{"id":178,"date":"2006-07-28T11:55:36","date_gmt":"2006-07-28T09:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=178"},"modified":"2006-07-28T11:55:36","modified_gmt":"2006-07-28T09:55:36","slug":"in-support-of-israel-notes-for-a-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/in-support-of-israel-notes-for-a-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"In support of Israel: Notes for a debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I debated Sean Matgamna of the Alliance for Workers Liberty<\/a> at a central London pub in front of an audience of about 30 people. My notes for the debate follow.<\/p>\n


\nThe main point:
\n<\/strong>
\nIsrael is facing an existential threat and it is the responsibility of socialists to defend the Jewish state.
\nWhere we agree<\/strong>
\nUsually in these sort of debates you dive right into to what you disagree on. I believe it is equally important to see what, if anything, you do agree on.
\nSupport a 2-state solution
\nOppose the occupation
\nFeel concern about rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
\nOppose religious fundamentalism including Islamic fundamentalism
\nRecognize that the Syrian and Iranian regimes are in no sense progressive but are in fact fascist or quasi-fascist states
\nSympathize with Israel’s peace camp
\nSympathize with the \u201ccedar revolution\u201d in Lebanon
\nSupport the working class and the growth of trade unions in the entire Middle East
\nEven though we disagree about this war, we do agree on a great deal.
\nAnd I have been fighting for these things my whole adult life, particularly during the 18 years that I lived in Israel and fought against the Israeli Right and the settler movement.
\nBecause I agree with you on these points, I take the view I do on the war. And I think that if you do share these views with me, you are taking the wrong line on this war.
\nWhere we disagree<\/strong>
\nHere’s what you have been saying:
\nYour slogan – \u201cStop the Israeli assault on Gaza and Lebanon!\u201d<\/em>
\n(title of the main article on your website)
\nAnd again — \u201cEnd the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon! No reoccupation of southern Lebanon! For a free and independent Palestinian state alongside Israel!\u201d<\/em>
\nAnd your analysis –
\n\u201cOnce again the Israeli government responded with a hugely disproportionate assault on Lebanon, with large and predictable civilian casualties among the Lebanese population in general.\u201d
\n\u201cSyria and Iran bang the drums in support of Hezbollah and expose themselves as the regional imperialists they are. But the decisive power here to destroy, or to keep alive, possibilities of peace, lies with the Israeli government.\u201d<\/em>
\nAs if Hezbollah and Hamas do not exist \u2013 as if socialists should not at the very least be calling on them to cease their attacks against Israeli civilian population centres!
\nBut you do not make this call. You focus on \u201cIsraeli attacks\u201d and an \u201cIsraeli assault\u201d — as if Israel was the aggressor, which it is not.<\/strong>
\nYou are not telling the truth.<\/em>
\nThe question facing socialists<\/strong>
\nThe question is \u2013 do we socialists support or oppose Israel in its war of self defense following the Hamas and Hizbollah attacks?
\nThere is no third way and no third camp. We could call for a \u201csocialist federation of the Middle East\u201d or for the workers of Israel, Palestine and Lebanon to overthrow their bosses and embrace each other as brothers and sisters. But if that were to be our position (and not just our dream) we would be living in a fantasy.
\nIf you support Israel’s right of self-defense as a socialist you offer that support critically, meaning that you support:
\n* limited war aims (putting Hizbollah and Hamas rockets out of range of Israeli civilians)
\n*a diplomatic solution to the conflict
\nAnd you oppose:
\n* unnecessary civilian deaths (noting the difference between deliberately targetting civilians and collateral damage)
\n* the re-occupation of Lebanon or Gaza by Israeli forces
\nWhat this means in practice is that while you might support a limited series of military actions by Israel today, were Israel to re-occupy Lebanon and Gaza, or deliberately target civilians as part of its strategy, or reject any possibility of a diplomatic solution \u2013 if Israel were to do any of those things, you could change your mind tomorrow.
\nAnd this is exactly what happened to the Israeli Left in 1982: initially the Labour Party supported the invasion, and within weeks \u2013 when it became clear what Begin and Sharon were up to \u2013 changed their views.
\nAn historic parallel<\/strong>
\nIn situations like these, we always look for historical parallels. On a recent talk show on Radio 4, the Israeli army was compared to Hitler’s Wehrmacht by a panel of pundits, to the applause of the audience.
\nA different historical metaphor might be the Spanish civil war, the 70th anniversary of which we are remembering this summer. It has been suggested as a model for the current fighting in the Middle East by Ephraim Sneh, a leader of the Israeli Labour Party and the son of the legendary Israeli Communist Moshe Sneh.
