It is remarkable how consistently (parts of) the israeli establishment are able to discredit "israel". How frequently do we hear various "pro-israeli establishment" sources nowadays complaining that "the left" is "anti-semitic"? Or at least anti-israeli. These sources seem utterly incapable of "historic" thinking, of remembering that for decades (certainly between 1945 and – at least – 1956, or 1967) "the left" was very strongly "pro-israeli".
At that time "we" considered "israel" as an anti-imperialist cause, particularly anti-british imperialist. And not only sympathy, but practical support came from "the left". Only consistent support for any and every "bad" cause (from the franco-brit attempt to recapture the suez canal for its shareholders, to arming the guatemalan dicatorship, to the apartheid regime in south africa… You name it), – over the years, the decades – you could regularly find (small, distant) israel, propping up, supporting the "baddies"… After many decades eventually made "israel" – once an anti-imperialist state – a bad odor for "the left". =============== a minor example – elbit industries asked me, years ago, in the middle of the bougainville war: "can we sell our patrol boats to papua new guinea ? They (png) need them to more effectively blockade bougainville." i was baffled to think that in far-off haifa anyone was following the distant bougainville war. Where a small, distant, people was fighting against the world’s largest mining corporation – rio tinto – to regain their despoiled land! And that "israel" would – so stupidly want to support not only the "bad", but also the losing, side. I explained, patiently, that i thought it would be a bad idea. (not financially good but also immoral, "wicked" !) That in any case the oz (australian) government was already supplying pacific class patrol boats "for free" and that oz was, all by itself, doing its best to blockade bougainville, kill some 10,000 plus people there, for standing up against rio tinto, stopping the panguna mine. And that i doubted png’s mr. Wingti or chan could be counted on to pay … I think elbit reconsidered and went off to sell guns to fiji, and/or guatemala, etal, and – eventually – georgia. Oh yes, israel, elbit, have, for years, been arming the "georgian" army, air force, – against the ossetians… Ah well.. Max (watts)
Leave Your Comments