(José Niño, Headline USA) The Manhattan Institute once celebrated Glenn Loury’s ideas, until he criticized Israel.
Loury, one of the country’s most prominent black economists and public intellectuals, was fired from the Manhattan Institute after criticizing Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
The move has ignited a fierce debate about the boundaries of acceptable discourse in think tanks and the consequences for those who cross them, especially when it comes to U.S. foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Loury, a long-time fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a celebrated heterodox thinker on race relations, found himself at odds with the organization after he publicly objected to Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a Substack post, Loury explained, “I think they disapproved of my opposition to the Gaza War, my criticisms of Israel’s prosecution of that war, and my praise of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s meditations on the West Bank settlements.”
The Manhattan Institute’s leadership, he recounted, cited a lack of “shared priorities” as the reason for the abrupt end to their partnership.
The flashpoint came after Loury hosted a conversation with Israeli historian Omer Bartov, who himself was critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
According to Loury, the Manhattan Institute manifested its appointment after the episode aired and subsequently warned him about his public stance.
“I could have heeded the warnings and pulled back, and perhaps the relationship would have remained intact,” Loury wrote. “But that wouldn’t have changed what I thought and felt about the war. I would have been censoring myself for the sake of a financially beneficial arrangement. That was not something I was willing to do.”
Loury’s ouster became public following his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show, where he discussed the chilling effect such actions have on open debate.
The story of how @GlennLoury was ousted for having an unauthorized opinion on the Middle East. https://t.co/gd8l5x6kl4 pic.twitter.com/LHUXCXw12D
— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) May 9, 2025
Carlson summarized the situation bluntly in an episode of his show: “For decades, conservative think tanks celebrated and supported black economist Glenn Loury. Then he expressed an unauthorized opinion on the Middle East and they dropped him in a second.”
Headline USA reached out to the Manhattan Institute for comment and did not receive a response.
Loury himself described the incident as emblematic of a broader climate of intolerance for dissenting views on U.S. foreign policy, especially regarding Israel. He believes the political establishment is threatened by independent thinkers who challenge mainstream narratives about foreign policy.
A professor of economics at Brown University, Loury gained prominence in the 1980s as one of the first tenured African American economists at Harvard University. Over his career, he has been a vocal critic of affirmative action and identity politics while advocating for open debate on complex social issues.
The Manhattan Institute didn’t respond to a request for comment.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
