This is an open letter by Rashid Khalidi to the administration of Columbia University, where the renown Palestinian American historian served as the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies for 23 years. “Although I have retired, I was scheduled to teach a large lecture course on this topic in the fall as a ‘special lecturer’ but I cannot do so under the conditions Columbia has accepted by capitulating to the Trump administration in June,” Khalidi explains.
This is a Discussion with Readers column on the character of the October 7 attack on Israel led by Hamas. “I’ve noticed that you keep referring to the Hamas Oct 7 attack as ‘gruesome,’” Meryl Lynn Lombardi wrote. “Why would this be needed in the face of the over 18,000 murdered Palestinians, nothing but genocide and ethnic cleansing. And the wholesale destruction of Gaza.” World-Outlook’s editors explain why they do not think that the attack by Hamas has become less gruesome because Israel — with its exponentially greater military power — has outdone Hamas in barbarity.
This is a Discussion with Readers column on the views of Marxist scholar Isaac Detutscher on Jew hatred and the Palestinian national liberation struggle.
In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the last of four installments.
In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the third of four parts.
In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the second of four parts.
In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the first of four parts.
This is the second of a two-part essay that appears in the January/February 2024 edition of Against the Current. The author, Alan Wald, is an editor of that publication and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace since 2016. Wald begins his essay as a review of the recently published book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy” by Nathan Thrall. From that starting point, he addresses some of the most urgent political issues arising from Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack led by Hamas. Wald’s article will be of interest to anyone opposed to the current horror unfolding each day in Gaza as well as those interested in learning more about the history of the issues posed today.
This is the first of a two-part essay that appears in the January/February 2024 edition of Against the Current. The author, Alan Wald, is an editor of that publication and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace since 2016. Wald begins his essay as a review of the recently published book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy” by Nathan Thrall. From that starting point, he addresses some of the most urgent political issues arising from Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack led by Hamas. Wald’s article will be of interest to anyone opposed to the current horror unfolding each day in Gaza as well as those interested in learning more about the history of the issues posed today.
This “Discussion with Our Readers” column takes up the Jewish question, the history of the struggle for Palestinian self-determination, and the reactionary character of Hamas.
One might reasonably ask, what is the value of reviewing a brief pamphlet, written over 50 years ago, that its publisher has now taken out of print? The answer is quite a lot — in light of the brutal October 7 Hamas attack that left over 1,000 Jews and others dead, and the murderous Israeli response that has targeted the entire Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip. Even the title may strike some as jarring today. The Israeli siege of Gaza, the cutoff of food, water, fuel and other necessities, accompanied by a brutal air war, with a ground invasion apparently imminent, pose the real danger of the survival of the 2+ million residents of Gaza as an immediate concern to humanity. Is the survival of the Jews also posed? This review of the pamphlet, “How Can the Jews Survive? A Socialist Answer to Zionism,” delves into these questions.