Israel, Palestine and Socialism

Abstract

"The six-hundredth day of the Six-Day War" was the apt title of a television programme; and, as more days and more months pass, this continuing conflict remains the most intractable of all international issues. For Socialists it presents a particular difficulty. One cannot easily recall another problem over which Socialists of good faith have disagreed so much--disagreed in their sympathies, disagreed over possible solutions, disagreed in finding a way to apply basic Socialist principles, disagreed in analysis of the very nature of the problem. This essay is an attempt to establish a Socialist approach by an analysis related to principle. As a starting-point, it may be worth while to survey the very different attitudes taken by non-Socialists too, and in particular by political forces within the great powers whose intervention has been a major thread in the story.