Thoughts on anti-zionist political parties in Israel?

[u/stxrfish]

What do you all think of the liberal centrist part Yesh Atid and the leftist Hadash party, which allies itself with the Arab Ta'al party? Shouldn't the pro-palestinian groups form strategic relationships with these parties, and generally, the people who want peace from the inside of Israel? I feel like a lot of pro-palestinian groups can be quite reductionist. I understand that many are staunchly and uncompromisingly against the existence of Israel entirely. I just feel like things would be vastly improved at least if these groups worked together.

I don't know much about these political parties and would really love to hear about how they are perceived and any facts or opinions people have on them.

[u/echtemendel]

I was a member of Hadash (and its main constituent part Maki, the Communist Party) for about five years, and always voted for them. I still have a warm place in my heart for both - but over the years, especially since moving out of Israel, I became more and more skeptical about change via cooperation with the broad Jewish left in Israel. The reality is that you can't meaningfully change a political/economic system (these are never separate things) from its parliament. The picture which liberal democracies try to paint is that there's a kind of "market place of ideas" within them, where people share and debate different opinions and through that find common ground, convince each other about their specific beliefs/ideas, and move to execute changes in the system. This is based on the concept that ideology and ideas are the basis of political action, and well - this is absolutely wrong.

The reality is that the basis of political decisions are class-based economic interests. Ideology is then created (not necessarily in a self-aware process) in order to rationalize these actions and interests. The ruling classes of any society never make deep political changes against their own interests without a serious fight. In fact, not a single meaningful political (i.e. socioeconomic) change in history ever came as a result of a discussion, convincing, or any pure exchange of ideas - but through hard struggles (which more often than not were violent, too). Ruling classes don't make changes out of the goodness of their hearts, they give concessions in order to avoid destruction. I challenge you and anyone reading this to come up with even a single counter example. I never found any.

Now, to the situation in Palestine: the Jewish citizens of Israel, as a group, have a clear material interest in the continuation of the current existing system of Jewish supremacy. They might differ in the specifics (e.g. whether west bank settlements should be supported or not, whether a semi-autonomous Palestinian state should be established in the WB and Gaza or not, etc.) - but they will never willingly give up the enormous material gains which this system affords them, mainly access to resources (land, water, etc.) and capital. There's zero chance that any kind of meaningful change for Palestinians will come through the political system itself. At most, Palestinians (and especially Palestinian citizens of Israel) can only get some concessions under very extreme situations, and even these break apart the moment reality changes (e.g. Oct 7th). The only way to stop the oppression of Palestinians is by a complete decolonization of the land, and that will come about by a struggle of the Palestinians, not from the Israeli political system as a whole. What we as Jews can afford is supporting this struggle where and how we can.

That is not to say that cooperation between Palestinians and Jews, especially in Palestine itself, is not practical, wanted, or whatever. Quite the contrary - cooperation in this circumstance means exactly our true solidarity, through material means as well. And the progressive people in Palestine - Jews and Palestinians alike - should already be forming joint structures, since decolonization won't be an easy process, nor would it be the end of the struggle there (class struggle would come next). In this regards, the Communist Party and its youth wing - where Jews and Palestinians really do work together on a very deep level - are very important organizations which deserve our support.

[u/gatoescado → u/echtemendel]

Excellent application of historical materialism. I’m a millennial ex-Israeli, and the Israel I grew up in was probably much different than the one you did. But it’s amazing how accurate this materialist-based analysis remains true thru every generation.