The List, the Left & Zionism

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a delicate subject and I will try and for a change to choose my
words with care.  I feel certain, absolutely so, that everyone welcomes the
Arab comrades.  We have much to learn from them and I am sure they will
learn something from the very brilliant people that are members of the
list.  I know I hacve and I am a proud member and have recommended the list
as widely as I can.

Now the truth is that the Arab comrades are suffering the blows of a
vicious and seemingly all powerful enemy.  They have also been the victims
of one of the most efficient propaganda onslaughts ever.  For instance two
nights ago on the television here in Australia we had an item about the
Israelis who were forced into shelters for fear of Arab bombing.  There was
of course no Arab bombing but there was Israeli bombing that night and the
Arabs had no shelters.  Such a distortion of the truth drives one to the
deepest anger and despair.  But the same news channel also had an item
about how the IRA were destroying the peace process by refusing to hand
over their guns. More anger and more despair.

These days I keep repeating to myself Lukacs' favorite quote from
Zola:  'La verite est lentement en marche, mais a la fin des fins rien ne
l'arretera'. (The truth marches slowly but in the end nothing will stop it).

Of course to those in the front line the march of truth does appear very,
very slow indeed.  But it is there.  The Arab cause is gaining support.
Look up the preface to John Pilger's Distant Voices (London: Vintage,
1992). It was written by an old leftist Margaret Gelhorn - a personal
friend of Pilger's.  She had this to say about their sole arena of
disagreement:

'We agree on every political subject except Israel and the
Palestinians.  Thinking it over, I believe this has to do with age.  John
was born in October 1939, an infant in Australia during the Second World
War.  He was eight years old when the Jews of Palestine, who had accepted
the UN Partition Plan, were forced to fight practically with their hands to
survive the first combined Arab onslaught and declared their
state.  Perhaps nobody can understand Israel who does remember the Second
World War and how and why the nation came into being.  Since we cannot
change each other's views, John and I declare a truce, for I fear the
Arab-Israel problem will not be solved in my life-time (cited in Pilger,
1992: xiii).'

Gelhorn's views were those of her generation.  It must be remembered in
this context that at the UN Russia voted to set up the Israeli state while
Britain abstained. The vast majority of the Left now knows Zionism for what
it is - a thing of US imperialism, a force which has been able to
neutralise and in cases even win to the right one of the most progressive
cultures that the world has ever seen and I refer here to the culture of
the New York working class Jews.

Moreover the Left also rejects and spurns with contempt the old right wing
gambit that to criticise Israel or Zionism is to be anti-semitic.  But I
want to be absolutely explicit here.   Anti-semitism is very real and I
suspect we are about to see a great revival of it. An anecdote, if I might
be forgiven for being personal,  might clarify my position in this
context.  My second wife (Bless her and Peace be upon her) was the daughter
of a leading member of the Communist Party of the United States.  He was by
all accounts a great man. Jewish of course. Here in Australia she joined me
in the solidarity work we were trying to do on behalf of the
Palestinians.  She felt their suffering deeply and as a Jew she was
extremely angry at what Israel was doing in her name.

We met one day a group of Iraqi students from the University of Queensland
to organise a rally.  They talked about their country and the situation in
the Middle East.  My then wife had to endure the most racist stories and
anti-semitic rubbish about Jews.  Our marriage was to end badly I am
afraid, but I will always remember her quiet dignity in the face of such
vile taunts.

Much later I was a member of a Marxism list where the Jews on the list had
to suffer the racist tendencies of one Louis Godena.  He absolutely refused
to talk about the 'Israelis' but insisted on talking about what the 'Jews'
were doing in the Middle East. What Godena was doing of course was in his
vulgar stupid way to give credence to the porpaganda that if you criticised
Israel then you were an anti-semite.

So care is needed. There will be no objections at all on this list to any
criticism of Israel or Zionism, but there will be a sharp reaction from
people like me to any hint of anti-semitism. The anonymous comrade who
posted has but to think on this and he will get as much support as we can
possibly give him.

regards

Gary