Anti semitism and the Left : Melbourne Indymedia

Fighting anti semitism used to be one of the main tenents of Left wing practice. Unfortunately, the Left has largely relinquished or even tacitly sided with those who condone or practice Anti Semitism.

This has created the scenario where the main defenders of Jews are from the Right, both within the Jewish community and in the larger political sphere. Thus it is largely stated as fact by conservatives world wide that the Left is a main agent of Anti Semitism. Unfortunately, there is a slight grain of truth in this assertion.

Due to the Left's wholesale abandonment of class struggle and embracement of sectoralist politics based on identity, we have come to a situation today where nearly every mainfestation of the Left has embraced a melange of ideals which have little to do with revolution and much more to do with Social Democracy.

One glaring example of the Left's descent into populism and issue based politics is it's embrace of the Palestinian Question under the rubric of anti imperialism and anti colonialism. This has led to the situation where Israel and its corollary, Zionism, are viewed as the worst manifestation of racism and fascism in the world while Islamists and their apologists have been welcomed by the left as freedom fighters.

This political confusion has a precedent. The Iranian revolution. What happened to the the thousands of left wing supporters of the reactionary clerico fascists once Kholmeinhi and his gangster clique of Mullahs attained power? They were jailed and executed en masse. This is the logical outcome of aligning yourself with Islamists or even sharing a platform with them.

It has come to such a parlous state today in Australia that Left wing groups posit wearing the veil as an anti imperialist action and view Israel as being much worse on every human rights indicator than it's neighbours such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the intellectually bankrupt Left of today there is a moronic level of reductionism which conflates a militant stand against Islamists as somehow support of Bush et al. This comes from the belief that Islam is a religion of the poor and oppressed and thus it cannot be attacked because it somehow reflects a challenge to capitalism. This misguided and extremely dangerous notion comes from the thorougly bourgeois New Left assertion that 'the most oppressed are the most revolutionary' One only needs to study the history of Islam to note that not only is it pro capitalist, but it is militantly and resolutely opposed to the main tenets of the Left such as defence of Women's rights and the defence of Lesbians and Gays.

Recently there was a conference in Melbourne held at Monash University entitled "Anti Semitism and the 21st Century" which was organised by a very conservative University department. David Glanz of the I.S.O and Guy Rundle of Arena magazine were invited to speak, but only as a token to the Right wing agenda of the conference. Far more preference was given to Daniel Pipes from the United States who is extrememly conservative and fanatically anti communist. It has been my experience that the 'leaders' of the Jewish community are largely right wing economic and social conservatives who support Howard. There is active prejudice against the Left from this sector because they are obviously pro capitalist and because they willfully ignore the Left's past resolute fight against Anti Semitism which contradicts their confabulations today.

My point is that when Right wing Jewish groups organise conferences about the Left and Anti Semitism the result is a foregone conclusion. The problem with Left wing groups organising a conference on anti Semitism are that the left ignore or downplay Anti Semitism and that Left wing Jews and others who oppose Anti Semitism from the Left feel excluded from official discourse because it is has become so fixated on blaming Israel and Zionism for the worlds problems.

Witness Indymedia, a supposedly non authoritarian anarchist organisation which permits Anti Semites to post their hate messages freely. Perhaps they should read more about the Anarchist Nestor Makhno and his attitude towards dealing with Anti Semites. Anti Semitism preaches hatred and calls for Jews to be exterminated. That this phenomenon is tolerated in the Left shows how completely bankrupt it has become. That is why an intitiative needs to come from the Left to explicitly line up against Anti Semitism.

Seeing this site is patrolled by so many Right wing maniacs who go largely unchallenged it seems almost fruitless to call for a conference on Anti Semitism organised from the Left. However, I believe it is imperitive that this issue needs to be discussed publicly. We have to out the hate mongerers in the Left as well as combat our enemies on the right. I imagine that most of the Left would think that such a conference is not needed seeing they are busy defending Islamic fundamentalism under the guise of supporting 'oppressed peoples'. My message to misguided Leftists is to talk with Iranian comrades who have been at the receiving end of fundamentalism in 'anti imperialist' jails. Just because the Right is harping on about Islamic fundamentalism all the time doesn't mean we should isolate ourselves from the debate. After all, the American State Department fostered Islamic fundamentalism in the 1950's as a bulwark against Communism. The Left's complicit support of Islam by failing to highlight the abuse committed in it's name equals support not just for the brutal subjugation of women, but also support for our avowed enemies. How can queer Left groups line up with Islamists who would sooner see them dead? Everytime Leftists harp on about the veil being a symbol of anti imperialism I'll show you a photo of women from Algeria who've had acid thrown in their faces in the name of upholding modesty and defending the honour of Islam. Next we'll have Left groups stating that opposition to female genital mutilation is racist and a manifestation of Islamophobia.

Can anyone in the Left tell me about the outcry they have heard from Left wing sources about Syrian and Egyptian television series depicting Jews as ritual murderers and even serialising 'The Elders of the Protocols of Zion'? I doubt it, because funnily enough most people on the Left seem to actually believe that Jews do run the world and they are all filthy rich and they get off oppressing Arabs judged by the almost total refusal to combat such slander.

Last time I looked the late King Hussein of Jordan murdered far more Palestinians than Israel ever did. And the father of modern Palestinan Nationalism the late Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a Nazi supporter who met frequently with Hitler, tried to organise pogroms against Jews in Palestine and even set up Muslim S.S units in Bosnia to kill Communists and Jews. Why is it at every anti war demo I go to I see the Star of David equated with the Swastika? Even an elemental reading of history tells us that the Christian Cross is far more emblematic with Nazism. Yes, Israel is a fucked up country. But why such a pathological obsession with Israel? It wouldn't have something to do that the country is full of Jews? We have come to such a state of affairs whereby the actions of Sharon and the settlers are seen as a manifestation of Jewishness and not the actions of politicians. Equating Zionism with racism is not only grossly offensive it is at a moronic level of political sophistication. If you go to Israel you will see the complexity of the political and social situation there is nothing like the news reports it to be. I am no Israel apologist but the reality is vastly different to the wet dream fantasies of Anti Semites.

I am not holding much hope, but if any Left wingers are interested in fostering a dialogue or conference on Anti Semitism based on the principles of class struggle and not on multiculturalism or post modernism then this would be a good place to start. Trotskyist/Leninist/Anarchist hacks uninterested in examining the failings of their bankrupt ideologies along with all religious obscurantists, pro capitalists, racists and right wingers please waste your time on some other venture. Your views are morbid and redundant and a clear impediment to reaching a classless society free from religion, racism and capitalism.

P.S Just out of interest. Not long ago in Auburn in Sydney, Iraqi Kurds and other Iraqi's were voting in the Iraqi election. Not withstanding the sham of democracy and elections, they have the right to vote if they wish. A group of Wahabbi Islamists forcefully told them not to vote as this would be seen by them as support for the U.S invasion. The Iraqi's many of who had been tortured in Saddams jails when Saddam was the best friend of America told the fundamentalists to fuck off and beat them up for daring to impose their views on them. The response? The fundamentalists came back with guns and shot four people.

Why didn't I read this in Green Left Weakly? Maybe it doesn't compute to the middle class student Leninists that 'oppressed people of colour' can and do act without their leadership and or consent. How do you argue with or debate people who believe that the Koran is the literal word of God and use force of arms to get their way?

By the way, I don't get off criticisng Islam. I believe all religious belief is an abstraction and a much worse opiate than heroin. Religion is man made. There is no god. Only people who wish to assume the role of gods.