Re: The US Left & Palestine

On Sat, 14 Oct 2000 KSamman@aol.com wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> A question to my progressive friends.  Why is the US left so damn silent 
> about the Palestinian issue?  It seems ironic to me that while the US media, 
> in its very biased ways towards Israel, is obsessed with the Middle East, the 
> Left is deadly silent, whispering very few words on the issue.

> Rightfully, 
> whenever injustice occurs in Latin and Central America, China, Eastern and 
> Western Europe and the US, the US Left speaks out loudly, if not on the 
> street at least among themselves.  But why not Palestine?  Why the silence?

A few thoughts:

1)
This claim, directly above, is not true.  The "U.S. Left," no matter how
narrowly or broadly you define it, does not "speak loudly" on all those
issues.  There is no common understanding, for instance, of the nature of
the regimes today in China or the former Soviet Union, or of movements
opposing those regimes.  So "the Left" cannot speak loudly, or at least
not intelligibly, since we would be yelling different things.  But I think
many of our thoughts have not kept pace with the changes in the world
(system), and thus we do not all have clear, strong thoughts on these
matters.  Thus mumbling is more likely than speaking loudly.  (It's hard
to have strong, clear thoughts on everything all the time if you're not
part of a group with a party line, whether a political tendency or a
somewhat dogmatic theoretical tendency.)

2)
Once upon a time, as Alan indicates, there was one tendency in "the
U.S. Left" that took a strong position that the state of Israel was
illegitimate, and supported the establishment of one secular Palestine.

Many things have eroded that reality.  That part of the Left is even
tinier and less influential than it used to be, which was never very large
or influential to begin with.  The reality on the ground in Palestine has
become more and more discouraging over time.  Many have shifted to some
sort of "2-state" position as an accomodation to "reality," and in the
90s that was just following the lead of Arafat and the PLO.

It cannot be said, though, that even with these changes, "the Left" has
entirely abandoned the issue.  The fact that The Nation ran the strong
statement by Edward Said, the Palestine National Council member and
outspoken critic of Oslo since day 1, that is in the latest issue
(www.thenation.com), and which I have been circulating, is evidence.

3)
There is no doubt that intellectuals in the U.S. must have the courage to
withstand the constant charges of "anti-Semitism" that get hurled at
anyone who criticizes Israel.  This is a more-or-less permanent condition,
and it gets wearing after awhile.  It's not an excuse, but it may be part
of an explanation.

4)
Solidarity movements in the U.S. are strongly conditioned by the nature of
the movements they are supporting, for better and worse.  There was much
more activity on the issue of Palestine during the 80s, following the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, than in
the 90s, during the Oslo "peace process."  This is not surprising.

Here is a controversial proposition:  if the Palestinian movement would
change its tactics and strategy, and instead of continuing the "violent
rioting" mode of the latter-day intifadah, complete with brutal acts of
its own in the face of Israeli atrocities, and shift to a mass, concerted
movement of nonviolent resistance, throughout all of "Israel and the
occupied territories," as is suggested, eliptically, in the Said
statement, I believe a powerful solidarity movement would instantaneously
come forward not only in the U.S., but around the world.  Said talks in
terms of a movement that would be comparable to the South African movement
against apartheid, that came to enjoy nearly universal moral support
around the world, and which came to include the boycotts and trade
sanctions that apparently had a significant effect in bringing apartheid
to an end (see the work of Kathleen Schwartzmann on this question).  The
talk of "war" is absurd -- it should be clear by now that the Palestinian
movement is not going to prevail militarily.

Lacking any such changes, I think many, and perhaps I should only speak
for myself, see the Palestinian movement at an impasse, and "more of the
same" just does not seem likely to succeed, therefore is not something, of
all the injustices in the world, to elevate to a top priority for praxis.

I now brace myself for the critical onslaught...

Richard Hutchinson
now residing in remote Ogden, Utah