Israel's Left

[The Jay]

Hey everybody. This is pretty cool.



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[feather canyons]

Very interesting. Thanks very much.

[Geiseric]

Wow that was something. I wish they had more footage of the demonstrations. But that wall scene was nuts.

[Positivist]

Ahh this sounds interesting but my kindle won't load the videos. What are they named?

[James Connolly]

Wow, and here I thought all Israels were Imperialists. Well not specifically I, just some users on RevLeft that I've had recent and not-so-recent discussions with.

[jookyle]

The Israeli left is much stronger and bigger than western media outlets would ever admit to or show. The Israeli left holds massive protests and demonstrations all the time. Their opposition however, is just strong and has more sympathy from the rest of the world.

[Permanent Revolutionary]

Wow, and here I thought all Israels were Imperialists. Well not specifically I, just some users on RevLeft that I've had recent and not-so-recent discussions with.

Har de har

[cynicles]

The Israeli left is much stronger and bigger than western media outlets would ever admit to or show. The Israeli left holds massive protests and demonstrations all the time. Their opposition however, is just strong and has more sympathy from the rest of the world.
Does this left support armed struggle? I've only seen a small minority of Israelis on the radical left and we all know there is a big difference between just the 'left' and the radical left.

[jookyle]

Does this left support armed struggle? I've only seen a small minority of Israelis on the radical left and we all know there is a big difference between just the 'left' and the radical left.

All I can say to that is that I have family members in Israel who have told there have been violant clashes between the left and the police in which the left very much fought back. As to whether or not the movement as a whole or majority is militant or planning to do so I can't say. I doubt anyone who isn't directly in the movement would be able to say so one way or another.

[cynicles]

All I can say to that is that I have family members in Israel who have told there have been violant clashes between the left and the police in which the left very much fought back. As to whether or not the movement as a whole or majority is militant or planning to do so I can't say. I doubt anyone who isn't directly in the movement would be able to say so one way or another.
Well I suppose fighting the cops is a step up.

[Luís Henrique]

Does this left support armed struggle? I've only seen a small minority of Israelis on the radical left and we all know there is a big difference between just the 'left' and the radical left.

The difference between radical left and "left", however, isn't the difference between the left that "supports armed struggle" and the one that does not.

Luís Henrique

[Luís Henrique]

yes some left are just liberals or zionist left,as opposed to anti zionist left.

... ..

In Israel, as in any place in the world, the distinction between who is and who isn't leftist in public discourse isn't a privilege of the left itself, but is greatly influenced by the right, particularly by those sectors in the right that own mass communication media. So yes, what is presented to us as Israeli "left" may include sectors that the Israeli establishment considers "left" but we don't, or shouldn't.

But the line between what we consider "left" and what we don't shouldn't be defined by an abstract adherence to undefined "armed struggle". Many reformist groupings do "support armed struggle", both in practice and in the abstract, which doesn't make them any bit revolutionary. And many revolutionary groupings work in a situation in which "armed struggle" is impossible in practice - and I would say, this is the case in Israel, for the Israeli left at least. So trying to distinguish between a revolutionary left and a reformist left in Israel on the issue of "armed struggle" is trying to reduce the distinction to an abstraction, that cannot be measured in practice (and, I fear, it just tends to reinforce the view of the Israeli society as something without internal conflict, a monolithic reactionary bloc that cannot be fight against from within).

Luís Henrique