Masked off by our own reading and research habits as well as general busyness with information is the history of Russian and Soviet anti-Semitism and its influence throughout the political campus of the Left and Far Left to this day.
There are many portals today through which to pick up on the history of Soviet anti-Semitism, Soviet-supported terrorism, and the relationship of the Soviet to the International and Palestinian Solidarity organizations and their radical movements. I usually — and here may — blog such links as the following:
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/backiss/vol3/no4/revcamp.html
Where the focus is narrowed to influence of the Soviet on Middle Eastern politics and on Islam, one will find reported by Pacepa the Soviet’s massive promotion of anti-Semitism in the Arab sphere.
Although Putin’s stance has been steadily (and may be described as) “anti- anti-Semitism”, the seeds sown by the Soviet and latent in much of the Arab world but perhaps less than imagined have brought us to this day where a professed moderate candidate has nonetheless some history with immoderate souls.
The circulation of Sohrab Ahmari’s May 4 piece in The Wall Street Journal on London mayor Sadiq Khan provided inspiration for the comment. Conservative ranks questioned the prudence of electing a leftward winging candidate with radical acquaintance, at least, in his past:
The former lawyer has vowed to be “the British Muslim who takes the fight to extremists.” Yet the Labour Party under leader Jeremy Corbyn has veered sharply to the left on these matters, and Mr. Khan has been an enabler of that transformation.
Today, Sadiq Khan is Mayor of London.
What lives today on the less moderate Left side?
Abdel-Al—who lives in occupied East Jerusalem—is visiting Chicago this week at the invitation of the United Electrical Workers (UE), the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, and Jewish Voice for Peace to enlist the support of the U.S. labor movement in the Palestinian liberation struggle. He addressed standing-room-only audiences of rank-and-file unionists at last weekend’s Labor Notes conference and again on Tuesday night at the local UE Hall.
The campaign for ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (BDS) against the Israeli government gains ground every day while defenders of the Palestinian Occupation seem to be able to do no more that trot out the same tired charges of anti-Semitism against its proponents!
As George Bisharat points out in the article below, the charge of anti-Semitism is completely without substance. Indeed there has been a tragic history of persecution of Jewish people for which all of us Europeans rightly feel a sense of shame. Even so, for Zionist politicians to manipulate this shame to justify the persecution of Palestinian people is reprehensible, and it’s a tactic that is becoming increasingly transparent to the Western public.
Perhaps the most significant thing about Bisharat’s article is that it appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Indeed the BDS is going mainstream!
The above paragraph had been posted as prelude to “Applause for the academic boycott of Israel” by George Bisharat (the two are on the same page, i.e., same link).
Those who read across publications may find similar claims, tropes, and strategies in play. The picture is generally stark with the charge of brutality always leveled on the Jews:
U.S. enabling of Israel, particularly in its colonial expansion into the West Bank, has voided the two-state option and fostered a single functioning state there in which only Jews enjoy relative security, prosperity, and full political rights, while Palestinians suffer gradations of oppression.
Never mind the Soviet KGB-invented Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, today’s Palestinian Authority; and never mind the genocidal — and Palestinian plundering — Hamas. The presence of the two disappears when Israelis / Zionists / Jews seem much preferred in the target sites.
Corey Gil-Shuster has been video interviewing Israelis and Palestinians — and anyone else within range — for years on the widest variety of questions having to do with the middle east conflict and justice in Israel. Here’s a short example from 2012:
Posted to YouTube May 9, 2012.
Finally about the promotion of impoverished Palestinians beneath the “brutal occupation” — there’s a lot more to that story that includes Hamas billionaires, but this may suffice for a glimpse into the reality of luxury development in Gaza: PRICO Real Estate Development Company.
Additional Reference
Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “The Top Ten Anti-Israel Groups in America.” PDF. 2012.
BackChannels. “BDS (Cult) Modules.” March 8, 2016.
BackChannels Lookup. “Soviet, anti-Semitism”.
BBC, Election 2016. “Elections: Labour’s Sadiq Khan elected London mayor.” May 7, 2016.
Discover the Networks. “The Left and Anti-Semitism.”
Kirchick, James. “The Derangement of the British Left.” The American Interest, November 23, 2015.
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