Re: [Marxism] Israel as an extreme case of the crisis of capitalism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * thank you for your comments. You might be interested in the pamphlet referred to in that article - "The New Apartheid". It is available on the same blog site. ( https://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/new-apartheid-2014-edition.pdf) Among other things, it deals with both Jabotinsky as well as the kubbutzim. Here is how novelist Moshe Shamir described the situation in one of the most "left" kubbuzes: *“In the (kibbutz) dining room the leaders spoke of 'brotherhood among peoples'. None of them spoke a word of Arabic, they never spoke (with Arabs) as a man speaks with his friends. They had no friends among the villages in the area, they never once paid even a simple visit to their neighbors in the nearby villages. In the (kibbutz's) excellent modern school – for a long time perhaps the most advanced educational institution in the country – Arabic was not taught. So we just simply lived with our nice theories to one side and the bitter reality to the other, and we saved ourselves any unpleasantness and the burden of thinking simply by never trying to look at the theories and reality side by side, for a first, elementary, basic examination of the extent to which they coincided or differed We organized ourselves behind the fence, we prepared to defend ourselves, we spoke of 'brotherhood among peoples' and we never in fact fulfilled a single serious obligation of (the principles of) brotherhood of peoples . ”* That and a lot more is captured in the book referenced - "Comrades and Enemies". As far as Jabotinsky: Yes, I had not heard of him either until I started reading more on the origins of Zionism, but he was a key figure. It is significant that Zionism always had a tendency to betray the Jewish masses in favor of the Jewish capitalists; they always had a tendency to capitulate to the anti-Semites... and Jabotinsky epitomized that tendency. For more on him, I recommend "The Iron Wall" by Lenni Brenner. To return to the original point: I think that Zionism in general and the State of Israel in particular originated exactly through the crisis of capitalism. Zionism, after all, had no real support in Europe until the rise of the Nazis. It took that - plus the betrayals of Stalinism (as well as social democracy) - to enable Zionism to achieve a mass base. Today, the crisis of the nation states is epitomized in the crisis of the State of Israel in this sense: The decline of US imperialism as the one and only world power is giving an opening to all sorts of regional powers. This is creating increasing conflicts throughout the world, and none more so than in the Arab world. This is combining with the increased tendency towards chauvinism globally. And where is all of this found more so than in Israel, which from its origins represents the crisis of capitalism. And which from its original founding represents a completely artificial nation based on the machinations of world imperialism. John Reimann On Thu, May 24, 2018 at 6:14 PM, Gary MacLennan wrote: > Comrade this was a very informative and interesting article. I really do > not know much about Jabotinsky but the split between him and Ben Gurion is > worth exploring. Perry Anderson mentions that the State of Israel could > only be created through strong statist institutions. You would describe > that as the role of social democracy, would you not? The inference is that > Jabotinsky's fascism could not build the state he postulated. > > I myself am interested in the role of the kibbutzim. They, I think, > constituted the morally acceptable face of Zionism. At school one of my > teachers used to talk enthusiastically of the socialism of the kibbutzim. > When I was at uni there was a lot of cachet attached to having been in a > kibbutz for a time. Chomsky & Sanders both followed that path btw. I recall > how when Ben Gurion retired to a kibbutz that was seen as a splendid moral > gesture. Now the kibbutzim hire and exploit foreign workers. The Utopian > facade has long withered away. > > > But let us pose again the question implied in the heading of your post. In > what way does Israel represent the extreme expression of the crisis of > world capitalism? One possible answer is the Foucauldian one that the > biopolitics of neoliberalism now reign supreme in Israel. You put great > store, rightly, about the morally destructive impact of a permanent war > footing. Together these two tendencies have undermined the morally > acceptable face of Zionism. But without a moral imperative no state can > endure and we are witnessing that now in Israel in that every day it > becomes clearer that it is a scandal and a blight unto the nati
