How the Jewish Communist Left Failed the Palestinian Cause
JVL Introduction
Veteran civil rights activist Dorothy Zellner casts a critical eye at the Communist left at the time of the establishment of the state of Israel.
The turning point was, of course, the speech of Russian delegate to the United Nations, Andrei Gromyko on 14 May 1947, when he suddenly announced to the UN General Assembly that, while the Soviet Union still supported a single state in principle, it would in practice support an alternative solution.
There was only one alternative on the table – a Jewish state.
The Zionist community in the US was overjoyed, the Communist left dumbfounded – but of course went along with it.
What exactly the USSR hoped to achieve – to undermine British imperialism? – is the subject of some speculation by historians, but it certainly was a misreading of the emergent structures of imperial power in the post-war world. In any event, it didn’t work out well for the USSR.
Nor for the American left which continues to this day to be plagued by the description and often the reality of being “Progressive except for Palestine”.
Nor of course for the Palestinians who continue to this day to pay the price for this opportunistic turn…
This article was originally published by Jewish Currents on Wed 12 May 2021. Read the original here.
What We Did: How the Jewish Communist Left Failed the Palestinian Cause
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What a desperately sad – as well as appalling – tale. Has anyone done any similar research on the way the CPGB behaved around the same time. And other European CPs?
All communist parties, without exception, behaved in the same way. That includes the strong Arab communist parties. Stalin destroyed most of the base of the Arab CPs as a result of this lunatic and chauvinist decision.
Just as Stalinism effectively put Hitler in power with its 3rd position policy in Germany that the SPD were ‘social fascists’ ie no different from the Nazis, so they did the same over Israel. Utterly crazy and, as always dictated not by the needs of the international working class but by the needs of the Soviet bureaucracy.
In the case of Germany this was compounded by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. Despite Stalinists rationalising this as a defensive measure it was anything but. Stalin returned hundreds of German communists to Hitler’s tender mercies to show Hitler his good will.
This is why the ‘democratic centralism’ practised by groups like the SWP inevitably leads to the most horrendous and reactionary results because it destroys democracy in the party and wider movement. In the SWP’s case it caused the hemorrhaging of members as a result of the rape scandal in 2012/13.
The whole map of the Middle East could have been different as strong communist parties could have been in a position to challenge the reactionary Arab leaders on whom Israel has relied ever since.
Nathan Weinstock’s book “Zionism: False Messiah” (Ink Links, 1979) pages 263-265 has an account of the USSR’s attitude to the establishment of Israel post WWII. He says that Gromyko’s support at the General Assembly followed several signs from 1945 onwards that the line of the USSR was changing. He says they were hoping that Israel would be an ally in the region and that they miscalculated the strength of the ties between Zionism and the US government. Weinstock also supports the view that the position was “followed blindly by the local Communist parties, which discredited the Arab Communists among the masses” and the USSR delegate to the Security Council on March 4th 1949 also “flatly denied Israel’s responsibility for the tragedy of the refugees”.
I’m a bit confused about the “What if?” discussion in the article above. Surely the USSR could have vetoed the establishment of Israel in the Security Council if it had not taken these positions?