Bibliograph

The Movement and the Middle East, how the Arab-Israeli conflict divided the American Left, Michael R. Fischbach

Type

Label

The Movement and the Middle East, how the Arab-Israeli conflict divided the American Left, Michael R. Fischbach

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The Movement and the Middle East

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Michael R. Fischbach

Sub title

how the Arab-Israeli conflict divided the American Left

Summary

The Arab-Israeli conflict constituted a serious problem for the American Left in the 1960s: pro-Palestinian activists hailed the Palestinian struggle against Israel as part of a fundamental restructuring of the global imperialist order, while pro-Israeli leftists held a less revolutionary worldview that understood Israel as a paragon of democratic socialist virtue. This intra-left debate was in part doctrinal, in part generational. But further woven into this split were sometimes agonizing questions of identity. Jews were disproportionately well-represented in the Movement, and their personal and communal lives could deeply affect their stances vis-à-vis the Middle East. The Movement and the Middle East offers the first assessment of the controversial and ultimately debilitating role of the Arab-Israeli conflict among left-wing activists during a turbulent period of American history. Michael R. Fischbach draws on a deep well of original sources-from personal interviews to declassified FBI and CIA documents-to present a story of the left-wing responses to the question of Palestine and Israel. He shows how, as the 1970s wore on, the cleavages emerging within the American Left widened, weakening the Movement and leaving a lasting impact that still affects progressive American politics today

Target audience

adult

Classification