whitmer’s campaign,
decade ago, supporting Hamas
she provided a clearer answer:
and demonizing those who kiss
“I am 100 percent opposed to
Garlin Gilchrist
“Israel’s ass.”
BDS.”
“I’m suck [sic] of politicians
The statement went on
and Evangelicals kissing Israel’s
to say: “In the State Senate,
ass regardless of what they do in
I proudly sponsored resolu-
the name of ‘defense’,” Gilchrist
tions to reaffirm the unbreak-
posted on Jan. 4, 2009.
able partnership between
“Obama speaking could be
Michigan and Israel. I believe
the signal the beginnig [sic]
that the BDS movement is an
of a new American approach;
affront to that relationship,
an end to the ‘Israel-can-
and I am 100 percent opposed
Gretchen Whitmer
do-no-wrong’ approach,”
to BDS. I strongly support the
Gilchrist wrote two days later.
bipartisan anti-boycott leg-
Gilchrist added, “Hamas is a
islation that was signed into
legitimately elected party that only rose law by Gov. Snyder last year and will do
to power b/c of Israeli aggression &
everything in my power to uphold it as
Western complicity/enablement.”
Michigan’s next governor.”
Those tweets
appear to have
been deleted from
Gilchrist’s Twitter
account, which now
shows posts dating
back to only 2011.
In a telephone
interview with
the Jewish News,
Gilchrist admitted,
“When I made those
tweets in 2009, I
didn’t have all the
context related to
Israel that I should have.”
Gilchrist added: “BDS is detrimental
Gilchrist met with leaders from
to a truly robust peace process.”
the JCRC/AJC last week. “We had a
Gilchrist also said that he and
great conversation, and I’m looking
Whitmer know that Michigan shares a
forward to building relationships in
unique relationship with Israel “both
the Jewish community and gaining
because of the vibrant Jewish com-
more understanding about Israel. I
munity here and the amazing partner-
definitely believe Israel has the right to ships we’ve built, especially around
technology.”
exist and defend itself. And I know it’s
Gilchrist, who was the city of
important for Jews around the world
to have this land as a life raft in case of Detroit’s first director of innova-
tion and emerging technology, said
persecution.”
he’s been “privileged to have had the
News of Gilchrist’s tweets followed
reports that Whitmer declined to take chance to work alongside Israeli com-
panies.
a stance or denounce the BDS move-
ment at a recent townhall event.
“Gretchen and I want Michigan to
“I recognize the fundamental
remain an epicenter for Israeli part-
rights are that we have the right to
nerships and deepen and strengthen
speak,” Whitmer said in response to
the relationship we have with Israel,”
a question on BDS, according to a
he added.
recording of the event acquired by
As of press time, Whitmer had an 8.2
the Washington Free Beacon. “No one
percentage point lead over Republican
gets to infringe on those rights on my
gubernatorial candidate and Michigan
watch.”
Attorney General Bill Schuette in the
Democratic strategist Aaron Keyak
RealClear Politics average. •
said, “The BDS movement should be
JNS.org contributed to this story.
an easy one to condemn. The answer

Jewish Contributions to Humanity

#36
#45 in a series

These Jewish
Economists Top
the Market.

Milton Friedman

Ludwig von Mises

Joseph Stiglitz

MILTON FRIEDMAN (1912-2006).

b. New York, New York. d. San Francisco, CA.
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1976.
One of the most renowned economists of the last century, Milton Friedman was
a leading voice for free enterprise policies and limited government intervention in the
market. In his combined six decades at the University of Chicago and the Hoover
Institution, Friedman authored numerous milestone books (including Capitalism and
Freedom, A Monetary History of the United States, and Free to Choose), and influenced
a generation of economists and policymakers. In 1976, Friedman was awarded the Nobel
Prize for his work on monetary theory and the government’s proper role in stabilizing
economic declines. Friedman was an adviser to both Ronald Reagan and Margaret
Thatcher, and arguably was the 20th century’s most influential economist behind John
Maynard Keynes (whose economic policies Friedman strongly differed with). Friedman’s
lucid and accessible explanations of capitalism have played no small role in the spread
of free markets around the world in the last generation.

LUDWIG VON MISES (1881-1973).

b. Galicia, Austria-Hungary. d. New York, New York.
Leader of the Austrian School.
The leader of the Austrian School of economic thought, Ludwig von Mises is one of
the most accomplished—yet least known—champions of classical liberalism and free
enterprise. Receiving his doctorate in economics from the University of Vienna, Mises
worked as a civil servant in the Austrian government, and lectured and consulted on
economics until 1940, when he and his wife, Margit, fled the Nazis and moved to New
York City. There, he was a visiting professor at NYU and was supported by a handful
of philanthropists as he lectured and published extensively. His magnum opus, Human
Action, laid out his theory on why capitalism is the most effective economic system—
namely, that its incentive structure works better with human nature and human decision-
making than that of any other economic system. One of Mises’s most lasting contributions
was his impact upon economist Friedrich Hayek, one of his students. Hayek went on to
become one of the 20th century’s greatest popularizes of Western liberalism after World
War II.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ (1943-).

b. Gary, Indiana.
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2001.
One of this generation’s most prolific economic thinkers, Joseph Stiglitz has won
a Nobel Prize for his research into markets with unequal distribution of information,
chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, and was the head
economist of the World Bank. Born and raised in Indiana, Stiglitz studied economics at
Amherst and MIT, and has taught at Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia. Stiglitz is an
outspoken critic of globalization and economic inequality, and, as a skeptic of laissez-
faire economics, is a proponent of government regulation on businesses in areas where
economic self-interest may not be sufficient. In recent years, many of Stiglitz’s books
have entered the mainstream, including The Price of Inequality, The Great Divide, and
Globalization and its Discontents.

Original Research by Walter L. Field Sponsored by Irwin S. Field Written by Jared Sichel

jn

September 13 • 2018

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