Fascinating article in the Guardian about the decline of the Israeli Left. It points out a number of things I was sort-of-aware-of but hadn't really thought through. The writer explicitly notes that the Left in Israel is a creature of the European (or "Ashkenazim") elite, while the working class are mostly Likudniks or further to the right. This is baffling to a British leftist-journalist, because there is a sizable portion of the British working-classes which are honestly left-wing. It makes more sense to an American, because the labor unions were purged of communists and leftist ideologues in the late 40s; the American Left is an urban-elite coalition. Still, all the same, Israeli leftism is not American leftism, despite the current superficial similarities. Israel is itself a Leftist Project - Zionism an explicitly non-religious creature of socialist ideology. The Likud, on the other hand, is a product of Sephardic (or Middle Eastern) pragmatism, nationalism, and religiosity. Interesting.

Via the handy Winds of Change wrapup.