Jack Ross is taking me to task over my enthusiasm for the new group International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network:
possibly feared but mired in a lot of peculiar hard left obsessions.
Why so much of their rhetoric gives them an appearance of being broad
based on this issue I think only speaks to how far the issue has come.
The left-anarchists have had a rough go of it for years now, first
seeing the left-wing antiwar movement be totally taken over by the
ultra-Stalinist Workers World Party, then seeing the next big thing be the Ron Paul phenomenon, so now they're desperately trying to grab on to something.
said all that, it may work up to a point, and I'll be fascinated to see
what follows. But you seem to give these types a lot more credit then
I would, so I'm willing to hear you out. I'm curious in particular
about Joel Kovel,
who you've historically propped up as a significant voice of Jewish
anti-Zionism but I've never been inclined to take seriously. Your view?
But let me be a little serious. I don't see them as anarchist, but leftwing. I love that liberation rhetoric. Are they opportunistic? They've thought this thing through. I believe more than anything that the Palestinians should have the right of self-determination, as the Pakistanis and Indians and Israelis all got in the Year of Partition, 1947, the Arabs getting bupkus. I'm an old lefty. And these guys actually remind me of Neturei Karta in their intensity.
As to Kovel, yes I agree, I get a little sick of the corduroy jackets and the left rhet, but these guys are principled and untribal on the right of return, and they're cold and honest about apartheid. That's important. And if they are opportunistic, great, that means there's an opportunity! In the end I'm pleased, here's another website, here's more people speaking out, here's an active discourse. That's why I'm enthusiastic.