\nClearly the use of proxy forces (in this case, Hizbollah and Hamas, back then, the mutinous officers of the Spanish army) directed by fascist states (Italy and Germany then, Iran and Syria now) is one parallel.
\nAnd there is another: today, most of you are appalled at the idea that we would be on the same side of a conflict as George Bush. But in 1936-39, if you backed the Spanish Republicans because you believed in democracy and freedom, you found yourself in the same camp as Stalin \u2013 at the peak of the Stalinist terror.
\nI think that socialists were right to support the Spanish Republic in its struggle for survival. And today we should support the Israeli Republic for the same reasons.
\nThe analogy works for other reasons as well. In the Spanish Civil War, as in every war, both sides did terrible things. Many civilians were killed. Innocent blood was shed \u2013 and not only by the fascists.
\nSocialists did not take the view then \u2013 a plague on both your houses, victory for the third camp, etc. Socialists supported the Spanish Republic as if there was no Stalin \u2013 and opposed Stalin as if there was no civil war in Spain.
\nThe Spanish civil war is now seen by many as a dress rehearsal for the second world war. Clearly the Germans and Italians saw it that way, and tested out their dive bombers and blitzkrieg tactics against Madrid and Guernica. Some analysts see the fight in Lebanon and Gaza today the same way \u2013 they see Islamic reactionary regimes like Iran launching a proxy war not only against Israel, but against the US, against Britain, and against the West.
\nI’m not sure I would push the metaphor that far. I prefer to stay with this central idea: when a democratic republic is battling for survival against the black forces of fascist reaction, socialists are tested.
\nHas the AWL lost its way?<\/strong>
\nIf you oppose Israel in this war, as the AWL does, you have two choices and only two choices:
\nYou can support its enemy, Hizbollah and Hamas, which is the view of the SWP, the Stop the War coalition, and others
\nOr \u2013 you can propose an alternative strategy for the Jewish state and its working class
\nIf the latter, what is your strategy for Israel to survive as an independent state? What would you tell our comrade Amir Peretz to do?
\nI believe that you do not have an alternative strategy, and that what you are doing is talking out of both sides of your mouth, trying not to burn bridges with the various organizations like the SWP with which you have tried repeatedly to form coalitions in the past (remember the ill-fated Socialist Alliance?)
\nYou have your principles \u2013 you support the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their own land \u2013 but you are afraid to become even more unpopular by defending that principle in the real world.
\nWhat is on the table here is an existential threat to the Jewish state, one which is recognized by the overwhelming majority of Israelis (including the peace movement) and by Jews everywhere, including here in Britain.
\nThat existential threat comes from Iran and Syria, two states run by brutal regimes which have killed tens of thousands of their own citizens and which are both committed to the destruction of Israel. You know this. You have talked about this and written about it.
\nBoth states have weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them (long range missiles), both have had nuclear arms programs \u2013 though Iran’s is far more advanced \u2013 and both have been waging war against Israel for decades using proxy armies (terrorist groups). You know this too.
\nBut you choose to ignore what you know, and you refuse to act upon your principles. The Jewish state faces the threat of annihilation by Islamo-fascist organizations that have sworn to do exactly that. But you act as if this is not happening \u2013 and you call upon Israel, and only Israel, to halt its attacks.
\nConclusion<\/strong>
\nWhen Serbia launched its genocidal campaign against the Kosovars, the Left was tested. Here in Britain, the AWL played a magnificent role telling the truth \u2013 and nearly alone at that. Going so far as to say that surgical strikes by Nato against Serb forces might be justified.
\nThe Left was tested after the fall of the Saddam regime when reactionary, Baathist and Islamist forces attempted to break the back of the emerging Iraqi trade unions. The AWL stood up in defense of the elementary principle of working class solidarity \u2013 and found itself alone among the revolutionary Left organizations in doing so.
\nBut when Hizbollah and Hamas launched unprovoked aggression against Israeli, backed by the fascists in Tehran and Damascus, you chose to participate in pro-Hizbollah demonstrations, and to produce a cowardly leaflet denouncing Israel in the headline, not even calling on Hizbollah and Hamas to stop their aggression.
\nIt was not your finest moment, comrades.<\/em>
\nSometimes we take unpopular stands because we have to.
\nThis is a critical moment for the left. We are being tested by events. We must have the courage to say what we truly believe, no matter how unpopular.
\nWe don’t pick up new members this way, we don’t sell more newspapers this way, we don’t make friends to our \u201cleft\u201d and we don’t build new versions of the Socialist Alliance, but this is something we must do.
\nBecause telling the truth \u2013 even when it is unpopular — is what makes us socialists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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