The South African Left - and, indeed, the international Left - is in a strange post-Communist state. All that's left of the Communist world is Cuba, North Korea and, rather dubiously, China and Vietnam. The most striking silence after the world financial crisis of 2008 was that almost no-one made any of the usual speeches about the crisis of capitalism and socialism being the answer.
The truth was that nobody much believed in that any more. Even amongst the huge enthusiasm for the work of Thomas Picketty and the (entirely reasonable) protests against growing inequality, no one, not even Picketty, is arguing for more than small modifications to the capitalist system.
Despite that, a considerable network from the Old Left still exists in trade unions, on campuses, in Third World countries and many NGOs. In addition, as any balance of power theorist would have predicted, the emergence of America as the sole superpower created a great balancing wave of anti-Americanism and this provided the glue to hold this disparate network together.
In this ideological near-vacuum, two things stood out.
First, the Left had strong habitual sympathies with Russia and China and continued to defend them. It would try to take seriously the notion that China was still Communist when even a majority of its Central Committee were (and are) businessmen Similarly, South Africa's ANC and many other Left movements in the Third World were riveted by China's success and continually preached that their own country must "learn from China, not only economically but politically". Similarly, this international Left took the Russian side against Ukraine, even to the extent of pretending that the Kiev regime was fascist, even Nazi.
Secondly, the Left's new cause was the enormous campaign against Israel, where the entire panoply of the old anti-apartheid movement was used to great effect. This eventuated in the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement which became increasingly vociferous on Western university campuses and other "progressive" arenas, producing outbursts of straightforward anti-Semitism during the recent Gaza crisis.
The BDS noticeably turned its tactics not just against Israel but against Jewish "host" groups in third countries, insisting that they were all implicit Zionists. Given the long and disgraceful history of anti-Semitism on both Right and Left in Europe - such anti-Semitism was famously called "the socialism of fools" - the Left was clearly playing with fire.
The oddity is that no one seems to have realised that these two causes are in conflict with one another.
Russia and Israel
The USSR recognised Israel only three days after it was created and gave the young state political, military and demographic support. The USSR had played a central role in getting the UN to partition Palestine in 1947 and delivered the votes of the whole Soviet bloc (less Yugoslavia) for this objective too.
Stalin then arranged for the emigration of more than 300,000 Eastern European Jews between 1948 and 1951 - half of all Israeli immigrants in that period. This provided a crucial source of recruits for the Israeli army. When the 1948 war saw Israel expel 700,000 Palestinian Arabs, the USSR refused to blame Israel and said only the British were at fault. In the same year the USSR voted at the UN against the possible return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.
Just as important, the main source of arms to Israel was Communist Czechoslovakia - something that could only happen by Soviet agreement. The Czechs supplied not only light arms but heavy artillery, tanks and aircraft. Ben Gurion said that these weapons "saved the country. The Czech arms deal was the greatest help we then had..without it, I very much doubt we could have survived the first month".
Moreover, today Russia has a strong and growing relationship with Israel. Vladimir Putin happily boasts that Israel is a Russian-speaking country because there are a million Russian Israelis, many of whom happily return to Russia on regular visits. Moreover, Israel has become an increasingly popular tourist destination for Russians and Moscow has helpfully abolished visa requirements.
By 2012 Russian tourists to Israel numbered 380,000, second in size only to Americans. The result is a huge infusion of Russian money into Israel. Meanwhile Russian-Israeli trade has soared from only $12m. In 1991 to $3.5bn. in 2013 and is increasing at 20% a year, for Russia is not only extremely keen to have access to Israeli high technology but also buys a large amount of Israeli agricultural produce.
Indeed, this trade has become so important to both countries that in 2013 they agreed to establish a free trade zone through the WTO. And, of course, the Russians are keen to buy Israeli arms, especially their sophisticated drones and the Israelis have helped the Russians set up a drone assembly plant at Yekaterinburg. The result has been a warm and growing relationship between the two countries at every level. In 2013 Putin visited Israel and together with Binyamin Netanyahu, unveiled a monument in Netanya (Israel) in honour of the Red Army soldiers who had fought the Nazis, a symbolic assertion of how both countries had opposed the Holocaust.
For Israel, the relationship helps balance its dependence on the USA and both countries are keen to show friendship to the other. When huge gas reserves were discovered off the Israeli coast at first only American companies were allowed to exploit them but in 2010 an exception was made for Gazprom which has happily moved in and been awarded exclusive rights to the Tamar gas field, off Haifa.
Similarly, on several occasions the Russians have suspended or cancelled planned arms supplies to Syria and Iran thanks to Israeli pressure. Israel has also been extremely careful to stay neutral in the struggle between Russia and Ukraine and, to the fury of the Americans, the Israeli delegate simply failed to attend the UN General Assembly meeting in March 2014, called in order to denounce Russia's annexation of the Crimea. During the recent Gaza crisis Putin called for a cessation of hostilities but was quick to add that Russia was 'a true friend of Israel' and that it supported Israel's right to protect its citizens.
China and Israel
Even under Mao, China never denied Israel's right to exist and once the Sino-Soviet split took place relations between the two countries warmed. Through the 1980s the two countries built secret military ties so that by 1984 many of the heavy tanks in China's National Day parade were actually retrofitted Soviet vehicles captured by the Israelis during the 1967 and 1973 wars with Egypt and Syria. All told Israel seems to have sold China some $4bn. worth of arms in this period.
