The red/black alliance, liberal democracy and Israel
Op-ed: If not by intent, then certainly by effect, radical leftists are working to undermine the sole, pluralistic democracy in the region
At first glance these are contrasting outlooks on society. They join up when facing the common enemy of liberal democracy. While both left/right extremes are stringent and complete, liberal democracy is flexible and limited. While left/right extremes distrust free markets, liberal democracy embraces them. While left/right extremes seek a utopian society and total loyalty, liberal democracy is contentious and often sloppy. Imperfection is natural for liberal democracy because it is the product of individual choice and mutually tolerant differences.
Israel stands as the sole liberal democracy in the Middle East. Its disputatious, flawed and pluralistic character makes it a good mark for its enemies. In opposing Israel, the red colors of the extreme left and the black flags of the extreme right fly together. The radical left gets the pleasure of rebuking a capitalist country, exploiting its factious makeup and taking a slap at “colonial rule”. The reactionary right seeks real power by weakening Israel’s presence in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and casting the Jewish state as an international pariah. Few tactics have combined more frequently than the red/black attempt to South Africanize the Arab-Israeli conflict.
We see its incarnations in the International Solidarity Movement, the Gaza flotilla, and sundry parties that support Divest, Boycott and Sanctions. Incongruously, we are witnessing the beginning of a jihadist peace movement. An assortment of ideological academics, cultural celebrities, Muslim students and Islamist activists have gathered under the banner of self-styled "peace movements," whose major purpose is to boycott Israel. In these hands the word "peace" is inverted to convey "surrender" ––or else we will conduct a relentless war against you by other means.
The recent boycott resolution of the American Studies Association tells us something about its propensity to screen other societies through a purist morality. Radicals in the Modern Language Association have poised that body to pursue anti-Israel resolutions. By calling itself a non-violent movement, the extreme left aspires to transfer its cause into the mainstream of the academy; and then into other sectors of society.
Who is more likely to succeed?
The red/black alliance is hardly new. A well-known instance occurred during the late 1930s when leftist radicals in the West endorsed Hitler’s pacts with Stalin. Less than a half century later secular Marxists and Shiite Islamists marched side by side in Tehran to overthrow the Shah. That red-black alliance was soon followed by a theocratic Iran that now jails dissenters, executes gay men and obliges women to cover themselves from head to toe. Today, Turkish authorities report a link between the leftist Humanitarian Relief Fund and Islamist al-Qaeda.
History teaches us that black trumps red; theocrats are far more disciplined and dedicated than secularists. Religion is forever while secular life is temporary. The reactionary right believes it will be judged by a divine force and adjusts its fervor accordingly. Deep down the radical left knows it is just experimenting with a new order of things and lacks the same life sacrificing ardor. Who is more likely to succeed; those who think they are to be judged by God or those whose legacy is in the hands of historians?
The red/black alliance is more than just a threat against a small nation, but to liberal democracy itself. Radical leftists may or may not believe they are advancing a democratic cause; they may think they are working with like-minded activists who happen to be very pious. But like the red flag holders before them, they will be overcome by much deeper wells in the Middle East. If not by intent, then certainly by effect they are working to undermine the sole, pluralistic democracy in the region. Whether they ultimately succeed is up to the rest of us.
H.V. Savitch is Distinguished Research Professor of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville
