The Left’s Dangerous Love Affair with the Palestinian Cause
Why has the modern Left embraced Islamist groups like Hamas? This op-ed exposes the Cold War roots of the Left’s stubborn obsession with Palestine - revealing how Soviet propaganda, Marxist ideology, and post-colonial guilt forged a bizarre alliance that still distorts Western thinking today.
Damir Omerbegović
May 18, 2025 - 9:24 PM
Share
The Leftist Devotion to the Palestinian Cause
The fervent support for the “Palestinian cause” orchestrated by the (post)modern Left, in contrast to the support given by all the Islamists and awfully superficial and unsuspecting observers within Western societies, is indeed a peculiar and fascinating phenomenon, one that, I believe, demands a more profound elucidation.
To fully comprehend the origins and internal logic of this seemingly paradoxical leftist alignment, we must first delve into the historical moment of Israel’s founding - we must apprehend the Cold War’s broader context and the strategic propaganda efforts undertaken by the then-Soviet Union. It is essential, at the outset, to underscore how this era was marked by intense ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, a rivalry that naturally extended into the Middle East.
Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the United States recognized the nascent nation as a strategic ally, positioning Israel as a bulwark against Soviet influence in the region. In response, the Soviet Union aligned itself with various Arab states and their nationalist movements, viewing them as instruments through which to counter American hegemony and advance its own socialist agenda - not merely geopolitically, but also as an ideological counterweight.
Soviet Propaganda and the Mythologizing of Palestine
During this period, Soviet propaganda played a pivotal role in shaping global perceptions of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The media organs under state control, Pravda and Izvestia, frequently demonized Israel, portraying it as an imperialist aggressor under American dominion, while simultaneously romanticizing the Arabs - later self-proclaimed as Palestinians - as noble symbols of anti-colonial resistance. Yet, the influence of Soviet propaganda extended far beyond these reductive media portrayals.
It encompassed broader initiatives aimed at fostering so-called "international solidarity." The USSR established and funded communist international organizations such as the World Peace Council and the International Union of Students, which actively propagated pro-Palestinian and anti-Western rhetoric - particularly within university campuses, where the seeds of ideological influence often took deepest root.
Moreover, Soviet educational programs offered scholarships to students from developing nations, including the Arab world. These students, once immersed in Soviet ideological education, returned home as fervent advocates of socialism, now reframed within the context of what was increasingly viewed as the Palestinian liberation struggle. This indoctrination effort did not merely yield short-term ideological alignment - it planted generational narratives and frameworks that would later be exported, adapted, and localized within broader political movements in the West.
Marxism Meets Nationalism
The ideological transformation of early Palestinian nationalist movements under Soviet influence was thus both profound and mutually expedient. During the 1950s and 1960s, the then-prevalent Arab socialism emerged as a dominant force in the Middle East, providing fertile ground for the adoption of Marxist-Leninist doctrines within Palestinian liberation movements.
Groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), founded by George Habash in 1967, embraced Marxist principles and called for armed struggle against Israel as part of a broader revolutionary project across the Arab world. These movements did not merely adopt Marxist rhetoric, they embedded themselves within a global revolutionary ethos that saw the Palestinian struggle as inseparable from anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist resistance movements worldwide. The Soviet Union offered substantial support to these Marxist factions - ideological, financial, and military - thereby reinforcing their orientation and shaping the trajectory of early Palestinian nationalism.
Within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964 as an umbrella organization for various Palestinian militant factions, Marxist influence also took root. Though initially dominated by Arab nationalist sentiment, particularly within the Fatah faction led by Yasser Arafat, the PLO’s political platform gradually incorporated an increasingly socialist rhetoric. Its charter emphasized themes of anti-imperialism, social justice, and the liberation of Palestinian territories, thus reflecting a synthesis of nationalist aspirations with Marxist ideals.
This hybridization of ideologies was not accidental but strategic: it appealed to both regional aspirations and the international Left. The depth of this ideological entrenchment is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that, to this day, many operating member parties within the PLO continue to adhere to socialist, communist, or Marxist principles.
The Inheritance of Ideological Echoes
This Cold War narrative of a colonized Palestine resonated deeply among leftist intellectuals and activists in the West, individuals who were already predisposed toward critiquing Western colonialism and inclined to support movements advocating self-determination. As Arab ideologues played their part in the Middle East, Western leftist thinkers assumed a critical role in amplifying these Soviet-inspired romantic depictions of the Palestinian struggle.
Intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, Edward Said, Angela Davis, and John Berger emerged as vocal critics of Western imperialism, frequently echoing the slogans and sentiments of Palestinian resistance. Their writings and activism conveniently aligned with the prevailing anti-colonial discourse, much of which was orchestrated from behind the Iron Curtain, thereby contributing to a kind of intellectual haze that nourished various global "solidarity movements" and shaped public opinion in favour of Palestinian "liberation." Through books, lectures, manifestos, and media interventions, these figures lent moral and academic legitimacy to a simplified narrative of good versus evil, oppressed versus oppressor.
It is of particular importance to emphasize that these intellectuals diligently framed the Palestinian cause within a broader anti-colonial and anti-imperialist framework, thus resonating profoundly with the ethos of Western leftist movements. Their rhetorical strategies deliberately mirrored those used in decolonial struggles across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, enabling a rhetorical fusion between distant geopolitical conflicts and domestic moral crusades.
Postmodern Revival of Cold War Scripts
The legacy of this Cold War-era propaganda continues to exert near-total influence over contemporary leftist discourse. Israel is still frequently portrayed as a colonial oppressor, while Palestinian resistance is romanticized as a heroic struggle against domination.
This narrative continues to deliberately and selectively reduce the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a simplistic dichotomy of the oppressed versus the oppressor. Chomsky, for example, long ago condemned Israeli policy as colonial and expansionist, while Davis, from the outset, drew parallels between the Palestinian struggle and global anti-racist movements - echoes of their thoughts still reverberate at every pro-Palestinian rally today.
Today’s (post)modern leftist intersectional organizations and activists merely continue to apply a refined apparatus of ideological litmus tests and purity rituals to enforce conformity within their ranks. These groups often exhibit a quasi-religious adherence to identity-based frameworks of oppression, within which the Palestinian cause has become a fixed dogma.
It is precisely this Cold War ideological alignment that cemented a decades-long affection for the Palestinian cause among Western leftists: a love unbound by time, circumstance, or context, which, regardless of all its inherent hypocrisies and paradoxes, endures with unwavering loyalty to this very day.
Share
Damir Omerbegović
Writer | Commentator