The Final Crisis of the Zionist "Left" A new stage in an old contest. Conflicting loyalties to two flags-the banners of class and of nation-tear at the hearts of many who are drawn to the new Left upsurge of today, yet are still exposed to nationalist propaganda. This battle of sympathies resounds nowhere so fiercely as in the anxious and tortured theses of the Zionist "left". Scorched through by this clash of inner identities, the best elements to be found inside the modern, ultra-nationalist Zionist movement— mainly younger idealists with real consciences-develop doubts, fears as to the direction Israel is taking. Made aware of the Palestinian Arabs bitter struggle, conscious of imperialist financial and political investment in the Zionist state, these youth constitute a specific and restless faction within the Zionist cause. Seeking to combine both patriotism and humanitarian and socialist ideals, their confusion leaves them suspended high in mid-air, over the yawning gulf between Zionism and internationalism, in an era when the advancing Arab Revolution has forged powerful forces on the Left now confron ting imperialism and its local adherents in the Arab world. What is the reaction of the Zionist establishment to this ferment amongst their youth?
A Weapon Against the Left Of necessity, Zionism, as the nationalist movement of the Jewish people, operates organisationally in the many countries where sizeable Jewish communities exist. This permits considerable insight into the political development of different continents, a wider experience and outlook than those shared by other reactionary nationalisms in the modern world. Long before the 1967 war in the Middle East shed light on the tragic consequences entailed in the logic of Zionist colonisation, one perceptive Zionist statesman warned "The Zionist movement is no longer revolutionary, at least in its presentation. In order to secure the loyalty of the more idealistic elements of the second generation. this is a very important consideration." The lesson was not lost. A "left" section already existed within the Zionist movement the old "Mapam" party and its youth groups, Israeli Communist Party mambers within the Zionist framework, dissident intellectuals and aca demics, certain Jewish student unions and groupings. Now they would conveniently play a new role, as a buffer against the anti-Zionism of the revolutionary Left internationally. SOmE delegates are likely to point out that pro-Arab propaganda, which has pinpointed Israel as a bastion of imperialism and reactionary ideologies, has made some headway among the general public and particularly among youth. Greater emphasis on the social achievements of Israel and on the positive side of her policy and the stronger Identification of Zionism with socially progressive trends could balance the picture painted by pro-Arab propagandists", wrote a very sympathetic reporter at the British Zionist Federation's last annual conference. 2 The entire history of the Zionist left suits this new function.
Roots of the Conflict A socialist-inclined faction has existed within the Zionist cause almost from its foundation, and was bound to do so. The founders of Zionism sought recruits amongst the bitterlyoppressed Jewish minorities in Eastern Europe, the focus of Jewish life at the dawn of the cantury. Their very misery, however, welded these minorities into a deep solidarity with tha advancing working-class movements advocating social revolution in their towns and cities. With the virtual eruption of ideas and theories trig gered by the growth of socialist consciousness generally, the Jewish ghettoes became the scene of interise debate between dozens of factions. specifically Jawish sector of the wider labour movement in Russia, proposing Jewish auto nomy in a cultural, not a geographical, sense"In the Bund's programme, we do not find autonomism "per se'; it is neither "districtism" nor territorialism, but national cultural autonomism", 3 The Bund's nationalism, rejected by the Bolsheviks, led the Party to alliance with the Mensheviks and final collapse in 1919, large numbers of its members going over to the internationalism of the Bolshevik Revolution. However, its general involvement with the Russian working class and its opposition to Zionist emigration to Palestine hed left their mark. Only when the Bund had gone and Stalin ruled the Soviet Union, could the left Zionists make major inroads. Above all, three of their leaders fashioned the new programme-Lestschinsky, Borochov, Syrkin, They produced the basic ideology of left Zionism-praise for the ideals of proletarian internationalism as the ultimate objective, but until after the "national" stage of building a strong Jewish state in Palestine. The "theory of stages" today, as when first formulatod, means, in strict order of priorities: 1. The achievement of a Jewish State based on a majority of Jewish population, in the "spiritual" homeland, Palestinn. 2. Class struggle within that State, between a Jewish working class and Jewish capitalists, to achieve socialism.
It means, in immediate terms, an outright assault on internationalism. It is a valuable weapon in the Zionist armoury.
