A collection of precious articles written between 1948 and 1967 from long out of print magazines such as Labor Action, New International, and the first series of New Politics, Hal Draper's Zionism, Israel and the Arabs offers an "independent socialist" perspective. Loyal not to Stalinism, social democracy, or any existing state and ruling class, he broadcasts many admirable and still contemporary stances on questions facing the Palestine solidarity movement.

Encouraging a split between the identity and heritage of Jewish people and Zionism, and among Palestinians and aspiring Arab and Muslim ruling elites, the author argues for pursuit of both autonomously from any collaboration with the rulers of the United States and Europe. Draper at every step offers many strategies and tactics worthy of our consideration.

Writing in 1948, Draper assesses the United Nations partition of Palestine and its role in the establishment of the state of Israel. He concludes it was nothing but an imperialist plan of the declining British and rising American empire in the Middle East region. Draper makes clear that focusing on interpretations of international law is a defeatist strategy-exactly because its pragmatic. He defines pragmatic politics as elites pandering to the imperialists who foment racial and national hostilities, quickly overwhelming any democratic instincts that may exist among the working classes of Israel, Palestine, and the United States.

Counseling no support for aspiring Arab rulers, terming them "colonels and kings," and perceiving their own desires for imperial rule in the Middle East, Draper spells out opposition to empire as a united international working class movement to overthrow the Zionist ruling class in Israel. He insists the onus is on the Jewish working class in Israel, not to lead the Palestinian national liberation struggle, but to carry themselves out of the degradation associated with their own name, jeopardizing their own existence.

In a 1952 article Hal Draper lambastes Israel's Nationality Act, a pillar of Israeli apartheid. This law passed by the Israeli Knesset explodes the myth of Arab citizenship within Israeli borders. It discriminates against non-Jews by depriving them of citizenship unless they were "residents" of Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel (as noted by an official registrar before the passing of this law). Otherwise the law insists Palestinians must prove continuous habitation in territory now held by Israel. Surely a difficult task for multitudes whose land and homes were seized at gunpoint. To add insult to injury this law extends citizenship to all Jews of any national origin. At the time of writing this essay, the U.S. did not allow dual citizenship. When the law was originally debated among Zionist legislators it was intended to encourage Israeli-American ties among ordinary people. Subsequently the U.S. state and ruling class, with their own interests in mind, has made accommodations for Zionist American citizens to have dual citizenship and to even volunteer for service in Israel's military.

Challenging a tendency within Palestine solidarity still existing after all these years, the author takes on the Arab nationalists who cling to fascist ideas. Further, noting the propensity of some to rewrite history equating all Jews with Zionism, even quoting Nazis as good coin to maintain such positions, the author equally slams the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) who defame the Jewish American community. For even as the ADL at times documents anti-Jewish bigotry, in Draper's terms, this "small army of espionage agents, undercover operatives, and agent provocateurs" function as cops policing loyalty to U.S. empire. While supposedly fighting racism, the ADL speaks about Arabs as a diabolical race save for the model minorities they occasionally promote - the lackeys for Israel. The author says these can seem like no win situations. And he has this concern back in 1956! But he offers much inspiration to soldier on.

In an essay on German reparations to Israel and "blood responsibility" Draper argues against the hypocrisy of Zionist rulers, such as the late Menachem Begin's posture that German people should be held in permanent purgatory even as its nation-state gave over reparations to Israel. Not impressed with the actions of the new liberal German ruling class, Draper reminds the coming to power of the Nazis in Germany was also the defeat of everyday Germans. Willing executioners among the rank and file or not, the author says to imagine Germans permanently as white supremacists is an acceptance of the Nazi projection of a destructive identity on to the German working classes. Opponents of the white supremacy of Israel might keep this in mind even as the Jewish working classes of that nation seem overwhelmingly loyal to a racist outlook at this time. Such devotion does not merely contribute to oppression of the Palestinians but their own degradation.

The reader will find of interest a comparative discussion of violence in Palestine/Israel with historical Black anti-white responses to white supremacy in the U.S. Draper explains the excesses and mistakes of the victim of an outrage should never be discussed on the level of those whose barbarism perpetuated the outrage. What does he mean by "excesses and mistakes"? What Draper has in mind is chauvinistic beliefs or indiscriminate violent rebellious direct actions, among those identified as members of an oppressed nation, that suggest a less than democratic or humanist attitude. The author does not wish to suggest solidarity activists should expect perfect Palestinians as a prerequisite to comradeship. Rather the aggressive nihilism of some should be weighed next to the patience and good will of many more.

