The international left should do this that and the next thing

NOVANEWS

Is there anything to say about Yossi Gurvitz’s temper tantrum other than to note the simple, irreducible, and brazen dishonesty of it? Gurvitz claims that the “international left” hasn’t “supported” the J14 protests. Save for later the question of “support,” as though the protesters are like little lapdogs waiting for their meat-treat from the international left. Actually most neither read nor speak English and have their energies directed where it matters most: within their society, in their own language. But take “support” to mean “see potential for change.” Let’s take some anti-Zionist leftists: Gabriel Ash? Yup.Tony Greenstein? Yup. Socialist Worker? Yup. MRZine/ZMag/Truthout? Yup – they’re the ones who published my article (something of which the +972 collective is aware). Ooh here’s a big one: theARAB run Jadaliyya? Yup, with brilliant interventions from all sides.

Gurvitz’s spasm doesn’t deserve an extended rebuttal of any kind, and I am sick of repeating myself. There is more potential in J14 that in any other protest in Israeli history. That may not be saying much, but it’s saying more than can be said about Israeli social protests in decades. Still. Us saps, stuck in our terrestrial fetters, have to wait for history to happen – in this case, cross our fingers that the evolution of the tent protests takes them to the point where they can do something to combat the dual levels of Israeli power, intra-communally on a class level with an internal intra-Jewish color bar and inter-communally on a national level: the apartheid system with which Israel controls and crushes the Palestinian future. Yes, some of us are so stupid as to hope, and even to continue to hope as the declining bourgeoisie Ashkenazi organizers on Rothschild refuse to raise the occupation even though the occupation will surely raise itself at some point.

In the interim, we do what we can to make history. Our agency lies in continuing to submit Israel to external pressure, aware that the Zionist left has a long history of reneging on its promises and that when it reneges on those promises, the cost of reneging is measured in Palestinian widows who are sad forever and Palestinian lives that are stunted in perpetuity and we do not consider that a price worth paying in exchange for the eidolon of change historically represented by the Zionist left. So while aware that the J14 protests represent a socio-political wormhole into a different world in which the Israeli lower-class mobilizes on a class basis against the stunting of their own lives that Israeli capitalism, the Israeli state, Israeli militarism, the occupation that is the spawn of all of them, and finally the Atlantic imperium that was the crucial crucible for Israeli mayhem and the destruction of Palestinian society, we do not know if they will enter that wormhole. It may close. And the price of popping out our pompoms and cheering for the Israeli left, Zionist and anti-Zionist alike, is that it could crucially weaken the BDS campaign and other forms of external pressure we are carefully building and cultivating. The anti-Zionist radicals understand our conflict and don’t complain. They work. And I’ll be sententious and thank them for their work.

But hello Yossi. We have work too. There are still European and American leftists – and not “leftists,” real leftists – who are confused about Israel and do not consider Zionism and the founding of Israel a crime, and frankly from time to time we have our hands full simply carrying out the education that can help the left shake off the residual Zionism that cripples and burdens it. That is work that needs to be done and that takes priority over the “solidarity” for which Gurvitz pleads.

So while many of us “support” J14 (whatever that means), we kind of expect you to make a revolution and then we will distribute treats and sweetmeats and whatever it is you would like. If this solidarity is found lacking, so be it. We find your revolution in certain ways lacking. Most relevantly, it hasn’t even happened yet.

PS: I have just been informed that Gurvitz was referring to Joseph Dana and Max Blumenthal especially. I wasn’t aware they were international leftists. Dana is Israeli and Blumenthal is in Israel consistently enough to muddle his position. Please address your criticisms to real targets in the future.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestine, Zionism

Related posts:

1. get it together 972 I am writing something long and soci­o­log­i­cally intricate on the…

2. on requests for #j14 solidarity There is a certain notion among artic­u­late opinion on the…

3. International Women’s Peace Service Inter­na­tional Human Rights Vol­un­teers Needed in Palestine The  Inter­na­tional  Women’s Peace Service…

4. International Day of Solidarity in Gaza greeted with more bullets in Beit Hanoun Adie Mormech reports live from Gaza 1st December 2010 Live bullets…

5. The ADL’s Top Ten List: ISM made it The Anti-Defamation League has created a list of the top…