The Challenge of the New Left: Anti-Zionism and a Captivated Youth, 1967–1973
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Chapter 4 The Challenge of the New Left: Anti-Zionism and a Captivated Youth, 1967–1973 For Jorge Kirszenbaum, a university student in 1967, the Six-Day War was a clear turning point, the moment when every Jew “had to define where he stood.” Before the war, he was involved in a variety of political groups on the “non- Jewish” left and was also casually involved in Doctor Herzl, a Zionist social group. Raised in a strongly Zionist home and educated in Zionist schools, Kirszenbaum described his pre-1967 Zionism as a “sentimental attachment.” This changed with the Six-Day War, after which Kirszenbaum’s Zionism became “more ideological,” leading him to join an explicitly socialist Zionist group and to sever his connections with the “non-Jewish” left as it became increasingly anti-Zionist. During an interview with me, he smiled nostal- gically as he recollected how leftist “dogma” framed Israel as an outpost of imperialism in the Middle East, but at the time he found it very painful.1 It was Kirszenbaum’s understanding of himself as both a leftist and a Zionist that made the Argentine leftist rebuke particularly potent. Elements of this problem were apparent earlier in the 1960s, as Jewish youth activists tried to bridge an increasingly apparent gap between the political sensibilities of their peers, on the one hand, and Jewishness and Zionism, on the other. Even so, the Six-Day War ushered in a new moment in two key ways. First, the Six-Day War inspired Zionist fervency across the diaspora.2 In Argentina many Jews donated blood, food, and clothing to support the Israeli cause. Approximately 70,000 of the 310,000 Jews in Argentina came 1 Jorge Kirszenbaum, interview by author, digital audio recording, February 11, 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2 In The Six-Day War and World Jewry, a collection of essays edited by Eli Lederhendler, scholars add nuance to the common assumption that the Six-Day War was a crucial moment across the Jewish diaspora, as it reconfigured relationships with Israel and understandings of Jewishness. With essays on the experience of Jews in the United States, France, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, the ussr, Poland, and some Muslim countries, the collection demonstrates significant variation from country to country, in accordance with the political context, national culture, and the nature of the Jewish community. Still, there is agreement that the Six-Day War was a key moment in some regard everywhere; see Lederhendler, Six-Day War (Lanham, MD: University Press of Maryland and the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi ��.��63/97890043�96��_006 The Challenge of the New Left 107 together for public gatherings, while an estimated 600 young people even boarded ships to travel to Israel to fight in the war, only to arrive long after it had ended.3 Even Jews who had formerly been hostile to Israel reversed their position: when the Idisher Cultur Farband (icuf; Federation of Jewish Cultural Institutions of Argentina),4 a Soviet-line Jewish organization, blamed the war on “Zionist-imperialist aggression,” several young members broke away and founded Fraie Schtime, a new progressive pro-Israel organization.5 This enthusiasm for Zionism would continue to shape communal politics in the coming years. Second, the war was the key turning point in the relationship between Israel and the global New Left and between Israel and the third world. In the 1950s and 1960s, Israel had devoted significant attention to aiding develop- ment in—and building diplomatic relations with—Africa, Asia, and Latin America.6 After 1967, African and Asian countries became increasingly hos- tile toward Israel, seeing it as an occupying force in Palestinian lands and as aligned with Western imperialism.7 Diplomatic relationships between 3 Haim Avni, “The Impact of the Six-Day War on a Zionist Community: The Case of Argentina,” in The Six-Day War and World Jewry, ed. Eli Lederhendler (University Press of Maryland and the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000), 146, 149. 4 The full name is Idisher Cultur Farband Federación de Entidades Culturales Judías de la Argentina. 5 Leonardo Senkman, “Repercussions of the Six-Day War in the Leftist Jewish Argentine Camp, 1967–1969,” in The Six-Day War and World Jewry, ed. Eli Lederhendler (University Press of Maryland and the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000), 167–187. 6 Susan Aurelia Gitelson, “Israel’s African Setback in Perspective,” in Israel in the Third World, eds. Michael Curtis and Susan Aurelia Gitelson (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1976), 182–199; Meron Medzini, “Reflections on Israel’s Asian Policy,” in Israel in the Third World, eds. Michael Curtis and Susan Aurelia Gitelson (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1976), 200–211. 7 Many variables led to this shift at this juncture including (but not limited to): 1) the strengthening of relations between Israel and the United States; see Warren Bass, Support Any Friend: Kennedy’s Middle East and the Making of the U.S.–Israel Alliance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); 2) the takeover of the West Bank and Gaza after the Six-Day War and increasing attention to the Palestinian plight in international bodies; see Paul Chamberlin, “Preparing for Dawn: The United States and the Global Politics of Palestinian Resistance, 1967–1975” (PhD diss., Ohio State University, 2009) and Gitelson, “Israel’s African Setback in Perspective”; 3) Israel’s diplomatic relationship with apartheid South Africa; see Gitelson, “Israel’s African Setback in Perspective”; 4) the diplomatic maneuverings and propaganda of Arab countries in Asia and Africa, and Latin America, to a lesser extent, after the war; see .