Monday, April 22, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
Finishing up discussion of the origins
of the Left-Right split on Israel, there are two types of problematical
reaction from two different audiences when confronted with information like the
history presented in Robert Wistrich's From Ambivalence to Betrayal.
The first reaction comes from those whose political
disposition is liberal or otherwise left-leaning who might acknowledge this
history but relegate it to the past or to a non-mainstream fringe that has
little to nothing to do with them.
For those who primarily label themselves "liberal"
or "progressive," this is a problem for "The Left." And for
Israel supporters who consider themselves "Of the Left," the history
outlined in Wistrich's book is something you might encounter on the "Far
Left," a marginal group that they claim no one listens to or cares about.
Paired with these attitude is the suspicion that attempts to
brand liberals and Leftists as anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic is really just
a tactic of the real enemy of the Left: the Right (or, more frequently, the "Far
Right") which is just interested in cherry picking facts and stories from
the darker side of the Leftist political tradition in order to smear
progressives in front of Jewish and non-Jewish Israel-supporting audiences.
This suspicion is nurtured by genuine anti-Israel Leftists
who insist that anyone who not doesn't hew to their agenda is not just a
"Progressive for Everything but Palestine" (i.e., a traitor to
Progressive values), but probably a closet
conservative/reactionary/Republican/Likudnik just posing as a liberal in order
to make "true liberals" like themselves look bad (claims which
basically accuse liberal critics of the Israel bashers as being not just
hypocrites, but liars and frauds).
But while we can dismiss the self-serving positioning of the
Israel haters, we cannot pretend that conservatives do not try to draw political
advantage by portraying anti-Israel opinion within the Left as being more
widespread than it actually is. And then
there is the phenomenon of lifelong liberals who justifiably lash out against
anti-Jewish attitudes within their own tradition who, unable to get genuine
Israel-haters to respond to their accusations, turn their wrath on more
moderate liberal voices that should be seen as friends, rather than foes.
So where to begin to untangle such a mess of accusation,
divisiveness and suspicion and is there a solution that can lead to genuine understanding
(not to mention constructive interaction leading to successful action)?
Well first off, we need to acknowledge that diminishing
suspicion between Left and Right involves coming to grips with the Left-Right
paradigm that defines (and, in my opinion) over-defines nearly every aspect of
our political discourse. I say "coming
to grips with" vs. "eliminating" since it's unrealistic to
expect a framework so widespread to be put aside after nearly two-and-a-half
centuries of use, especially since this Left-Right framework is useful,
providing as it does a meaningful way to fit positions on a range of political
subjects into a belief system imbued with important human values.
Which acknowledging that the Left-Right axis we use might be
meaningful, we need to avoid shaping every issue in a way that focuses entirely
on our most extreme differences, especially with regard to subjects containing
large areas of agreement (such as support for Israel).
Even with this even-handed backdrop, I need to point out
that those embracing a left-leaning worldview have the most heavy lifting to do
since, for better or for worse, it is their tradition that is being co-opted
and corrupted by ruthless totalitarians.
Claiming that Wistrich's history of ambivalence and
hostility towards the Jews and their state is part of the Left's DNA (and thus
unchangeable) is both inaccurate and unfair.
But denying that it has been part of the Left's tradition since the
birth of that tradition would be equally inaccurate. And denying its relevance to the current
debate (or relegating it to a marginal fringe) is not going to stop the
totalitarians from continuing to use the language of the Left to continue to
attack the Jewish state on the way to their real goal: The dictatorship of
themselves.
These would-be totalitarians have their heroes and stories
(the revolutionists of yore who used the language of progress to pave the way
for their own total rule) which propels their world view and dictates their
actions (which explains why they can ignore their own illiberal behavior and
allies, since such questioning is of no concern to a revolutionary vanguard whose
only goal is power).
But Progressive Zionists have their own heroes and stories
to turn to: including those courageous liberals who stood against Communism,
even while being accused of hypocrisy, class treason and every other imaginable
crime. And then there are the founders
of the Jewish state itself who were as much creatures of the labor movement as
they were committed Jews and Zionists, commitments that provided them the faith
and courage to overcome enemies far more ruthless than the lame, faux-liberal BDSers
we confront today.
And as the many liberal Zionists it has been my pleasure to
work with (and the many more I have never met) come to this understanding and
fight this fight, it is the obligation of those not holding a liberal world
view to distinguish friend from foe and support progressive allies (or, at
least not denigrate them), in their fight for the soul of the Left. For it is the huge overlap between Left and
Right with regard to belief in and support of the Jewish state that defines our
strength, not the shrill and self-serving arguments of those who fall outside
this consensus.
And to give us all some perspective (and perhaps an ounce of
humility); consider other traditions that have historically grappled with their
own relationship to Jews, Judaism and – most recently - Zionism. Christianity, for example, is now split
between growing Evangelical churches whose devotion to Israel is second only to
that of American Jews and dying Mainline Protestantism (Methodists,
Presbyterians, etc.) who maintain - at best - an ambivalent attitude towards
the Jewish state which frequently descends into hostility (although not yet
outright betrayal).
Or look at America's mainstream conservatives dedicated to Israel's
safety, security and success who can win at the ballot box vs. the "Blame
Israel First" Buchannanist Right that can barely manage to maintain itself
as a cult of personality.
And even within the Progressive tradition, who would you
rather associate with: the Israel-loving American industrial Labor movement
that gave us safety and fair wages for workers (not to mention the weekend) or
the self-righteous, ends-justify-the-means tradition represented today by
pro-BDS "Leftists" which has spent much of the last two centuries
delivering nothing but tyranny, death and despair?
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