‘A Tool to Advance Imperial Interests’: Leftist Self-Scrutiny and Israeli Wrongdoing

Abstract

Political progressives have long criticised Israel with reference to critical histories of Western racism and colonialism, urging that we cannot credibly discuss Israel-Palestine until we have publicly and vigorously engaged with those histories. Israel’s defenders have retorted by rebutting accusations of racism and colonialism point by point, but this chapter takes a different approach. Even if we concede this leftist reading of history, leftists have ordinarily justified their critiques by recalling their traditions of critical self-scrutiny. Yet on closer examination, those traditions never existed because they were always narrowed by political self-interest. Progressives have never seriously engaged in public and critical histories of leftist support for regimes promoting mass antisemitism. On their own criteria, they cannot credibly discuss Israel-Palestine until they publicly and vigorously engage with that history.

Keywords: Antisemitism, critical theory, Israel, Palestine, leftist politics