China and Israel opened official diplomatic relations in 1992 at which point their annual trade stood at only $30m but this grew at a 40% compound rate to over $10bn by 2010, with China eager to learn from Israel in the fields of solar energy, electronics, water management, agriculture, robotics and construction. By 2010 over 1,000 Israeli firms were established in China while the Israeli and US Jewish markets had become so important to China that 500 factories in China were producing kosher food.
From 1992 on, official ties have become much closer, with multiple ministerial visits both ways. Both Israeli premiers Ehud Olmert and Netanyahu have visited China, while the Chinese Foreign Minister visited Israel in December 2013. Israel became China's second most important arms supplier (after Russia) and the USA became increasingly edgy as Israel exported more and more high tech lasers, drones, satellites, missiles and avionics to China.
When Israel proposed to sell the sophisticated Phalcon early-warning radar system to Bejing, Washington finally put its foot down and the deal was cancelled. Nonetheless, other military commerce has continued to soar and the Chinese Defence Minister and the heads of the People's Liberation Army and Navy have all been eager visitors to Israel. Washington worries that through the good offices of the Israelis China may have gained access to the Patriot missile system and the latest generation of US aircraft. By 2012 vessels of the PL Navy under Admiral Wang Jun-fei paid a four day goodwill visit to Haifa naval base to celebrate 25 years of increasingly close co-operation with the Israeli Defence Force.
Inevitably, as relations warmed, China's line on Israel softened. Having initially fully supported the most militant Arab positions against Israel, Bejing moved towards a more ambivalent position in which it continued to support the Palestinian cause while regarding Israel as a good friend. In 2011 a joint Chinese-Israeli project was announced to build a multi-billion dollar high-speed rail link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean so that Chinese goods could flow overland through Israel into Europe.
Meanwhile, China hastened to increase academic ties with Israel. A special exchange programme for Israeli and Chinese academics was set up while Chinese universities began to offer courses on the Israeli economy, Judaism and Hebrew. China is already Israel's biggest Asian market and its trading importance grows every year. Naturally, there is an increasing human flow of tourists, businessmen, academics and students between the two countries.
It will be seen immediately that the Left's enthusiasm for Russia and China is thus in complete contradiction with its anti-Israeli position. One also has to realise that ultimately the anti-apartheid movement succeeded largely due to the enormous financial, military, educational and political assistance of the Communist bloc, particularly the Soviet Union.[1] And that, quite clearly, the anti-Israel campaign does not and will not enjoy similar support.
Indeed, the BDS supports an academic boycott of Israel, but what is it doing about the ever-increasing academic contacts between Israel and both China and Russia? How does it view the rapidly increasing trade, investment and military ties between these three countries? And why does it have nothing to say about the fact that while it is seeking to isolate Israel in every way, China and Russia are happily moving in the opposite direction? One suspects that any BDS attempts to embarrass the Russian or Chinese leadership by public protests against them would get short shrift: perhaps that is why they don't happen.
Indeed, this comparison makes one wonder whether, in seeking to apply the model of the anti-apartheid movement to Israel, the Left may have tackled a tougher nut than it can deal with. First, there is the fact that the overtly anti-Semitic actions seen in France and elsewhere have actually had the effect of increasing Jewish emigration to Israel from these countries - and thus strengthening Israel in the end. Secondly, one realises in retrospect that South Africa's whites were in a far weaker situation, not only in relative demographic terms but because their country was mainly a primary producer of mineral and agricultural goods.
In the end it was not too difficult for other countries to find alternative sources for such goods and this greatly facilitated the movement for sanctions and disinvestment. Israel, on the other hand, is a producer of some of the most impressive high-tech in the world across fields as various as desalination, avionics, irrigation and telecommunications. Everyone wants access to these technologies and there are few alternative sources. Moreover, everything suggests that Israel's comparative advantage in these fields is only increasing.
And finally, of course, the Jewish diaspora includes many highly influential, affluent and socially valuable populations (musicians, intellectuals, professionals of every kind, especially prolific in the world of "soft power") scattered across the Western world, Australasia and Latin America. These groups naturally exert a supportive pressure within their societies in favour of their co-religionists in Israel. White South Africa had nothing of the sort: indeed, the boot was on the other foot with South African exiles around the world being among the most militant anti-apartheid voices.
All of which should give the militants of BDS cause for some introspection. They have scored some easy victories on a variety of campuses and in a number of trade unions and the like, but quite clearly this is not going to be enough. And in any case, how meaningful are such gains while Russia and China are moving so fast to invalidate them, and while America remains staunchly pro-Israel?
The struggle against apartheid was easy compared to this. And already, merely to get as far as it has, BDS has moved a long way into the extremely murky waters of anti-Semitism. If it becomes yet more shrill and more militant, it will inevitably move even further in that direction. This will bring real threat, real danger to the Jewish diaspora - but that will be even more dangerous to the anti-Zionists, and not only because they will trigger increased emigration to Israel. They will have to face the fact that whatever the world's weariness with Israel, it is not willing to endure another Kristallnacht.
Footnote:
[1] See especially I.Filatova and A. Davidson, The Hidden Thread. Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era.
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