Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds2889. The Zionist Movement and the PLOIn the pre-state period, the nuclei of the two present political groupingswere in often bitter conflict, in part, class conflict. The LaborParty was a party of Jewish workers (NB: not workers; in fact, itopposed efforts by the Mandatory government to improve theconditions of Arab workers * while urging a boycott of their labor andproduce), 189 while the Revisionists, the precursors of Begin’s Herut,were in fact an offshoot of European fascism, with an ideology ofsubmission of the mass to a single leader, strike-breaking, chauvinistfanaticism, and the rest of the familiar paraphernalia of the 1930s. 1909.1 “The Boundaries of Zionist Aspirations”*Few leaders of the pre-state Labor Party were so concerned with justice for theArabs as Chaim Arlosoroff, who was assassinated in 1933 (by Revisionists,Labor alleged). It is therefore interesting to consider his views on this matter. Ina 1932 memorandum to Chaim Weizmann, he wrote that a major problem wasthat the British administration was “considerate of the sensibilities of the Arabsand Moslems,” and “it would be very hard for them to depart from this practiceto the extent of becoming responsive to our demands.” Another problem wasthat the Mandatory authorities might promulgate “regulations for the protectionof tenant farmers,” etc., all harmful to the Zionist enterprise. He thereforeproposed “a transition period during which the Jewish minority would exerciseorganized revolutionary rule.” On the powerful influence of Bolshevik ideas onthe Labor Party, particularly its leader David Ben-Gurion, see Yoram Peri,Between Ballots and Bullets. The left wing of the Labor Alignment, Mapam,was predominantly Stalinist until the mid-1950s.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky