‘The Left’s Views on Israel: From the establishment of the Jewish state to the intifada’ Thesis submitted by June Edmunds for PhD examination at the London School of Economics and Political Science 1 UMI Number: U615796 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615796 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 F 7377 POLITI 58^S8i ABSTRACT The British left has confronted a dilemma in forming its attitude towards Israel in the postwar period. The establishment of the Jewish state seemed to force people on the left to choose between competing nationalisms - Israeli, Arab and later, Palestinian. Over time, a number of key developments sharpened the dilemma. My central focus is the evolution of thinking about Israel and the Middle East in the British Labour Party. I examine four critical periods: the creation of Israel in 1948; the Suez war in 1956; the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and the 1980s, covering mainly the Israeli invasion of Lebanon but also the intifada. In each case, entrenched attitudes were called into question and longer-term shifts were triggered in the aftermath. The evolution of Labour’s debates shows important contrasts with thinking in the Communist Party over the same period. There are also continuities and differences between developments in both British parties and their French equivalents. Within the Labour Party (and the French Socialist Party) the virtual consensus of support for Israel was maintained in 1956; was tested but not completely broken in 1967 and more or less collapsed in the early 1980s. Within the British and French communist parties, the initial support for the formation of the Jewish state broke down by the 1956 crisis and the parties adopted a consistently pro-Arab perspective thereafter. However, in the 1980s the extreme anti-zionism of earlier periods was replaced with a more tolerant approach to Jewish nationalism. The left’s attitudes did not derive directly from democratic socialist or communist principles. Non-ideological factors including political expediency, linkages between the left and the nationalist movements, intra­ party organisational developments and the campaigning activities of certain individuals were critical to understanding the left’s policy positions. 2 CONTENTS Page Number Preface and Acknowledgements 6 Abbreviations 8 Part One: Introduction and the British Labour Party Chapter One: Zionism, Israel and the Left: An Introduction 11 1.1 Far Left Attitudes 11 1.2 Social Democratic Attitudes and the Labour Party 18 1.3 The Structure of the Thesis 24 1.4 A Note on Research Method, Terminology and Sensitivity 28 Chapter Two: The Labour Party and the Establishment of Israel 32 2.1 The Construction of a Consensus of Support for Zionism 33 2.2 The Government and Palestine 33 2.3 Intra-Party Conflict and a Return to the Old Consensus 43 2.4 Conclusion 51 Chapter Three: Labour, Suez and Israel: The End of a ‘Special Relationship’? 61 3.1 Attitudes Towards Israel 62 3.2 Attitudes Towards Arab Nationalism 70 3.3 Explaining Labour’s Policy 74 3 3.4 Towards Dissent 84 3.5 Conclusion 88 Chapter Four: The 1967 War: Towards a Break-Down in the Consensus of Support for Israel 90 4.1 Solidarity with Israel 90 4.2 Explaining Labour’s Policy 100 4.3 Dissent from the Pro-Israel Consensus 106 4.4 Conclusion 116 Chapter Five: Israel in Lebanon: A New Consensus? 117 5.1 The Collapse of the Pro-Israel Consensus 117 5.2 Explaining Labour’s Policy 121 5.3 Anti-zionism 131 5.4 Conflict and Retreat 135 5.5 Conclusion 141 Part Two: The CPGB, the French Left and Conclusion Chapter Six: The British Communist Party and Israel: From the Establishment of the Jewish State to the Invasion of Lebanon 144 6.1 Changing Attitudes Towards Israel 145 6.2 Explaining the Evolution of the CPGB’s Attitudes 154 6.3 Conclusion: Comparing the CPGB and Labour 162 4 Chapter Seven: The French Left and Israel: From the Creation of the Jewish State to the Invasion of Lebanon 172 7.1 The French Socialist Party 172 7.2 The French Communist Party 188 7.3 Conclusion: Comparing the British and French Left 197 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 201 8.1 Shifting Perceptions of Israel 201 8.2 Theorising Policy Change 205 8.3 Incubated and Acute Policy Change 209 8.4 Policy Change and the Party as Unitary Actor 212 8.5 Policy Change and Party Organisation 216 8.6 Policy Change and Individuals 221 8.7 Conclusion 225 Epilogue 221 Appendices 229 Bibliography 245 5 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The debates in the late 1980s over the left’s attitude towards Israel and the question of whether contemporary left-wing anti-zionism was a new form of antisemitism motivated me to do this thesis. As a student of race relations, I naively thought that it was impossible for the left to be racist in any way and I wanted to explore the issue further. Had I known how difficult this project was going to be, I certainly would have thought about doing something else. However, I did continue and, as the thesis evolved, I moved partially away from the initial question to the matter of how and why the left’s attitudes towards Israel changed during the postwar period. On the premise that Israel’s wars with the Arab countries and its treatment of Palestinian nationalism increasingly challenged the left’s view of the state as progressive, I organised the thesis around major crises in Middle East history. Aware of the sensitivity of the topic, I have tried to avoid assessing Israeli policy, restricting myself as far as possible to describing Israel’s rationale for engaging in the conflicts. Based on an inductive method, this study provides a simple account of Labour’s, in particular, but also the British Communist Party’s and the French left’s attitudes towards these various turning points in Israel’s history. Despite its narrative style and chronological structure, the project is not a history, partly because the requisite sources are unavailable and partly because I am not a historian. Nor is the thesis a study of foreign policy or international relations, areas about which I know very little. From the outset, I carried out the research because of its intrinsic interest. However, I do hope that it sheds some light on the theoretical question of political parties and policy change, and I have given this some consideration in the last section of the conclusion. I could not have completed this study without the help of a number of organisations and people and I should like the opportunity to thank them. Professional Acknowledgements The ESRC, the University of London Central Research Fund (Irwin Fund) and the LSE provided me with funding during various stages of this research project. This 6 enabled me not only to carry out research in the UK but also in Paris, an experience which I greatly enjoyed. During the course of my work I used a number of libraries and archives and am grateful to all those who helped me with my research. However, I should like to single out Stephen Bird from the Labour Party archives at the Museum of Labour Party History in Manchester for being particularly helpful. At the LSE a number of academics provided an extremely stimulating environment for my studies and I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot from the Sociology Department’s Research Seminar. I should like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Christopher Husbands, for his sharp attention to detail and for giving me a healthy respect for facts, something which I did not really have before becoming his student. I am also indebted to Professor Patrick Dunleavy for his very helpful supervision given in a spirit of complete generosity. Personal Acknowledgements During my time as a PhD student I got to know a number of people all of whom, at different points, were good friends. However, there are a few who deserve a special mention. From the LSE I should like to thank Kathryn Dean for our many interesting debates over a whole range of issues and for supporting me through some difficult moments. I should also like to thank Mauricio Domingues for his non-judgmental friendship sustained throughout the whole of his stay in this country. In Canterbury, where I live, I have enjoyed the company of a number of people who were not at all related to my work and who helped me to forget my thesis for whole days! My family has also always been very encouraging, particularly my parents, Mary and Hugh, who sacrificed such a lot for me to complete my studies. Robert and Asako deserve thanks for their support and for putting me up in London whenever I needed to stay. However, this thesis would not have been completed without Nick’s encouragement and I should like to apologise to him for having to suffer it with me. Finally, my most special thanks go to Josephine, who was born during this research, for being the most wonderful distraction and for giving me more pleasure than anything I know.