The German Left and Israel

...The controversy is not surprising...

...Controversy wasn't long in coming...

...And Norman Paech, the party's foreign policy spokesperson, frequently accused Israel of being one-sidedly responsible for the conflict, at the same time minimalizing anti-Semitic sentiment in the region and denying the threat to Israel...

...They lacked neither intensity nor (sometimes) violence...

...Even during the Adenauer years, former national socialists, such as Hans Globke—active in the formulation of the racist Nuremberg laws—could occupy leading positions in politics...

...Gysi's speech thus stands out for several reasons...

...On January 15, 2009, the newspaper Neues Deutschland, a main organ of the Left, announced that it would no longer publish Jürgen Elsässer...

...Few voices asked for understanding or pointed out the complexities of the situation...

...As for antiZionism, one went by the late sixties slogan of Jean Amery: "Anti-Zionism contains anti-Semitism like a cloud contains a storm...

...So the debates are not new...

...Elsässer, author and Journalist and close to Die Linke, especially to Lafontaine, was one of those who frequently appealed to national-bolshevist sentiment, calling upon the nation to fight finance capital...

...These ideas brought him close to the far right, which heralded him as one of their own...

...Eventually the police, unable to cope with the situation, broke into the apartment and confiscated the flag while the protesters cheered...

...And it certainly didn't affect the government's reluctance—to put it mildly—to agree to pay reparations to people who had to endure forced labor on German soil...

...But an event like this one is exceptional...

...In Oslo, an Israel-friendly demonstration of about five hundred people was attacked by a pro-Palestinian group double its size...

...His party is the successor to the East German Socialist Unity Party, which ran the country...

...This wasn't always a sign of true conviction but rather of a bad conscience and of the desire to fit into the postwar international community...

...As a framework of debate, they can't easily be done away with...

...BAK Shalom had demanded his removal that same day...

...But it is especially interesting to consider the dynamic of these discussions in the Left Party...

...It is important that progressive movements be a step ahead of whoever is in power and maintain a critical distance—in the best tradition of Ideologiekritik...

...The topic that brings them together might sound even more surprising: what can solidarity with Israel mean today...

...In April, Werner Pirker—a writer for the traditionally left-wing newspaper Junge Welt and notorious for bashing Israel—denounced Gysi for rejecting the crucial coordinates of left-wing politics...

...Leaving these events aside, the year 2008, the sixtieth anniversary of Israel's creation, provided a good occasion for reflection on the relationship between the German Left and Israel...

...To be clear, anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist incidents occur periodically in all politically relevant parties in Germany...

...Jürgen Möllemann, a representative for the liberal Free Democratic Party until 2002, did not hide his sympathy for Palestinian suicide bombers...

...Despite all official declarations on behalf of Israel and against antiSemitism, Germany's recent history has given more than one reason for remaining skeptical...

...The statement might not have triggered the decision of the newspaper but the issue shows that it becomes more and more impossible to ignore such discussions...

...Even if they are still a minority, these young people not only managed to draw attention to the debate outside of Germany, but also to stir up discussion inside and outside the party...

...These two levels exemplify two models of political practice: critique of ideology (Ideologiekritik) vs...

...Second, and most important, Gysi knew that he spoke without the support of a large part of his base and against a number of people in the party's leadership, not least Lafontaine...

...Party officials, like Norman Paech, who was sharply criticized by BAK Shalom, either denied the need for discussion or tried to shut it down...

...The intensity this issue provokes, however, suggests that for a large part of the Left, opposition to Israel is not only integral to their political framework, but utterly necessary...

...In Duisburg, Germany, during a protest, a neighbor enraged the demonstrators by hanging an Israeli flag in his window...

...It was also a troubling revelation about the history of leftism, that is, its own connection to nationalism and anti-Semitism...

...The city is well acquainted with political debate...

...The leftist movement in general and the Left Party in particular," argued Benjamin Krüger and Sebastian Voigt, members of BAK Shalom, "have to decide whether they want to be a modern Left, as they already are in part, or if they would rather stick to old ideological dogma, peering at the world through the prism of the Cold War...

...From 1949 to 1989 the German Democratic Republic refused even to recognize Israel...

...That these categories—left and right—themselves may seem outdated or at least blurred is another question...

