A Date with Destiny: How Marxists Are Lured Into Supporting Islamists

Barry Rubin

Here's an interesting tiny example of how in practice nominally humanitarian Western efforts slide over into backing revolutionary Islamist efforts to wipe out Israel. Again, this example is not of great importance but it illustrates hundreds, even thousands, of actions going on around the world. The left-wing Socialist Party in the Netherlands is backing a Muslim boycott of Israeli dates, focusing on the eating of figs during Ramadan. The party's own statement shows the contradiction between two positions.

On the one hand, the Socialists say this is in support of “peaceful resistance” against Israeli policies in the “Palestinian territories,” implying that this was only about the West Bank. But it also says that the figs came from Palestinian lands under Israeli occupation, whereas they came from inside Israel, thus implying that all of Israel should be under Palestinian Arab rule. This is, of course, the message of Islamists and others campaigning against Israel.

In a film on the subject to which readers are referred, apparently produced by a British boycott committee, Palestinians are described as "starving" (at a time when all mainstream Western media are reporting prosperity on the West Bank), and "caged" behind "apartheid walls."

The Jordan Valley is described as "one of the most fertile places in the Middle East" where almost anything can be grown. That's a rather questionable assertion but the fact is that most of the Jordan Valley--and by far the most fertile part--is inside pre-1967 Israel. Even if all of the West Bank were within an independent Palestinian state, that part of the valley is not exactly a garden spot. If you've ever been there, you've seen that it is one of the most desolate places on earth, near the Dead Sea.

There are tiny Jewish settlements in the valley and they do have some date palms. I've seen them and I think they could all be counted without difficulty. So this operation is based on a scam, first about the situation of Palestinians, then a blurring of the difference between Israel and the West Bank, and in regard to a half-dozen other factors. It is a good example of how Marxists are lured into supporting Islamists and their goals.