An Age of Monsters: Israel and Britain

We are now in the age of monsters – just as Antonio Gramsci warned 100 years ago.

After the events of October 7^th last year, we have witnessed the mass slaughter in Gaza carried out by the Israeli terror state. Official estimates of those murdered are well over 40,000 – many, many thousands more buried under the rubble, 2 million displaced, that is 90% of the population.

Mass bombings of hospitals, schools, refugee camps. The destruction of the healthcare and education systems. Starvation used by Israel as a means of waging war – and children dying of diseases such as polio. The targeting of UN peacekeepers and the trashing of international law. Political assassinations. The whole of Gaza has been pulverised. And despite all of this, Israel has not won in Gaza. Its myth of military invincibility was destroyed on October 7^th 2023. Its political war aims – of destroying Hamas – are unachievable.

Almost a thousand murdered in the West Bank – no Hamas control there. Then Lebanon, more than 2,000 killed, one million, a fifth of the population, displaced. And now Iran and the Houthis in Yemen, Syria too. The region is on fire. World War 3 is closer than at any time in over 60 years. And all this in the context of climate crisis which the pulverisation of Gaza has only made worse.

History did not start on October 7^th

We have no time today for detailed analysis of the October 7^th events. I think we should have a full discussion very soon. What we can say is that history did not begin on October 7^th, that the context is well over 100 years of colonisation, that the dispossessed Palestinians have shown immense forbearance – that it is remarkable there have not been more October 7ths.

And what followed was the Israeli response of ethnic cleansing. It was genocide. It has been described as the first livestream genocide in history. Genocide carried out under the gaze of the world, with the complicity of the so-called ‘civilised’ West – above all, the United States whose government could stop this tomorrow if it wanted to – by stopping arms sales and cutting off financial aid to Israel. But Israel is the bulwark for international capital, which is why its genocide is tolerated and supplied with weapons.

And its actions have been carried out with the full support here of our Labour government – not just political support but important intelligence and surveillance support too. It started with Starmer’s defence of Israel cutting off power and water from Gaza – and now his pledge to never stop selling weapons to Israel.

This massacre is what Israel is and what it does. For those who would like to see a different reality, a different Israel, I can only say: apartheid Israel is the only Israel on offer – born of ethnic cleansing and dispossession of Palestinians from even before the state came into existence. Another Israel is not possible!

And for those who desire another Zionism, perhaps the cultural Zionism of Martin Buber, let’s spell out the brutal truth. That ship has sailed – many decades ago. What we see today is the only Zionism on offer. Another Zionism is not possible!

JVL warned

Tragically our warnings – since JVL began its work – have been proven to be only too true. Though if anything our warnings were understated.

We warned against the weaponisation of antisemitism.

We challenged the view that Palestinian resistance – including Hamas resistance – is motivated by antisemitism rather than anti-colonialism – that facile view that Palestinians hate Jews as Jews rather than fighting Israeli Jews as colonisers who have stolen their land, as their jailers, their torturers, their murderers.

We challenged the lies that Labour under Corbyn was overrun by so-called left antisemitism. We explained that this campaign was waged by two intersecting forces.

First the British establishment, acting through its direct representatives in the Parliamentary Labour Party who feared – and were determined to prevent – a radical Labour government under Jeremy.

And secondly, the various Zionist organisations, often well implanted in the British establishment, and in the PLP, facing the nightmare of a Corbyn government that supported the struggle of the Palestinians.

These two forces were separate but also closely connected.

And with Corbyn removed, it has now come to pass. Now we can see what it was, and is, all about – the justifying of Israel’s genocidal brutality in the name of fighting antisemitism.

Labour government in crisis

In just over three months, the Labour government here is already in crisis. And not just about Israel.

Many of us warned that a Starmer government, faithful to the interests of British and global capital, stuck in a neo-liberal economic framework, and coming to office in a period of acute economic crisis, would try to solve the crisis of capitalism by attacking the living standards of the working class. And so it has.

Yes, there has been some protection of workers’ and renters’ rights – though they are very limited, diluted, ambiguous and delayed. But the government’s refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap, the removal of the winter fuel allowance, its attack on civil and human rights, of our right to speak out on Palestine, are very worrying signs.

And we warned about the leadership’s previous attacks on inner party democracy and free speech, its imposition of election candidates, its closing down of constituency parties, its suspensions and expulsions. All these are continuing now with suspensions from the PLP for those who fail to toe the Starmer line.  I fear that the party’s very existence as a party of labour, capable of representing the interests of the labour movement at any level, is now at stake.

We are not there yet – but it is possible that we are in a period of the death agony of the Labour Party.