...First, statements like these are rarely heard from party officials, who usually only react on this issue...

...Any close look at this issue always has to distinguish between official declarations, single actions of party members, and the common sentiment of the German population...

...in 1976, trade with Israel was forbidden, and reparations for Holocaust survivors were refused...

...An invitation to Hamas to attend a conference on the Middle East only failed due to entry regulations of the European Union...

...In London, an angry pro-Hamas mob tried to storm the Israeli embassy, chasing the police down the street...

...That involves, as the caucus declared in its founding document, opposition to anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, as well as to regressive criticisms of capitalism inside and outside the party...

...Not only in Germany but throughout Europe there were the biggest anti-Israeli demonstrations since the second intifada...

...The bigger parties can support a variety of policy positions without turning them into existential issues...

...In a nutshell, it can be described as a history of perception blocked by the neutralizing layers of the cold war, with a return of memory after 1989...

...Other party members criticized the speech as a move toward the center and toward the acceptance of the value of the nation-state (a position whose wrongness they commonly forget when it comes to Cuba and Venezuela...

...At a demonstration in January 2009, he held that Israel's attacks on Gaza were in no way justified by a right of self-defense and were indeed "criminal...

...Realpolitik...

...In the beginning of 2009, there were huge demonstrations protesting Israel's military actions in Gaza...

...When his colleague Jamal Karlsi, back then a member of the Green Party, used national-socialist rhetoric and spoke of a "war of annihilation" (Vernichtungskrieg) against the Palestinians and denounced a supposed "Zionist lobby" for obstructing open discussions, Möllemann rushed to his support and organized Karlsi's move to the Free Democrats...

...After 1989, when Germany was facing a wave of nationalism and the Left needed to reconsider almost its entire framework, the discussions took on a whole new dynamic...

...In a society in which history always tends to distort political discussions, an actor who takes on the role of the "bad conscience" is absolutely necessary...

...The "radical Left" plays a role in this repetition insofar as the Left Party is one of the only political spaces open to a "radical politics" (whatever that means...

...These discussions, one could say, precipitated the erosion of anti-imperialism as a hegemonic framework for leftist thought...

...There is no big fight about "selling out" left-wing standards, no one demonizing a country about as big as the federal state of Hesse...

...In 2008, an internal party workgroup was founded: BAK Shalom (BAK standing for the German word Bundesarbeitskreis, meaning Federal Working Group...

...What's commonly understood as Realpolitik is never going to fit perfectly with the traditions of the Left...

...At a discussion in Magdeburg in June 2008, attackers used stones and tear gas to disrupt the event...

...It revealed something about the Left's extra-parliamentary debate, happening mainly in cultural centers, Journals, and the academy and something also about the reflection of this debate at the parliamentary level...

...Just to name a few: on October 3, 2003, a national holiday commemorating Germany's reunification, Martin Hohmann, a Christian Democratic parliamentarian, wondered publicly if it wouldn't be justified to deem the Jews a "people of perpetrators" (Tätervolk) for their involvement in the Russian Revolution...

...A number of things could strike an outside observer as peculiar...

...No topic has stirred up so much debate and emotion and created so great a rift inside the German Left as Israel...

...Everyone on the panel, as well as in the rather young audience, seems to agree on the importance of supporting Israel...

...In 2003, according to a poll funded by the European Union, 65 percent of Germans felt threatened by Israel and deemed it a larger threat to world peace than any other state...

...Since the time of Konrad Adenauer, Germany's first chancellor after 1949, a generally Israel-friendly position has been part of Germany's raison d'etat...

...Allegations of sectarianism, of "selling out," and of careerism are as much a part of these debates as is the wish to solidify one's own position...

...Not a day goes by without another piece being added to this complex and troublesome mosaic...

...The internal dynamics of political movements, that is, the way in which substantial differences accumulate and finally explode, haven't changed...

...In particular, the question of strategic alliances is viewed differently among the discussants...

...More than a few people felt offended by the presence of the Israeli flag on the party's Web site...

...When Chancellor Angela Merkel blamed Hamas for being the cause of Israel's attack, she had to defend her statement against criticism in Parliament...

...In a way, the debates of the extraparliamentary Left over the last years are now being repeated on the parliamentary level, with special intensity...

