Argentine Left Parties and the 1967 Six-Day War through the Prism of Global Networks and South-South Connections

Maximiliano Jozami

doi:10.15460/jbla.56.125

Abstract

La guerra de junio de 1967 entre Israel y los ejércitos de Egipto, Siria y Jordania tuvo un importante impacto sobre la izquierda argentina, que se alineó con los países árabes. El Partido Comunista de Argentina (PCA), que tenía una influencia significativa dentro de la comunidad judía, defendió la política de la Unión Soviética, mientras que Política Obrera (PO) y el Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (PRT), dos corrientes trotskistas, fueron críticos de la política soviética y vieron en el proceso político del Medio Oriente una revolución nacional en curso que se podía convertir en una revolución socialista. Aunque los tres partidos repudiaban abiertamente al antisemitismo y denunciaban los llamados a expulsar a la población judía de Israel/Palestina, no estuvieron exentos del uso de tropos antisemitas (y orientalistas). Describían a Israel como un mero ‘peón del imperialismo estadounidense’, carente de agencia y, con la excepción del PCA, ignoraron la existencia de los Palestinos como un grupo nacional en sí mismo. El debate sobre la cuestión de Israel/Palestina en la Conferencia Tricontinental celebrada en La Habana en 1966 influyó a la izquierda en su conjunto, y parece haber servido de insumo a las posiciones de PO, organización que se convirtió en el primer partido marxista del mundo en plantear la destrucción política del Estado de Israel, la cual se suponía sería llevada a cabo por la alianza revolucionaria de las masas árabes y judías del Medio Oriente. Por el contrario, tanto el PCA como el PRT defendían el derecho de Israel a su existencia.

Highlights

The quasi-permanent presence of the Israel/Palestine question in the Argentine political scenario has been highlighted by different authors,[1] and the history of the Argentine left has been deemed essential “for the construction of both a global outlook as well as a particular vision on any of the long processes or situations lived in Argentina during the last one-hundred or one-hundred-andtwenty years”, since that political current permeated decisively the social, intellectual and cultural fabric of the country.[2]
The debate of the Israel/Palestine question at the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in 1966 influenced the left as a whole, and seems to have informed the positions of Política Obrera (PO), organization that became the first Marxist party in the world to have called for the political destruction of the State of Israel, which was to have been carried out by the revolutionary alliance of the Arab and Jewish masses of the Middle East
There was, an exception, since even though the leadership of the state of Israel appears as a mere agent of US Imperialism, one organization of the Israeli left did have a voice in the Trotskyist journals: both PO and the PRT published an article by Matzpen that, at the same time that called for the “de-zionization” of Israel and equal rights for Arabs and Jews, explained that a Hebrew nation had been created as a result of the Zionist conquest.[67]

Summary

Maximiliano Jozami

Abstract. - The June 1967 war between Israel and the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan had an important impact on the Argentine left, which sided with the Arab countries. The debate of the Israel/Palestine question at the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in 1966 influenced the left as a whole, and seems to have informed the positions of PO, organization that became the first Marxist party in the world to have called for the political destruction of the State of Israel, which was to have been carried out by the revolutionary alliance of the Arab and Jewish masses of the Middle East. Both the PCA and PRT defended Israel’s right to exist instead.

Introduction

The Outbreak of the War

Israel as Depicted by the Left

Conclusions