When socialists liked Israel
From the International Socialist Review of 1970, Constance Weissman on the children of the kibbutz, newly added to the Marxist Internet Archive.
Contested Terrain
Platform against AntisemitismStatement on Anti-Semites and their Collaborators
From Rose City Antifa and Portland Anti-Racist Action
Recent events have highlighted the fact that anti-Semitic organizers in Portland, Oregon are relying on “Leftist” spaces and groups to tolerate their efforts and ideology.
On Wednesday, June 10, Valdas Anelauskas, a self-described “white separatist” who is involved with Holocaust-denial circles, gave a presentation to a group of sympathizers in Portland, Oregon. The event was sponsored by the Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance, and was initially scheduled to take place at the Laughing Horse Book & Video Collective.
Members of Rose City Antifascists (”Antifa”) -the Portland affiliate of the Anti-Racist Action Network-were among those who contacted Laughing Horse Books about the scheduled event. The Laughing Horse collective canceled the anti-Semitic event within 48 hours of being notified about its true nature. Subsequently the Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance moved Anelauskas’ talk-on the topic of “The Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism”-to a secondary venue, which was also discovered by Antifa and then persuaded to cancel on the day of the event. Unfortunately, Anelauskas’ talk then went ahead at a third venue, a restaurant obviously booked at the last minute.
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Fear and loathing
The first time I joined the struggle for Palestinian rights was at a rally in Trafalgar Square in 2002. Here was a place that I could be anonymous yet stand up in solidarity for what I believed in. I watched in horror, however, as the reactions unfolded to an Israeli-Jewish peace activist who took the platform. ‘The occupation is terror!’ she said. ‘It breeds despair in the hearts of young Palestinian boys and girls. But the suicide bombings are not helping the Palestinian struggle. Whoever is sending these kids – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Tanzim – plays into the hands of Sharon.’
At this, a group of young Muslim fundamentalists, some of them with empty toilet rolls strapped around their stomachs like dynamite, surged forward throwing bottles at the podium and chanting, ‘Scud, Scud, Israel! Gas, Gas, Tel Aviv!’ and in Arabic – ‘Death to Jews’. I was even more horrified to see that woman struggle on with her speech, unsupported. No-one sitting on the platform raised a finger to challenge such blatant racism. When she stepped down, the Chair took the microphone from her, commenting: ‘Well not all of us agree with the last speaker…’
The overwhelming feeling that I got from the mainstream British Left that day was not so much solidarity with the Palestinians as virulent hostility towards Israel, and by extension towards anyone who didn’t express shame to be Jewish or utterly reject a Jewish state.
Hat tip to Uri Gordon
Notes on Moishe Postone in London
Anti-capitalist discourse has become personal. Moishe Postone, Professor in the University of Chicago’s History Department, is an intellectual historian who explains this well. …
His presentation at SOAS on June 15th outlined with great clarity the origins of the weaknesses of thought on the radical left which are preventing it from reckoning with antisemitism. He explains difficulties both universalist and particularist ways of looking at the world have had accommodating Jews since the rise of Fascism in the ’30s. This is not an optimistic presentation, but it does set out and clarify our problem: radical anti-capitalist critique has taken up antisemitic ways of thinking.
Mira provides her notes here.
Hal Draper: How to Defend Israel (1948)
the attack upon the Jews’ right to self-determination comes from a deeply reactionary social class – the Arab lords – whose reactionary aims in this case are not alleviated by the fact that they themselves suffer from the exploitation of British imperialism (at the same time that they cling to that imperialism in order to defend their privileges against their own people).In this conflict, as socialists – that is, as the only thoroughgoing and consistent democrats, we not only support the Palestine Jews’ right to self-determination but draw the necessary conclusions from that position: for full recognition of the Jewish state by our own government; for lifting the embargo on arms to Israel; for defense of the Jewish state against the Arab invasion in the present circumstances.But for us this is not the end of the question but only the beginning.
“Anti-Racist” Antisemitism II
Sandwiched between the attempted Synagogue bombings in New York City and a deadly shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, a self-described leftist is proclaiming the post-antisemitism era.
How? By instrumentalizing anti-racism. “Anti-oppression theory,” identifies “oppression” as “prejudice plus power.” That is, although Jews encounter prejudice, it is not backed up by a system of power reinforcing it, the author claims. The conclusion: “Jews are not an equity-seeking group.”
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Obama’s Selective Memory, and the Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries
In response to Obama’s talk in Cairo, a NY Times Op-Ed piece asks why Obama never mentioned the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
In “The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention“, Andre Aciman writes:
The president never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about any of the other 800,000 or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century. With all his references to the history of Islam and to its (questionable) “proud tradition of tolerance” of other faiths, Mr. Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.
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Contested Terrain Reloaded
This website is going through some changes.
Up to this point, it has been a single person project, to collect relevant resources on the topic of antisemitism, and to blog about contemporary news and events. In the last few years, there has been a growing opposition on the radical Left to antisemitism. Hoping to foster communication and collaboration, the website will become a multi-user platform. Therefore, you will begin seeing contributions from a variety of people and perspectives from the anti-capitalist Left. The transformation is still taking shape, so updates will come in the near future. Thanks for visiting the site!
Please see the ABOUT page for info about the new contributors.
Moishe Postone in London
From Engage:
Reflections on the Antinomies of Capitalist Modernity: History, the Holocaust, and the Left
Moishe Postone Professor in the History Department at the University of Chicago
The author of Time, Labour, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx’s Critical Theory, his research and teaching focus is on critical social theories of capitalist modernity. He is particularly interested in self-reflexive theories of historical context — theories that seek to grasp social, economic, and cultural processes in ways that illuminate the relation of such processes to the theories themselves. His work also focuses on the problematic of modern anti-Semitism and questions of history, memory, and identity in postwar Germany, as well as on the issue of the global transformations of the past three decades and their implications for understanding the historical trajectory of the 20th century.
‘History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism’ by Moishe Postone is available for free download on the Engage website here
This event is co-hosted by the Unit for Global Justice at Goldsmiths and the Centre for Jewish Studies at SOAS
Event to be held at 7.00pm, Monday 15 June 2009,
Room G50,
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Greek Leftists Oppose Left Antisemitism
From the Greek “Terminal 119 collective” in Thessaloniki, Greece:
Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism
A week ago we wrote a text with the title “Is Anti-Semitism going to achieve what truncheons did not?”, noting that an evident anti-Semitism had started being manifested in various places within the country, hidden behind the anti-Zionist veil of opposition to the bombardments in Gaza. Our main concern in that text was to prevent any kind anti-Semitic outburst in Greece, something that would wash out any right attempts with a direction towards ‘inside’ (the creation of the ‘domestic enemy’), caused by December’s riot 2008 against the Greek state’s structures. While writing that text we could not imagine that we would soon face such a direct realization of the text’s title, something that happened three days ago in front of Larisa’s synagogue, during a rally. While a large group of riot police was standing at one side of the synagogue holding their truncheons, at the other side there was a battle taking place between some people who wanted to remove the Star of David from the synagogue’s entrance and those who wanted to protect it. Indeed, at this specific moment there was no external suppression. The problem was within the rally.
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