...MICROCOSM OF THE LEFT O n a mild Friday evening in May 2008, about 230 people, mostly between the ages of sixteen and thirty, gather at a local leftwing cultural center in a fairly large East German city to talk for two-and-a-half hours...

...Furthermore, he strongly criticized the romanticization of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas as "anti-imperialist" forces and firmly emphasized Israel's right to exist and to defend itself...

...The argument about that is still going on today...

...It was not only a debate about current political events—the second Gulf War being the most important...

...Instead, what seems to worry the debaters is the relationship of a proIsrael position to radical left-wing politics— whether it's an external relationship or an internal one, and what this means for actual political work...

...Sitting on the panel are members of existing and former political groups, and the short presentation quickly turns into a discussion with lively audience participation...

...QUO VADIS...

...Gysi's speech thus came as a surprise...

...However, the younger party members, who come out of the radical Left, could lead to an erosion of dominant views on the Middle East...

...After a discussion in which he sought to start a Volksfront (popular front) against "AngloAmerican finance-capital," at which Nazis and a Holocaust denier were present, Neues Deutschland cut him off...

...CONTESTED FIELDS When Gregor Gysi, parliamentary co-leader of Germany's Left Party (Die Linke), gave a speech on "The German Left and the state of Israel" in April 2008, celebrating Israel's sixtieth birthday, he probably knew that he would upset many of his comrades...

...Given the history of leftist movements, the sole fact that solidarity with Israel, at least in some places, is accepted among such groups is remarkable...

...That at least a part of the Left has managed to think past its history is a success, even if the ramifications of this new thinking are still small...

...What does that say about the relation of these extraparliamentary discussions to mainstream politics...

...Opposition to these attitudes and resentments should always be supported, not only by the Left—though perhaps especially by people who feel themselves part of that tradition...

...Not only does its membership consist in large part of former socialists from the GDR, it also has a communist section, made up of traditional communists and Trotskyites...

...But there haven't been this many people at such a meeting for a long time...

...nor should they be ossified into dogma...

...This is not, of course, just for the sake of being different but for the sake of never being content...

...It's certain, however, that they continue to reassert themselves in the struggle for a truly reasonable politics...

...The apartment was attacked with stones and bottles...

...Its long-term aim is to foster a serious discussion on the renewal of progressive positions in the twenty-first century...

...Meanwhile, it is crucial to bear in mind certain peculiarities of the German situation...

...A mediation between the two is not a bad goal for the Left...

...Even in 2008, when Angela Merkel's speech in front of the Knesset was called "historical," Germany was the second largest trade partner of one of Israel's fiercest enemies, Iran...

...And just a few days before this article was written, a pamphlet on the United Kingdom Indymedia Web site called for "visits" to known pro-Israel leftist venues in Berlin, giving names and addresses...

...Similar groups in other cities encounter the strong and at times even violent resistance of traditional anti-imperialist and communist groups...

...In the discussion of Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, Gysi's co-leader, Oskar Lafontaine, expressed sympathy for Iran, which he saw as under an imminent threat...

...he gave up his plans to visit the country only after Gysi's speech...

...That Gysi is one of two members of the German Parliament with Jewish ancestors (Jerzy Montag of the Green Party is the other) aroused suspicion...

...Ever since the West German Left in 1967 turned from being rather Israel-friendly to being vehemently antiZionist and even anti-Semitic, this dominant position has always been contested, if only by minority groups...

...In the strongest terms ever heard from the leadership of the Left Party, he deemed anti-imperialism an inadequate framework for a full and responsible comprehension of Israel's history and the conflict in the Middle East...

...The aim of the speech was to absolve Germany of collective responsibility for the horrors of the Second World War...

...While the traditional Left continued to interpret the world along Manichean geopolitical lines, a significant minority launched a critique of anti-imperialism, anti-Semitism, and regressive forms of anti-capitalism...

...Can a strategic alliance with members of the conservative Christian Democratic Party— which has at times proved to be more progressive concerning Israel than its left-wing counterparts—be justified...

...And since the radical Left still alludes to concepts such as "liberated society," how is active engagement in the well-being of people in the Middle East, how is the democratization and—horribile dictu—capitalization of countries steeped in theocracy and modern forms of feudalism to be reconciled with a utopian vision, free from capitalism...