Nationalism First In their attacks on the revolutionary left, modern "left" Zionists draw frequently on Borochov. * He was clearer than his successors as to the implications of his theories-"It is false to accept the widespread fallacy which claims that the proletariat has no relation with the national. wealth and therefore also has no national feelings and interests... Let us forget the flippant and dangerous conceptions about this question usually entertained by the progressive elements... As long as the national workplace is not secure, the national problem overshadows the labour problem. And as long as the workers of a given nation have not yet made their place of employment secure, the problem of work is of far greater importance to them than the issues of the class struggle. • 5 The red Flag is. locked in the broom-cupboard for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the national Flag is flown from the highest masthead. From the today, a perfect theory to bring critical, rebellous Jewish youth back into the Zionist fold. And a fine "socialist" shield to thwart the attacks of the revolutionary Left, since socialism is clearly written into the agenda - "in the end"
Revolutionary Imagery This happy coincidance of opinioos between the applauding Che Guevara or Lenin's "ruthless right-wing establishment and ruling the Zionist movement and the "Marxist" left Zionists, as to the immediate task of defending the national homeland before all other considerations, is the inevitable consequence of putting national values first, more than a century after Marx built the first of many bridges between the working class movements in different nations and continents. The resultant confusion worries many sincere and humanitarian young Jews seeking a solution in any heipful theory or tom promise. Just how convenient this is to the Zionist leaders is clearly indicated by the con siderable and increasing crop of left Zionist committees and publications mushrooming in recent years. Apparently not troubled by financial problems, new magazines and propaganda appear, differing on many points but absolutely united on the sacrosanctity of the exclusively Jewish state in Paleszine. Teeming with Marxist represent the only left opposition known today which meets with the applause and full encouragement of the right wing it purports to challenge. Far from being attacked by the Teading Zionists, the latter welcome them, knowing that "It is furthermore not to be underestimated that in many parts of the world it is the reactionary, nationalist groups which have become the sponsors and admirers of Israel, whereas large parts of the progressive world have become disappointed and antagonis tic to Israel". " It is simple to outline the "left" Zionists' principal themes in their verbal war against the real Left: 1. Zionism is a "national liberation movement" somehow akin to the Vietnamese NLF, or to Black Power in the USA. Next to the blatant and concrete links between Israal and imperialism, this sounds a little thin- "The six-day war gave some solid economic gains to Israel. The victory brought an extra S300 million of overseas capital investment, mainly from the United States, so that the 1967 capital inflow reeched a record $780 million" stated the Times Bustness News on 27th March 1969. A most unusual 2nd November 1969. struggle for anti-imperialist liberation! 2. Peace, before all other considerations, is a "socialist priority", " As Israeli arms now dominate the Middle East, such a peace settlement is the ideal assertion of the "status quo" of conquest and occupation. A strangely rapid conver sion to pacifism from those who, in the same breath, salute anti-Arab guerrillas in the Sudan and claim, in the same publications, to combine that pacifiem in the Middle Eastern context witt ardent praise of great revolutionary figures, determination" in the struggle against capitalism and reaction.
The Last Stage The diversionary "theory of stages" has ironical ly led to a new stage, not for Zionism, as intended, but for the Zionist "left" itself. Refusing to recognise in Israel an exclusivist, settlers state, they are reduced to a mere left cover for the government in Tel Aviv. It is the last role they can play. The relentless exposure of the realities of Zionism by the unfolding drama in the Middle East hits at ' cir vitals. The Isracli veto on the projected Goldmann peace visit to Cairo, the official plan to settle 250 Jewish families in Hebron, led to the first violent protests by Israeli youth on 8th April 1970. Sections of the Zionist "left" split away, towards increasingly militarit positions, Zionism, which called to its ranks the Jewish survivors ol and revolutionary language and quotations, they. Nazi infamy, the victims of age old oppression and persecution, and gave them militarism and war in place of refoge and safety, has lost its grip on the red banners now seized from its hands by their rightful bearers on the revolutio nary Left.
D. Landau NOTES 1- Dr. Nahum Goldmann, The Problenz of Jewish Sarshwline the 200r Century: Speech to lewish studente in Holland, December 1963. 2. Zionist Affsirs correspondent of the Jewish Chron icie, 3rd April 1970. 3. V. Medem, theoreticien of the Bund, from Twenty Yoars to Medem's Desth, published New York, 1943. 4. An example is found in Zionin in Qoesnion, a typically poor "theoratical" pamphlet, produced by the now defuner "left" Zionist "Ad Hoe Committie for Pasce in the Middle East" in London. B. Dow Ber Borochov, The Marional Question ond the Class Snaggle, written 19056. A selection of his York, 1937. 6. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, The Future of Tarnel, pub lished in the U.S. journal Foreten Affairs, issue of April 1970, 7. Point No. 1 in the platform of the various IsraelPalestine Committees adopted in Virton, Belgium, on 8. Hardine in Co-Acutence ssue no. 2 sourrisi pi the "left" Zionist Young Maper group in Britain 9. Ibid, pp. 4 (Sudan) and 5 (Leninl.
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