We warned that one of the consequences of a Labour government attacking the living standards and human rights of the people could be to accelerate the growth of the far right. With Farage and the Reform UK MPs, as well as a fast moving right Tory Party – they, the far right, already have standard bearers in Parliament.

Reform UK obtained a vote which was 40% of Labour’s. The growth of the far right is a global problem – and it is so certainly in Europe. I have little doubt that this potential car crash of a Labour government will accelerate the process in Britain.

And remember just how fragile Labour’s electoral base is – fewer votes for Labour than even 2019, and both fewer votes and a lower percentage vote than 2017. Labour did not so much win the 2024 election as the Tories lost it. And so soon after the General Election, council by-election results show Labour is already losing seats and suffering substantial negative vote swings.

So what is our role as JVL?

When we started it was clear. To support – critically at times – the Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party, to challenge the lies about the scale of antisemitism in the party, and to visibly demonstrate the fact that for many Jews, Israel does not speak in our name.

Our orientation has had to change. There is no longer the space to work in the Labour Party for it to be our main focus.

So what are our tasks?  Well, these will be discussed by the JVL in the coming months and, of course in the breakout groups today. So from me, just some suggestions.

First, to continue to tell the truth – always, whether it goes with the mainstream thinking of the left or not. To speak truth even when it means going against the stream. We have always done this – and that is the main reason why we are trusted and respected by so many.

Our second task is to continue to deal with difficult issues and debates in a spirit of comradeship and mutual respect. Within the officers’ group there has been remarkable agreement on the main issues we have had to face – on the weaponisation of antisemitism, the nature of the Israeli state, support for BDS and the call on our government to stop arming genocide. At most there have been small differences of emphasis or formulation.

But there have been issues – very important, but secondary to those main issues I have enumerated – where we have had disagreements over the last few months.

The first was on the proposed name change from Jewish Voice for Labour – a discussion caused by the degeneration of the Labour Party.  At a special general meeting we decided to retain our name. I think that was a correct decision – for the moment. I hope we will not revisit the debate in the immediate future – but it is an issue that clearly won’t go away.

Another issue is whether we retain our self-definition as ‘non-Zionist’ or change to be explicitly ‘anti-Zionist’. I think that change is necessary but I also accept that to have this debate while Gaza and the Middle East is burning would be too inward looking, a form of navel gazing. But again, it is an issue that won’t go away – with the state of Israel a pariah state among millions throughout the world – though of course not to many of their governments.

Our third task is to build and strengthen our links with like-minded Jewish organisations – in this country, with the Jewish bloc – and internationally, such as our role in helping to develop Global Jews for Palestine.

Fourth, to step up our work on BDS. Divestment is happening. The boycott movement is growing. The crisis of the Israeli economy is deepening. Genocide doesn’t come cheap.

Finally, to help rebuild the left in this country – so much easier said than done.

What has happened with the Labour Party is not business as usual. It is not just a swing of the pendulum, today right wing, tomorrow left wing. Some argue that resurgent class struggle will always find expression in the Labour Party. I have argued that most of my life. But we must be careful not to repeat old slogans in new conditions. Starmer and co could well finally destroy the party as a party of labour in the coming period.

But I am also wary of small groups declaring themselves to be the alternative party of the left. In my lifetime I have come across too many of these, rather too often.

We need to do two things at the same time. To continue our political intransigence on the fundamental issues – and to seek to build and strengthen alliances, wherever we can. One thing is for sure. In the coming period the centre of struggle will not be in the Labour Party. It will be in the unions and beyond – in the campaigns on climate change, for Palestine and on so many other issues.

New parties arise not through the will or best intentions of individuals – but from movements – mass movements – from below.

Truly an Age of Monsters

But this is the dilemma. A movement on the streets cannot just stay in the streets. It needs political expression. And if the Labour Party cannot be saved, that would mean a new party. But a new party depends on building a mass movement of resistance. It also means engaging with, and including, the thousands of socialists still in the Labour Party and the millions who still cling to Labour to keep the Tories out.

At the General Election, the results were as good as they reasonably could have been for the left. Firstly, the wiping out of the Tories, meaning that the resistance that must be built will come up against a Labour government, with the Tories out of the equation – in my opinion the best condition in which to develop any alternative to the Labour Party. And secondly the victory of those independents with a real base in their communities. Above all, Jeremy Corbyn’s magnificent victory in Islington. But a word of caution. Leave aside our attitude to the Greens – yes, we do have disagreements there. But no left party won a seat whatever their proclamations of being the left alternative to Labour.

Going back to Gramsci, he explained that this was the age of monsters – because the old world was dying and a new world was struggling to be born. That struggle for a new world, in a nutshell, is our struggle.

So, does JVL still have a role?

Definitely, yes.

In these uncertain times, in this ever more dangerous world, perhaps more than ever.