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How the global left greeted the Six Day War

Wolf Mankowitz,called the approach of the Czechoslovak Communists towards Israel “a curious and repulsive psychopathology”.

June 5, 2017 14:40
PA-17035141
3 min read

”Israel is in mortal danger: she stands encircled by enemies who declare their intent to destroy her.” So began an appeal by the leadership of British Jewry to the community to make “a personal financial sacrifice” four days before the start of the Six Day war in June 1967.

The appeal was not heard by many Jews outside communal boundaries — the assimilated, the alienated, the acculturated and the accidental — yet the fear that the House of Israel was about to be demolished was widely felt.

Many Jews on the European Left — particularly those in the Communist party — asked themselves if another Shoah was about to take place. They had to choose whether to follow the aggressive pro-Nasser approach of the Kremlin or to support the cause of an embattled Hebrew republic.

This choice had been placed before them in the past, with the Nazi-Soviet pact (1939) and the Doctors’ Plot (1953), and many had closed their eyes.