Israel's friends have moved left to right

Young people find this hard to imagine, but Israel once looked to the leftists of the world for support -- and the leftists of the world considered Israel a progressive nation. Modern Israel began its life in 1948 with strong socialist credentials. The words "Labour" and "Zionist" went together naturally, and socialists of every kind took a friendly interest; the kibbutz experiment, for example, was watched with admiration and curiosity wherever egalitarian idealists dreamt of new social forms. Young Gentiles who considered themselves progressive often went to Israel to work as volunteers.

Harry Truman, an American president now revered by liberals, was quick to recognize Israel at its founding. On the extreme left, the Soviet Union supported Israel as a way of undercutting British imperialism. The Labour foreign secretary in Britain, Ernest Bevin, didn't welcome Israel, but he and his colleagues were exceptions.

Since then, friendship for Israel has migrated from the left to the right. Now its angriest critics are all on the left, and its most enthusiastic supporter is a man the left despises, George W. Bush. As David Frum explains in The Right Man, Bush sees supporters of Palestinian bombers, including Yasser Arafat, as terrorists, therefore America's enemies. He views Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's response to Palestinian killings as understandable. Bush apparently sees, as few non-Israelis do, that Israel can't afford to lose this war. Syria can lose three wars and remain Syria, but Israelis sense that any war threatens the existence of their state. Their first defeat, they imagine, will be their last. That's why they re-affirmed Sharon's leadership in the election this week. His policies, while imperfect, are their best hope.

At this point Israel desperately needs foreign friendship, of the kind that doesn't depend on Israel's acceptance of the advice that outsiders so lavishly provide. In the 1990s Israel did what the world demanded. It decided to believe that the Palestinian leaders were serious about peace. The result was calamity, for both Israelis and Palestinians.

But of course, friendship shouldn't mean approval of Israel's every action; it should mean giving Israel the benefit of the doubt. The left, in Europe and North America, prefers to give Palestinians the benefit of the doubt. What was once assumed friendship has turned into automatic suspicion.

Israelis often accuse European socialists of abandoning them for the sake of Arab oil. François Mitterrand was Israel's great friend until, as president, he decided France needed the Arabs more. But emotion may be a more important cause. From a distance, at least, Israel looks to the left like an oppressor. The Jewish state was apparently considered admirable till 1967, when it decisively won the Six-Day War. Then it appeared too triumphant, too much like a power; too much, in fact, like a real state.

This explains the attitudes of the left (and left Liberals) in Canada, where oil is not an issue. To Canadian leftists, Israel looks like part of the hated American empire. Israel, in fact, could easily reclaim leftist support in this country by becoming anti-American. Better, if Washington became anti-Israel, our leftists would discover a multitude of Israeli virtues that now go unnoticed.

As it is, the Canadian left ignores the fact that Israel remains the only Middle East country trying to live by principles the left claims to embrace, including freedom of speech, religion, sexuality, and collective bargaining. Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe noted in January the consensus among NDP leadership candidates: "Israel is the party's villain and the Palestinians the heroes, except, of course, for passing criticism of suicide bombers." Those who helped Jack Layton become leader included Svend Robinson, who has tried hard to become Arafat's best Canadian friend. (That may be the most bizarre political stance in Canada, since Robinson is a gay activist and the Palestinian Authority subjects gays to jail and torture; about 600 gay Palestinian refugees are said to be living underground in Tel Aviv.)

Prime Minister Golda Meir, an old socialist, was one of the first Israelis to understand that left-wing support was capricious at best. Howard M. Sachar tells the story in Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History (1999). During the Yom Kippur war of 1973, when Israel was fighting off a surprise attack by Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, European nations not only refused to help, they closed their airports to American planes resupplying Israel. Golda Meir felt betrayed. After the war she told Willy Brandt, the socialist chancellor of Germany: "I need to know what possible meaning socialism can have when not a single Socialist country in all of Europe was prepared to come to the aid of the only democratic nation in the Middle East."

At a Socialist International meeting in January, 1974, she asked her "old comrades, long-standing friends" where they were when she needed them. "We are only a tiny Jewish state and there are over 20 Arab states with vast territories, endless oil and billions of dollars, but what I want to know is whether these things are decisive factors in Socialist thinking?"

Another jem from the National Post

During the Yom Kippur war of 1973, when Israel was fighting off a surprise attack by Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, European nations not only refused to help, they closed their airports to American planes resupplying Israel. Golda Meir felt betrayed. After the war she told Willy Brandt, the socialist chancellor of Germany: "I need to know what possible meaning socialism can have when not a single Socialist country in all of Europe was prepared to come to the aid of the only democratic nation in the Middle East."

No one gave her an answer.

Middle East list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

Actually this became pretty obvious to me back in 1967, when Israel was attacked from all directions and looked as if it were about to go under. At the university where I was teaching at the time, only two of us signed a pro-Israel petition, myself and a Jewish friend of mine.

All my life Israel and the Jews have been progressive, but whenever the crunch has come they have NEVER enjoyed any genuine support from progressives. Lip-service, sure, but not real support in the crunch.

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