Re: [Marxism] The German Left and Israel

[Angelus Novus <fuerdenkommunismus@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't see much a point in really arguing with Ivan Drury's piece, since it 
would lead to an endless discussion without arriving at any consensus, but this 
particular passage is simply irritating:

> Also, the leftist Palestine solidarity activists I've met are
> interested in hosting talks by Suzanne Weiss. I gave them her
> excellent anti-Zionist pamphlet and they agreed that Suzanne could
> be very helpful in the difficult task of bridging the divide in
> the left about Palestine and Israel.
> I think that there is a lot of potential for a powerful movement
> on this question in Germany, and (somewhat surprisingly) there is
> something that we in Canada can do to help.

The assumption is that the German "left" (assumed to be a unified entity) has 
issues with the conflict between Israel and Palestine that can simply be 
resolved with the assurance by North American activists that criticizing 
Israel's wars is not anti-Semitic.

Again, this assumes that the entire history of debate within the left discourse 
never occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, as if sectors of the anti-imperialist 
left had not been virulently anti-Zionist in the late 60s and 70s, and as if 
the pro-Zionist apologetic of the early 1990s had not also resulted from the 
debates of the 1980s.  All of this was the process of long, extensive, debates 
within the left, not merely the result of some moralistic "German guilt".

I think that is ultimately the overriding assumption when activists outside of 
Germany discuss the issue: that somehow there is no history to the debate, that 
the incorrect positions of some sectors of the left result either from "guilty 
feelings" or merely sprang fully formed from Zeus's forehead.

Also, again, the question of milieu is extremely important.  Groups from a 
Trotskyist background, such as the two USFI groups or the local IST group 
(Marx21) are consistently anti-Zionist.  The pro-Zionist or anti-anti-Zionist 
positions are mainly found among people and groups coming out of Autonomist or 
Antifa traditions.  These are two completely separate political worlds.  These 
people travel in different social circles, read different publications, drink 
in different pubs, march in different demos on May 1st, etc. etc.  In other 
words, there is no unified "left" that is divided along the lines of the Middle 
East conflict.  Rather, there is an M-L and Trot left oriented towards the Left 
Party and parliamentary politics, and an extra-parliamentary, anti-statist.  So 
there really is no conflict within "the" left to heal.




      

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