On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization

by Douglas Murray

But the most interesting development was the movement’s adoption of the Palestinian cause. In the aftermath of the 1967 and 1973 wars in Israel, something crucial shifted in the international left’s attitudes toward the Jewish state. From 1948 until 1967, Israel had broad sympathy and support from the international left. In part this was because of the leftist origins of the state itself including the kibbutznik movement. Time spent working on a kibbutz in Israel was almost a rite of passage for leftists in those days. At that time there was no contradiction in a figure like the British Labour Party leader Harold Wilson being an ardent Zionist and even writing a book (The Chariot of Israel, 1981) that expressed those sentiments. Leftists supported Israel for a number of reasons, but one that has often been a baseline of left-wing politics was support for the perceived underdog. From 1948 to 1967, Israel was the plucky underdog in the Middle East. Its neighbors had attempted to wipe it out but the Israelis had seen them off.