Labor Zionism

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Labor Zionism (or Socialist Zionism, Labour Zionism) is the traditional left wing of the Zionist ideology and was historically oriented towards the Jewish workers' movement. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created simply by appealing to the international community or to a powerful nation such as Britain, Germany or the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Labor Zionists believed that a Jewish state could only be created as part of the class struggle through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in Palestine and constructing a state through the creation of kibbutzim in the countryside and a Jewish proletariat in the cities.

Labor Zionism grew in size and influence and eclipsed "political Zionism" by the 1930s both internationally and within the British Mandate of Palestine where Labor Zionists dominated the institutions of the Yishuv, particularly the trade union federation known as the Histadrut. The Haganah -- the largest Zionist paramilitary force -- was a Labour Zionist institution. It played a leading role in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and its former members dominated the Israeli military for decades after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Philosophers of the Labor Zionist movement included Moses Hess, Nahum Syrkin and Ber Borochov and leading figures in the movement included David Ben-Gurion. Albert Einstein was one of the prominent figures that supported the Labor Zionist Movement. The main vehicle of the Labor Zionist movement was the Poale Zion party which split into left and right factions in 1920. The Left Poale Zion party ultimately merged with Hashomer Hatzair and several small left-wing groups to become the Mapam party, which in turn later joined with other parties to create Meretz and Yachad. The Right Poale Zion became the Mapai party, later the Israeli Labour Party. These two parties were initially the two largest parties in the Yishuv and in the first Israeli Knesset and the Mapai/Labour Party in particular dominated Israeli politics both in the pre-independence Yishuv and for the first three decades of the state of Israel, until Revisionist Zionism (represented by the Likud political party) became an increasingly strong power in Israeli politics and surpassed Labor Zionism in the 1970s.

1 Decline and transformation
2 Movements
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Decline and transformation

With the decline of socialist movements generally, the destruction of European Jewry and the ascent of North American Jews into the middle class, the Labor Zionist movement has moved away from its working class and socialist roots. In Israel the Labor Party has followed the general path of other governing social democratic parties such as the British Labour Party and is now fully oriented towards capitalism and even neo-liberalism though recently it has rediscovered the welfare state under leader Amir Peretz. Generally however, what distinguishes modern Labor Zionism from other streams is not economic policy, an analysis of capitalism or any class analysis or orientation but its attitude towards the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Labor Zionists tending to support the Israeli peace camp to varying degrees.