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Why the Left is Anti-Israel
by Dr. Philip Mendes
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The 1967 Six-Day War changed everything. The
left discovered the Palestinians, and the
romance with the PLO began.
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MANY Jews believe the left hates Israel. Unfortunately this lament is largely based on reality. Most radical leftist groups today oppose the very existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. And as the recent federal parliamentary debate showed, many representatives of the centrist Australian Labor Party (ALP) also hold little sympathy for Israel.
On the other hand, most of the ALP leadership remain supporters of Israel.And even some individuals and groups on the radical left remain sympathetic. So the situation is bad, but
not totally beyond redemption.
Historically, orthodox socialism has always been opposed in theory to Zionism and other forms of Jewish nationalism. However, at least prior to 1967, this leftist anti-Zionism was balanced by a genuine concern for Jews as an oppressed group. It would never have occurred to the early left to denounce Zionism as a racist ideology because Jews were themselves the foremost victims of racism.
Nevertheless, in practice socialists adopted a wide spectrum of views on Zionism. Many supported the minimalist Zionist aspiration to create a Jewish national homeland/refuge in
Palestine, while opposing the maximalist Zionist aspiration to settle all Jews in Palestine.
The Soviet Union had always opposed Zionism in principle, but it reversed its position in 1947. The Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Andrei Gromyko, made a famous speech in which he defended the right of the Jews to a state as compensation for their persecution by the Nazis. The USSR subsequently strongly supported the creation of the State of Israel.
Even the Arab communist parties supported Israel. There was little leftist sympathy for the Palestinian refugees either during or immediately after the 1948 war.
Relations between Israel and the Soviets quickly cooled as a result of the Cold War. By 1955, the USSR had become Egypt’s principal arms supplier. However, most social democrats remained enthusiastically pro-Israel. Many were impressed by Israel’s collectivist institutions such as the Histadrut and the kibbutzim, and the domination of Israeli politics by the social democratic Mapai Party.
But the 1967 Six-Day War changed everything. The left discovered the Palestinians, and the romance with the PLO began. Israel was stereotyped as a powerful oppressor state and a tool of western imperialism involved in suppressing the national rights of the Palestinians.
Leftist anti-Zionism soon spread beyond the radical left to mainstream social democratic parties. In Australia, leftist anti-Zionism was reflected in then ALP prime minister Gough Whitlam’s so-called "even-handed" policy during the Yom Kippur War, the associated campaign by Bill Hartley and other leading ALP leftists to delegitimise Israel and the 1974-75 Australian Union of Students motions calling for the liquidation of Israel.
Leftist anti-Zionism seemed to go on the backburner during the period of the Oslo Accords. However, the outbreak of the intifada provoked a renewed outburst of anti-Zionist hysteria.
The antisemitic rhetoric used at the United Nations Conference in Durban and the various proposals for academic boycotts of Israel suggest an increasing leftist hostility not only to Israel, but also to Jewish supporters.
At present, there seems to be little common language between the anti-Zionist leftism and Jews. Where Jews see Israeli vulnerability amidst a sea of fanatical hatred, the left sees only Israeli military power and brutality. Where Jews see cowardly terrorists murdering women and children, the left sees brave resistance fighters. And where Jews see a citizen’s army engaged in self-defence, the left sees only the exercise of state terror.
The anti-Zionist left also ignores the differences between the Palestinians and other commensurate resistance movements.
Few on the left are willing to take into account the views of those who are victims of terrorism. The left prefers to ignore the potential genocidal implications of what it advocates.
It is easy to say that we need to engage in dialogue with the left to educate its members.
Sadly, many of them are not interested in promoting compromise, or the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. Rather, they are partisans of Palestinian nationalism even when it is driven by fanatical Islam rather than by Marxism. Their attitudes will only change if and when the peace process resumes.
However, some on the left do seek at least in principle to maintain a balance between Israeli and Palestinian concerns. There is potentially an important role for responsible Jewish leftist groups to explain Israeli and Jewish fears to this wider leftist audience. Equally, it is important to continue emphasising the contrast between the diverse, pluralistic and democratic nature of Israeli society (at least within the Green Line) and the relatively closed and repressive societies which surround it.
- – Dr. Philip Mendes
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Dr Philip Mendes is a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Monash University.His most recent book is Australia’s Welfare Wars.
This piece was first published in The Australian Jewish News, Friday, March 21, 2003
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