Letter: Space for opinion columns

I disagree with Paul Abbott’s presentation on Eric Lee’s Solidarity 754 column, and his attitude to personal opinion columns inSolidarity.

The world, as well as individual countries, is divided by class and politics. There is not, as Abbott has it, a single “international community”.

From 1948 to 1967, and even residually to 1982, most left or liberal-minded people worldwide were “friendly” to Israel in the sense that they welcomed communication with Israelis, admired the kibbutzim, etc., even if they criticised the government. Big-power governments were different. The US and UK imposed arms embargos on Israel in 1948, and Britain was de facto on the Arab side then.

Now it’s the other way round. The US, UK, etc. governments see Israel as a strong and relatively stable technological and military power they want to keep in with. But many bien-pensants are disinclined even to talk with Israelis, of whatever politics. The fairest interpretation of Lee, I think, is that he was writing about that “unfriendliness”.

What Israel’s government has done in Gaza and the West Bank is far worse than its invite to Tommy Robinson. Yet many Jews worldwide also see something “scandalous” in the official invite for the antisemite Tommy Robinson. Our concerns are broader than the “Jewish dimension”. But we should not dismiss that dimension.

Lee wrote that many Israelis don’t welcome Trump, signalling he wouldn’t either.

Since Lee moved to Britain in 1998 and we started working with him, and before, Lee has had different politics from Workers’ Liberty. Abbott is right about that. I and other AWLers have often debated with Lee (on Israel-Palestine and other issues), in the paper and in speech, as well as inviting him as an informative speaker or writer.

The British press, left and mainstream too, has a tradition of opinion columns. Owen Jones has a column in the Guardian. Paul Foot of the SWP had one before him. Papers which run opinion columns don’t “edit” them, or tell writers they can only write uncontentiously.

Opinion columnists are sought because they have “hinterland” that staff writers don’t have. Lee has that, from his activity in the anti-Vietnam-war movement then the YPSL in the USA in the 1970s, through his anti-Netanyahu effort in Israel and his leading the Sanders campaign in London in 2016, to his wide trade-union outreach via LabourStart.

Why shun Lee now, but not in 1998-2025? Yes, some leftists feign not to know his is a personal opinion column, though it says so every issue, and I don’t know what more “clear marking” Abbott wants, if not a skull-and-crossbones logo on each column. We should tell them to read our main content on Israel-Palestine, not plead: “We’re sorry, but it’s all right, we’ll purge him”.

We look like getting a new opinion column (at least occasionally) from Green Party activist Michael Chessum. Chessum tells us his first will be a “soft polemic” against us. Our response? Go for it!

I don’t agree that debate with the Israeli soft-left must be purged, while debate with the Greens is permissible.

Martin Thomas, London