Hal Draper exposes the war going on within the Zionist Jewish community as important for any effective Palestine solidarity. Not proclaiming "not in my name" and then standing with the State Department as some do today, Draper confronts the fundamentalism of the orthodox religious Zionist Jews and secular ones alike. According to Draper, Orthodox religious Jews in Israel have a history of stoning those caught driving on the Sabbath, attacking those who smoke, breaking up social gatherings of men and women, and enforcing the strictest patriarchy on wives and daughters. Tendencies within the Zionist state of Israel are caught between condemning what many secular Israelis believe is fascist type behavior by these Orthodox Jewish Israelis and privileging what others imagine to be an authentic nationalist ethos for the Jewish state. The only so-called "rational democracy" in the Middle East endlessly touted by state and media propaganda faces many of the same issues that a country like Iran is termed undemocratic for. However, Draper makes clear he is not merely in solidarity with the liberal view of secular Israelis as to their country's future. He insists Israel's Jewish chauvinist character, whether orthodox religious or secular nationalist, be abolished by Israelis themselves.

Draper also offers a transitional program for a binational state in Palestine/Israel. His suggestions include the following. Jim Crow voting and representation in Israeli trade unions need to be abolished. He insists on full repatriation and compensation for Palestinian refugees, and return of land and property stolen from Palestinians (with rent going to its real owners immediately). The program advocates the abolition of the segregation system of work permits and Arab only zones, border changes so Arab villages are not bisected by military checkpoints, and the reorientation of the Jewish American fundraising network for Israel (which raises millions a year for Israel) away from funding the Zionist project to funding the return of Palestinian refugees. Further, the program states that Israel should chart an independent economic path away from Zionist charity and U.S. imperial sponsorship. The author makes clear that none of these proposed reforms should be implemented as part of a "peace deal" with Arab and Israeli ruling elites but as an offensive of goodwill driven by the Israeli working classes from below.

If I have criticisms of this collection of Draper's writings they are two. First, it is his propensity to accept at face value and in good faith the socialist character of a section of the Zionist Jewish community and of the secular Jewish community within Israel and the U.S. Indeed, his challenging transitional vista for Israel is a type of legislation meant to confront this imagined community. He hopes there are many disillusioned people stuck involuntarily in the conundrum of a national socialism where racial Zionism passing as benign ethnic politics predominates.

National socialism, a term associated with the politics of Nazi Germany, is appropriately applied, not as a movement slogan (ie. Zionism=Nazism), but as a basis for looking at the politics of so-called liberal and socialist Zionists. The revolutionary socialist tradition, pejoratively and polemically, locates liberals and social democrats as "national socialists" for waffling in their opposition to racism and empire. As a consequence, in times of war, their "anti-war" stance ultimately is loyal to and betrays their promise to act to defeat their own states and ruling classes.

Zeev Sternhell, author of The Founding Myths of Israel, as well a scholar of fascism, has found national socialism a favorable framework for imagining the legacy of so-called Labor Zionists in Israel. The Labor Zionists have subordinated all democratic and working class visions to a national defense coalition which includes racists and capitalists. Draper's perspectives are an attempt to overturn Zionism as national socialism toward a multi-racial international socialist Israel/Palestine.

My second criticism of this book is Draper's instinct to accept that nation-states, even revolutionary nation-states, under certain conditions represent the self-determination of oppressed people. Draper's entire career opposing Stalinism and social democracy (he has termed it elsewhere "court Socialism," as one designed merely to entertain royalty) is evidence that he is more cautious on this question than most. But he could have put a greater emphasis on direct democracy then he already does. This, in fact, is crucial for battling liberal and socialist Zionism. These folks already distinguish themselves by a seemingly moral but defensive posture. They criticize the policies of Israel as a basis of veiling their preference for the permanence of the regime and its apartheid.

In a sense, the "independent socialists" of the Hal Draper variety advocate what they think the program of a true progressive state and ruling class should be. Though, most importantly, he does not rely on so-called progressive elites but suggests everyday people compel them to implement it from below. Readers might quarrel with his faith in the anti-racist potential of large sections of the Jewish or white working classes in Israel and the U.S. However, few would argue with his vision of the new binational anti-racist character of Israel/Palestine - an essential litmus test of that potential.

If adopted as a minimum standard for multi-racial and interfaith Palestine solidarity his program would quickly get results. It would have the effect of either transforming the shallow apologetics of liberal and socialist Zionists into solid opponents of white supremacy and empire, or drive them out of the Palestine solidarity movement toward a location where they can be more clearly seen as a primary foe of a militant freedom struggle.

Hal Draper peppers his essays with entertaining Old Testament quotes, with which he implies the Zionist state of Israel is a dubious moral project subject to inevitable downfall. He serves up a different type of old time religion: a prophesy about the potential of everyday people that deserves careful consideration.

Hal Draper. Zionism, Israel, and the Arabs: Notes on the Historical Background of the Middle East Tragedy. Berkeley, California: Center for Socialist History, 1997. 215p.