The Movement and the Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left

313 Pages·2019·2.961 MB·English

by  Michael R. Fischbach

THE MOVEMENT
AND THE MIDDLE E AS T
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T H E M O V E M E N T
A N D T H E M I D D L E E A S T
How the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Divided the American Left
Michael R. Fischbach
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2020 by Michael R. Fischbach. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any informa-
tion storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford
University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fischbach, Michael R., author.
Title: The Movement and the Middle East : how the Arab-Israeli conflict divided the
American Left / Michael R. Fischbach.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2019. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019012962 (print) | LCCN 2019013916 (ebook) | ISBN
9781503611078 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503610446 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN
9781503611061 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Arab-Israeli conflict—1967–1973—Foreign public opinion,
American. | New Left—United States—History—20th century. | Israel—Foreign
public opinion, American.
Classification: LCC DS119.7 (ebook) | LCC DS119.7 .F564 2019 (print) | DDC
956.04/81—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019012962
Jacket design: Kevin Barrett Kane
For Lisa, Tara and Adnan, Grace, and Sophia
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Contents
List of Acronyms ix
Prologue 1
1. The Times They Are a-Changin’: The New Left
and Revolutionary Internationalism 9
2. Conflict in the Ivory Tower: Campus Activism 25
3. (Fellow) Travelers: Left-Wing Youth in the Middle East 40
4. Israel Exceptionalism: Jewish Attacks on the New Left 58
5. Theory and Praxis: The Old Left against Israel 74
6. Ghost of Revolution Past: Conflicted Communists 91
7. We’re Not Gonna Take It: The Socialist Lurch toward Israel 107
8. Give Peace a Chance? The Ambivalent Anti–Vietnam War
Movement 120
9. After the Storm: Divergent Left-Wing Paths 136
10. The Shadow of the Cold War: Continued Pro-Israeli Pushback 153
vii
viii Contents
11. Taking Root: The New Thinking Goes Mainstream 168
12. Identity Politics and Intersectionality: Feminism and Zionism 184
Epilogue 201
Acknowledgments 207
Notes 209
Bibliography 245
Index 277
Acronyms
AAUG Association of Arab-American University Graduates
AAWO Alliance Against Women’s Oppression
AFFP American Friends of Free Palestine
AFSC American Friends Service Committee
ASU American Servicemen’s Union
AZYF American Zionist Youth Foundation
BARU Bay Area Revolutionary Union
BDS Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CLP Communist Labor Party
CONAME Committee on New Alternatives in the Middle East
CPME Committee for a Progressive Middle East
CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union
CPUSA Communist Party of the United States of America;
Communist Party USA
CRV Committee of Returned Volunteers
CSMEL Committee to Support Middle East Liberation
DSA Democratic Socialists of America
DSOC Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FOR Fellowship of Reconciliation
FSLN Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional
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