Ep 106: "With Friends Like These": Israeli Leftist Yuval Idan Responds to “Western Leftist Friends"

Radio Free Humanity: The Marxist-Humanist Podcast

Andrew Kliman and Gabriel Donnelly interview Yuval Idan, author of “To my Western leftist friends, from your leftist Israeli friend.” This widely read Medium post addresses Western leftists who treated Hamas’ terrorist attack as “an unfortunate situation,” “stayed silent,” or “lecture[d] us about context and resistance.” After recounting her own political history, Yuval and the interviewers discuss the prevalence of such “Western leftist” reactions, why they shocked her, what accounts for them, and why she thinks they have harmed Israeli and Palestinian leftists’ struggle. She lays out how she thinks Western leftists should respond, discusses her optimism that the conflict will end, and stresses that most Jewish immigrants to Israel did not have “settler- colonialist” aims, but came as refugees with nowhere else to go—and that they, and Palestinians, still have nowhere else to go. Plus current-events segment: “Has Trump finally ‘crossed the line’ into fascism? What line?” Andrew responds to an Atlantic piece by NeverTrump conservative Tom Nichols.