ENGAGE - ARCHIVE

The Boycott

Arguments against the campaign to boycott Israel. Here.

The pro-boycott campaign. Here.

AAUP and the cancelled Bellagio conference. Here.

Opposition voices to boycott in Palestine. Here.

Antisemitism

A number of pieces that give Engage's central arguments about the relationship between antisemitism and parts of the left. Here.

Pieces on the "anti-imperialism of fools" as applied to Israel/Palestine and more widely. Including critiques of the "democratic secular state" slogan and some pieces focused on Israel and the way it is analysed by "the left. Here.

A number of pieces on George Galloway, Stop the War Coalition, Respect and the Socialist Workers Party. Here.

Ken Livingstone, Jews and Israel. Here.

Engaging with the people who speak on behalf of the "Jews for Justice for Palestinians" signatories. Here.

Clare Short MP. Here.

Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP who resigned after emailing abuse to a Jewish constituent. Here.

A number of responses to David Clark's standard orthodox left piece on antisemitism. Here.

Was Karl Marx an antisemite? Read this, by Robert Fine.

Antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the Palestine solidarity movement. Here.

Jihadi and Islamist antisemitism. Here.

Other antisemitism - not necessarily from the left or from the Islamists. Here.

A round-up of antisemitic cartoons. Here

Israel and South Africa - Zionism = apartheid?

An excellent and clear piece by John Strawson on the Israel - South Africa analogy. Here. (May 06)

'Why depict Israel as a chamber of horrors like no other in the world?' Benjamin Pogrund on the apartheid analogy. Here. (February 06)

Israel is a democracy in which Arabs vote? Benjamin Pogrund. Here. (December 05)

Ralph Seliger on the apartheid analogy. Here. (February 06)

The Guardian: Israel and something worse than apartheid? Mark Gardner. Here. (February 06)

Did South Africa's Jews 'Benefit and Thrive' Under Apartheid? Here. (Nancy Tenenbaum, February 06)

Mearsheimer and Walt - "The Lobby" paper

Jeff Weintraub has put together this extensive collection of links to responses to Mearsheimer and Walt.

Start with these:

Robert Fine on Mearshimer and Walt. Here. (And Fine's response to the criticism of Irene Bruegel, here.)

Herf and Markovits on Mearshimer and Walt. Here.

David Hirsh on "the Lobby" and academic freedom, here.

David Hirsh on the left-right link-up around the "Lobby paper". Here.

Benny Morris on Mearsheimer and Walt. Here.

Christopher Hitchens on "the Lobby" paper. Here.

David M Seymour's response. Here. (March 06)

Robert Fisk had a piece in the Independent, praising Mearsheimer and Walt's courage for standing up against "the Lobby". The piece was illustrated with an American flag - complete with stars of David. Read David Hirsh's response. Here. (April 05)

Engage supports free speech and academic freedom. Here. (April 05)

The Singling out of Israel as a unique evil

Know the boundaries - between criticism and demonization. Jon Pike and David Hirsh. Here. (January 06)

How can Israel be both a democratic state and a Jewish state? Does Engage support racist Israeli laws? Some answers from David Hirsh, Shalom Lappin and Malachi. Here. (October 05)

Clare Short MP: "Israel is the major cause of division and violence in the world". Here.

Respect support for the 'Cairo Conference', whose rhetoric demonizes Israel and puts "Zionism" at the vanguard of global imperialism. Here. (October 05)

Hillel Shenker in East Jerusalem on Israel's independence day. here.

Were the Nazis pro-Zionist? Did the imperialists set up Israel? Here. (David Hirsh, May 06)

UCU, AUT and Natfhe

Jon Pike's analysis of the merger and the constitution of the investigative commission that was set up to think through how our unions should relate to boycott calls and human rights abuses around the world. Here. (Jon Pike, December 05)

Israeli academic union sends message of solidarity to AUT and Natfhe during their dispute for increased pay. Here. (March 06)

Mark Osborn describes antisemitism from "socialists" in Natfhe. Here.

Jon Pike on solidarity. Here.

Jon Pike on the AUT's last council meeting and its adoption of a consistent policy on human rights abuses and a wise policy on boycotts. Here.

A number of pieces written during the campaign to revoke the boycott in AUT in 2005. Here. Here. Here.

Engage's original founding statement. Here.

Some Engage responses to the Israeli and Jewish right

'The smart way to fight British antisemitism' - David Hirsh's response to Isi Leibler in the Jerusalem Post. Here. (November 05)

David Hirsh argues against an ahistoric and essentialist notion of antisemitism. Here. (January 2005)

David Hirsh argues against the ADL's proposal to boycott the boycotters. Here.

Benjamin Pogrund - "Palestinians and Israelis must be able to meet together to talk peace". Here. (June 05)

David Hirsh on Melanie Phillips. Here. (June 06)

Ariel Sharon's cabinet helped the boycotters during the 05 campaign by sharing a with them a fiction that the "University of Judea and Samaria" in the West Bank, a small settler college, was in fact a university. Here.

The anti-imperialism of Idiots

August Bebel referred to antisemitism on the left as the Socialism of Fools. Some contemporary thinking on the left may well be described as the anti-imperialism of idiots. These links take you to critiques of some of this thought, with a focus on the Israel/Palestine question.

Jon Pike takes on the high profile philosopher Ted Honderich, who argues in favour of the suicide bombing of Israeli civilians. Here in Democratiya. (November 05)

John Strawson's comprehensive critique of the "one state solution". Here, in Democratiya. (March 05)

David Hirsh's statement of the case for a "two state solution". Here. (April 05)

Sean Matgamna on the need for international pressure to force the Hamas government to recognize Israel. Here. (April 05)

Israel an imperialist creation? There was a British and American arms embargo on Palestine in 1948. Without arms from Stalin, Israel might never have been born. Here. (David Hirsh, May 05)

David Hirsh: Two Wars. The war for Palestinian freedom and the war for Israeli existence. Here. (July 06)

David Hirsh: We should oppose the war in the Lebanon, but we should also take seriously the existential threat that Israel faces. Here. (August 06)

Shalom Lappin's comprehensive critique of Jacqueline Roses' "The Question of Zion". Here. (September 06)

Fred Halliday: "The Left and the Jihad". Here. (September 06)

Is Israel good or bad? Here. (David Hirsh, March 06)

David Hirsh argues against the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis. Here.

A little comedy

'Israel dismantles: world problems end'. Here

But this is not so funny: the story of Dieudonne, the fashionable "anti-Zionist" French comedian. Here. (March 06)

This is not so funny either. Antisemitic jokes are cool at the Edinburgh Festival. Here.

This on the other hand, is quite funny. Here. (September 06)