Middle East Archive | Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism
The June 1967 war has placed the Jews who live outside Israel very acutely before the problem of their relation to the state of Israel and to Zionism in general. Since the war, the Zionist establishment has been trying, more than ever before, to create national unanimity, not only among the Jews living in Israel, but also among world Jewry. The aim of this policy at this stage is to mobilize all the possible support – economic, political and ideological – in order to keep the “fruit” of the June 1967 war: annexation of more territories, oppression of the Palestinian population of those territories, transformation of Israel into the principal ally of American imperialism in the Middle East
However, great changes have occurred in the world since then. The general strike in France in May 1968 and die Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of the same year shook the international status quo and the relative calm in the international class struggle. These two events demonstrated that the Soviet bureaucracy as well as international imperialism are in deep trouble. The crisis is deepening in all the countries of western and central Europe, in the countries under the rule of Soviet bureaucracy and in the United States. The struggle against the Vietnam war, the aggravation of the Black question and the economic difficulties of American imperialism all point to the depth of the crisis in the United States.
Any crisis of this sort raises the Jewish question anew. Any aggravation of the international class struggle brings about an aggravation of the Jewish problem. The renewal of anti-Semitism, both in the East and West, demonstrates once more that the Jewish question is an international one that can be solved only through fundamental changes in the international political and economic system. The history of the last few decades has shown that capitalism, which finds itself in an unsolvable crisis, is incapable of solving the Jewish problem. The most painful proof of this was World War II and Nazi barbarism. At the same time proof was given that Zionism was no solution to the Jewish problem either. Zionism, in a new way, put the Jews living in Israel in a situation of impossible conflict with their environment, with the Palestinian people, with tens of millions of Arabs. Zionism created a new ghetto where no normal society could develop, but where there grows a society built upon permanent ties with international imperialism, founded on considerable economic help, on another people’s oppression, on periodic wars, on hate and on a constant danger of extermination.
The international political and economic crisis as well as the crisis of Zionism raise once again the alternative before the Jews of the whole world since the beginning of this century: support of decadent capitalism in general and of Zionism in particular, bringing tragedy and catastrophe to mankind as a whole and to Jews in particular, or support to the world socialist struggle – the only solution to the very crucial problems of our world. An important portion of Jewish youth in the world has already joined the ranks of Revolution, together with the youth in their respective countries, the working class and the oppressed masses, in a common struggle against international imperialism, in a common struggle for the social and political revolution, which is the necessity of our epoch. Another portion of Jewish youth still has not found its way.
Zionism is trying to enlist you in its ranks. To give way to Zionism today is to serve reaction in a double way. To begin with, the ranks of youth, the working class and the oppressed masses struggle to change society. For you to stand on the side of Zionism, to be enlisted in the service of Zionist policies, is to weaken the forces of revolution in your own countries. On the other hand, help to Zionism which oppresses and denies the rights of another people leads the Jewish masses into a new holocaust
The decision is in your hands. Remember that there is no solution – not for the Jews in Israel, not for you, Jews of the world – aside from a world socialist revolution. Remember that your support of Zionism is a support of the very political and social framework that made the Jewish tragedy, as well as many other tragedies, possible. Remember that the only real help you can give the Jewish masses living in Israel is by struggling in your own countries against reaction, against decadent capitalism, for socialism. Only such a struggle can bring us closer to the prospect of world-wide social change, reinforce revolutionary forces in the Middle East and add to the chances of a common struggle of Jews and Arabs for a new society built on national and social equality.
Remember, it is up to you!
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Last updated on 19.8.2006