Re: [Marxism] Israel as an extreme case of the crisis of capitalism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Comrade this was a very informative and interesting article. I really do not know much about Jabotinsky but the split between him and Ben Gurion is worth exploring. Perry Anderson mentions that the State of Israel could only be created through strong statist institutions. You would describe that as the role of social democracy, would you not? The inference is that Jabotinsky's fascism could not build the state he postulated. I myself am interested in the role of the kibbutzim. They, I think, constituted the morally acceptable face of Zionism. At school one of my teachers used to talk enthusiastically of the socialism of the kibbutzim. When I was at uni there was a lot of cachet attached to having been in a kibbutz for a time. Chomsky & Sanders both followed that path btw. I recall how when Ben Gurion retired to a kibbutz that was seen as a splendid moral gesture. Now the kibbutzim hire and exploit foreign workers. The Utopian facade has long withered away. But let us pose again the question implied in the heading of your post. In what way does Israel represent the extreme expression of the crisis of world capitalism? One possible answer is the Foucauldian one that the biopolitics of neoliberalism now reign supreme in Israel. You put great store, rightly, about the morally destructive impact of a permanent war footing. Together these two tendencies have undermined the morally acceptable face of Zionism. But without a moral imperative no state can endure and we are witnessing that now in Israel in that every day it becomes clearer that it is a scandal and a blight unto the nations. But I think we also need to factor in the truth that Israel as a nation is not economically viable. It only exists through the most massive subsidisation by the USA. This has a primarily military front but it extends to other aspects of the Israeli economy. At the heart of this failure is that Israel exists as an imperial force in the region and cannot be integrated into the regional economy other than through conquest. Every Zionist victory makes this failure to integrate even worse. It is also here that the BDS movement can have the greatest purchase. Before this post degenerates into a ramble, let me say that the contradictions, including the economic, of the Zionist project are a subset of the contradictions of the entire capitalist system. We will leave it there for now. Comradely Gary On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 5:34 AM, John Reimann via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > "On Monday, May 14, we were treated to the scenes of tear gas, massive > smoke, thousands protesting… and massive violence by the Israeli army, as > some 60 Gazans were killed and over 2500 wounded or treated for tear gas. > > Meanwhile, just 49 miles away, the “graceful” Ivanka Trump (as one > newspaper referred to her) and Jared Kushner were living in a different > world as they presided over the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem. > The opening and closing benedictions (what happened to the separation of > church and state?) were given by the fundamentalist preachers Robert > Jeffress and John Hagee. The presence of Hagee, who has said that the > Holocaust was part of god’s plan, was welcomed by Netanyahu and company. > After all, these religious bigots and fanatics are Netanyahu’s closest > allies in the United States. > > However, these twin events have set off tremors throughout the world, > especially the Muslim world. Even Netanyahu’s ally Erdogan in Turkey felt > forced to recall the Turkish ambassador to Israel in protest. This shows > the enormous anger that must be felt by Muslim people the world over at > what the racist, expansionist state of Israel is doing. > > How did we get to this point, where is it headed, and what is the socialist > position on this? To answer that, we have to see the situation not as > something unique to Israel. Rather, what is happening in Israel and the > role Israeli capitalism is playing is the most extreme, the most > concentrated expression of the crisis of world capitalism." > Read entire article here: > https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/05/24/israel-as-the-most- > extreme-expression-of-the-crisis-of-world-capitalism/ > > John Reimann > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.m
[Marxism] Israel as an extreme case of the crisis of capitalism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * "On Monday, May 14, we were treated to the scenes of tear gas, massive smoke, thousands protesting… and massive violence by the Israeli army, as some 60 Gazans were killed and over 2500 wounded or treated for tear gas. Meanwhile, just 49 miles away, the “graceful” Ivanka Trump (as one newspaper referred to her) and Jared Kushner were living in a different world as they presided over the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem. The opening and closing benedictions (what happened to the separation of church and state?) were given by the fundamentalist preachers Robert Jeffress and John Hagee. The presence of Hagee, who has said that the Holocaust was part of god’s plan, was welcomed by Netanyahu and company. After all, these religious bigots and fanatics are Netanyahu’s closest allies in the United States. However, these twin events have set off tremors throughout the world, especially the Muslim world. Even Netanyahu’s ally Erdogan in Turkey felt forced to recall the Turkish ambassador to Israel in protest. This shows the enormous anger that must be felt by Muslim people the world over at what the racist, expansionist state of Israel is doing. How did we get to this point, where is it headed, and what is the socialist position on this? To answer that, we have to see the situation not as something unique to Israel. Rather, what is happening in Israel and the role Israeli capitalism is playing is the most extreme, the most concentrated expression of the crisis of world capitalism." Read entire article here: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/05/24/israel-as-the-most-extreme-expression-of-the-crisis-of-world-capitalism/ John Reimann _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
