Zionism, the Marxist Critique, and the Left

Opposition to Zionism is as old as Zionism itself; it has come from many directions, Jewish and non-Jewish, Left and Right, religious and atheist. It has been asserted on the one hand that the Zionist goal was impossible to achieve, on the other that it was undesirable, and by some that it was both illusory and undesirable. Arab opposition is not surprising, but attacks have come from other quarters too, including the Catholic Church, Asian nationalists suspicious of European intruders, Arabophile European politicians and orientalists, and the Communists. Pacificists condemned it as a violent movement; Gandhi wrote that as a spiritual ideal Zionism had his sympathy, but by the use of force the Jews had vulgarized and debased their ideal...