Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 28)
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- Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 28)
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Palestine--stands at the cutting edge of the Arab national liber-
ation struggle as a whole.
Support for Israel within the U.S.
Given what is at stake, it is not surprising that the U.S. rul-
ing class has spared no effort to promote support for Israel and
Zionism within the U.S. The primary domestic effect is the con-
tinuing ideological stranglehold of Zionism among Americans,
including the working class and even, to an unfortunate
degree, the progressive movements.
This ideological fetter is not shared by the vast majority of
the world’s peoples. In virtually every other country, the decla-
ration of the United Nations General Assembly that Zionism is
racism is broadly understood and supported as an accurate
depiction of the Jewish exclusivity, anti-Palestinian terrorism,
and attempted destruction of the national existence of the
Palestinian people. Almost three times as many nations recog-
nize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Pales-
tinian people than maintain normal diplomatic relations with
the state of Israel.
Yet broad support and sympathy for Israel flourishes in the
U.S. Zionism is here most concentrated at its sharpest in the
Jewish community. Within that community today, the per-
ceived merger between Jewish interests and those of the
Israeli state is virtually complete. With the emergence of Israel,
Jewish nationalism was transformed from a response to anti-
Semitism to support for an oppressor, racist state. Simultane-
ously American Jews in the post-World War II period have
been socio-economically integrated into the white majority
sector of the U.S. society. And like most other white people,
they have acted in most cases to maintain the privileges they
derive from racism at home and super-exploitation abroad--
including the Middle East.
But Zionism is by no means limited to monopoly capital,
the liberal petit bourgeoisie, or the Jewish community. The
leaders of organized labor--and much of its base--also pride
themselves on an unflinching committment to Israel. Politically
representing only the most privileged sectors of the workforce,
the AFL-CiO consistently supports imperialist ventures around
the world that promise to enhance the «American Way of Life»
enjoyed by its narrow constituency.It supported the war in Viet-
nam to the bitter end, manifests implacable hostility to the
socialist camp up to and including sabotage of arms contro!
talks, and has been a staunch friend of Israel since 1948. Just
days after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the AFL-CIO
executive board placed a full page ad in the New York Times
proclaiming its full support for Zionist expansionism and vic-
iously attacked critics of the invasion.
The reactionary AFL-CIO alliance with U.S. Zionism is
further cemented by their joint hostility to the new thrust of the
anti-racist movement. In defense of white privilege, these
forces play a major role in opposing the struggle for affirmative
action, for full enforcement of Voting Rights, for minority partici-
pation in the Democratic Party, etc.
To such forces, the racist parallels between Israeli and
U.S. society are unmistakeable. Both originated as white Euro-
pean settler states, founded on the decimation by any means
necessary of the indigenous Indian and Palestinian popula-
tions, and both proclaimed «Manifest Destiny» over all sur-
rounding territories to justify their unbridled expansionism.
Both have erected impenetrable racial-national barriers which
ensure privilege for whites and special oppression for non-
whites. And both are champions of imperialism, white supre-
macy and anti-communism in a world increasingly dominated
28
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by non-white peoples fighting for their liberation in conjunction
with the socialist camp. In the Middle East they see themselves
jointly defending «our oil» from «Arab terrorists,» «stopping
the spread of communism» and defending «Western Civiliza-
tion» from the «barbarians.»
Unfortunately, Zionism also penetrates deeply into the
peace and other progressive movements. In the work of build-
ing a broad and multi-faceted movement against U.S.-backed
dictatorships around the world, Israel is almost always exemp-
ted. The everpresent liberal Zionist threat that to challenge
Israeli aggression would «split» the peace movement still
serves to isolate and intimidate even fairly staunch anti-
imperialists. During the Vietnam War,such forces used their
positioning at the center of the anti-War movement to success-
fully isolate those forces who had adopted an anti-Zionist pos-
ition, and to discourage others from ever seriously addressing
the question. Given the strategic importance of the Middle
East, the failure to challenge the U.S. role there is a major
brake on the development of the peace and anti-imperialist
movements within the U.S.
The Zionists have also, less successfully, worked to split
the anti-racist movement. As in the Jesse Jackson campaign,
they actively attempted to brand the left wing of this movement
as anti-Semitic, both over the issues of Israel and over affirma-
tive action, which they claim discriminates against Jews (and
other whites).
In short, Zionism is a fundamental component of
bourgeois ideology in the U.S. that serves to promote war mon-
gering, racism and anti-communism. It is particularly insidious,
though, because this version of racism and _ national
chauvinism finds a «progressive» justification in the «defense
of the national rights of the Jews.» By constantly invoking the
image of the Holocaust, the Zionists seek to intimidate all cri-
tics of its rabidly imperialist, genocidal, and racist policies and
to divert the progressive movement from its central anti-war
and anti-racist tasks.
The fight against Zionism
Given the breadth of the pro-Zionist consensus in the
U.S., who can be counted upon to take up the fight against it?
Here it is instructive to see the degree to which those who
do or do not support Israel parallel almost exactly those who do
and do not maintain class and racial privileges within the U.S.
itself. As the Jesse Jackson campaign showed, the «disen-
franchised and dispossessed», based in the minority com-
munities and encompassing the breadth of the unprivileged,
basic mass of the U.S. proletariat must be viewed as the most - هو جزء من
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