Hamas and the reversal of antisemitism
The Greens party (in particular) has been so venomously hostile to Israel's actions as to be seen by many as antisemitic, as have some on the ALP left, and most far left activists.
One of the most striking features of the international response to the events of last October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza has been the very clear-cut nature of support for and hostility against Israel and Hamas.
While these responses have been unusually clear, they have seldom been directly noted or discussed. Almost without exception, Israel’s strongest supporters have been conservatives and those on the political right on a range of issues, while its strongest opponents, again almost without exception, have been radicals and situated on the far left – apart, of course, from Muslims in the Western world, the largest bloc opposed to Israel’s response and often supportive of Hamas.
The centre-left, represented here by the mainstream of the ALP and in America by Joe Biden and his allies in the Democratic party, have been largely supportive of Israel, although increasingly vocal about their support for ceasefire. But those who can accurately be identified as radicals and situated on the far left have, almost without exception, been venomously hostile to Israel and engaged in a virtual whitewash of Hamas and its crimes.
In Australia, newspapers regarded as conservative and right-wing, such as The Australian and the Melbourne Herald-Sun, and right-wing journals of opinion like Quadrant have from the day of the massacres by Hamas to today, been almost down-the-line supporters of Israel, as have conservative commentators like Andrew Bolt and Douglas Murray. So, too, by and large, have been the spokespeople of the Coalition parties.
In complete contrast, the Greens party (in particular) has been so venomously hostile to Israel’s actions as to be seen by many as antisemitic, as have some on the ALP left, and most far left activists.
In the context of historical attitudes towards the Jews during the past 150 years or so, this clearly represents a near-total reversal of support for and antipathy to the Jews, a fact which has not been noted by commentators, and it is important that the reasons for this be set out.
In my opinion, the most important factor in this shift has been the existence of the State of Israel, especially the nationalistic, tradition-minded, and militarily powerful nation it has become during the past 40 years or so, while of course remaining a model democracy, its military prowess a necessary response to the hostility of many of its Arab neighbours and to terrorist groups.
These values and strategies embodied in present-day Israel have almost completely negated the bases of pre-1948 antisemitism. At root, its hostility towards the Jews was largely based in the fact that, almost uniquely, the Jews were an ethno-religious group without a nation-state or contiguous area of residence, but were, according to their enemies, especially on the extreme right, always aliens, outsiders and strangers wherever they lived, and engaged in a vast international conspiracy of evil, in which Jewish millionaire bankers and Jewish Communists were allies, secretly cooperating with the aim of subverting established society in order to seize power for themselves.
However seemingly antipathetic, Jews were allegedly always more loyal to other Jews than to their country of residence or to their gentile neighbours.
Although this fantasy can still be found among some on the very far right, it has largely disappeared since the Holocaust, only to be replaced by an equally negative depiction of the world’s only Jewish state emanating from the extreme left.
The left’s hostility to Israel grew as a result of the 1967 and 1973 wars, but has become virtually pervasive in recent decades, reaching a crescendo during the past six months. The far left now depicts Israel as centrally militaristic, repressive and colonialist, singling it out, and all of Israel’s Zionist supporters, as uniquely evil, and ignoring the almost wholly repressive nature of the entire Arab and Islamic worlds.
In part, this hatred has become pervasive on the far left because of a transformation in its orientation which I have elsewhere described as a shift from Class War to Race War, in which Israel is seen as the cutting edge of “Western settler colonialism” aimed at the “global South”, and in league with the United States and its allies, most definitely including Australia.
The far left today is hallmarked by an all-embracing hostility to Western democratic nations as inherently racist. Another component of the far left’s current attitude is that it has the support of the ever-increasing number of Muslims throughout the Western world, including Australia, paradoxically so, as Muslims are often among the most conservative and traditionalist-oriented members of society in their attitudes towards most social issues.
But, once again, it is the Jews – or, in this case, the Jewish state – who have been singled out as the prime offenders, totally ignoring the reality of Arab terrorism and militant hostility towards Israel which the citizens of Israel have to deal with on a daily basis.
Bill Rubinstein held Chairs of History at Deakin University and at the University of Wales.
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