{"id":2992,"date":"2023-10-09T17:23:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T16:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=2992"},"modified":"2023-10-10T13:56:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T12:56:34","slug":"hamas-attack-reveals-a-battle-for-the-soul-of-social-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/hamas-attack-reveals-a-battle-for-the-soul-of-social-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas attack reveals a battle for the soul of social democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog was published on the Times of Israel website.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The war unleashed by Hamas on Saturday morning has shone a spotlight on political movements across the world. In the movement I consider home \u2014 social democracy \u2014 some important divisions have come into the light.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Britain, the leadership of the Labour Party, which this week is holding its annual conference, immediately expressed its support for Israel following Saturday\u2019s attacks. The party\u2019s leader \u2014 and Prime Minister in waiting \u2014 Keir Starmer, could not have been clearer. He tweeted: \u201cI utterly condemn the ongoing attacks on Israel and her citizens. There is no justification for this act of terror which is being perpetrated by those who seek to undermine any chance for future peace in the region. Israel has a right to defend herself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His predecessor as Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was somewhat less forthright, tweeting that \u201cWe need an immediate ceasefire and urgent de-escalation. And we need a route out of this tragic cycle of violence: ending the occupation is the only means of achieving a just and lasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those sentences could serve as a textbook example of \u201cweasel words\u201d. But that may not be fair to weasels. Because reading between the lines \u2014 or just reading the tweet until the end \u2014 it is clear that what Corbyn means is that Israel must \u201cend the occupation\u201d to solve the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should come as no surprise, as Corbyn has previously invited representatives of Hamas to the British Parliament where he called them his \u201cfriends\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar division can be seen on the \u201cdemocratic socialist\u201d wing of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who almost single-handedly created a new American left in his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, tweeted this: \u201cI absolutely condemn the horrifying attack on Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. There is no justification for this violence, and innocent people on both sides will suffer hugely because of it. It must end now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not as strong as what the UK\u2019s Starmer posted, but it will do. In the past, Sanders has spoken out for Israel\u2019s right to self-defence even as some of his supporters showed their disapproval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gap between Sanders and those supporters is certain to grow as the largest organisation on the American left, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has now taken a clear pro-Hamas position. Their members helped organise a number of small demonstrations in American cities on Sunday to show their \u201csolidarity with Palestine\u201d even as Hamas murderers were slaughtering the innocent. One might have expected them to wait until Israel launched its counter-attack (when they could denounce Israel for a \u201cdisproportionate\u201d response) but clearly they were keen to be among the first to denounce the Zionists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DSA, it should be recalled, grew out of organisations which were both anti-Stalinist and pro-Israel. It was only six years ago that the organisation voted to support BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) at one of their annual conventions. That vote was celebrated with chants of \u201cPalestine will be free – from the river to the sea\u201d which should have given us some warning of what would happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other countries, leaders of Social Democratic parties have also expressed their clear support for Israel in this time of need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the leader of Canada\u2019s New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, tweeted that he \u201cstrongly condemns these horrifying attacks by Hamas on Israel. Civilians should never be targeted and all hostages must be released immediately.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany\u2019s Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told the people of Israel that Germany \u201cis on their side\u201d. He added: \u201cIsrael’s security is a German reason of state. This is especially true in difficult times like these.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is good to have the support of leaders like Sanders, Starmer, Singh and Scholz. They are voices of sanity and compassion, friends of Israel in a very dark time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are also voices like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK or the leaders of DSA in the US who hate Israel so much that they cannot conceal their support for those who commit mass murder in broad daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A battle is taking place within the left and it\u2019s important to understand who is upholding the great humanitarian values of that left \u2014 and who is supporting the terrorists of Hamas. This is a battle for the soul of a once-great historic movement \u2014 and it matters to all of us who wins.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog was published on the Times of Israel website. The war unleashed by Hamas on Saturday morning has shone a spotlight on political movements across the world. In the movement I consider home \u2014…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israelgaza","category-times-of-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2992"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2998,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions\/2998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}