Zionism’s alliance with imperialism and stated anti-Communism led more than a few in that movement to ally with the most reactionary, pogromist forces in Europe during the 1920s and 30s. Joseph Berger, Jewish-Palestinian founder and historic leader of the Palestine Communist Party, reports.

‘Zionism in the Camp of the White Guardists’ by Joseph Berger (Jerusalem) from International Press Correspondence. Vol 12 No. 22. May 19, 1932.

In the last few months there is to be observed a considerable increase of Zionist agitation in the various countries of Europe and America. At the same time there is an increase in the aggressiveness of Zionist policy towards the Arabs in Palestine. The official Zionist leaders are even opposing those concessions which the British imperialist government was compelled to promise to the Arabs under the pressure of the masses. Zionist propaganda is seeking by falsely representing the actual situation in Palestine to make out that Palestine is a sort of happy island which is untouched by the crisis. The object of this lying propaganda is to intensify the Zionist offensive by an increased emigration to Palestine and to force the conquest of the country by Zionism.

The leading sections of the Jewish bourgeoisie who are at the head of the Zionist movement, have arrived at the conviction that it is impossible to achieve this aim by peaceful means, in view of the difficult financial situation of Zionism on the one hand (the Zionist budget had to be reduced by 50 per cent.) and of the growing resistance of the Arabs on the other, which can at any moment lead to a new armed revolt against Zionism and imperialism. Ridiculous as it may appear, the Jewish bourgeoisie are also endeavouring to seek a way out of the crisis in a war adventure.

Tsarism was the deadly enemy of the Jewish population of Russia. All the so-called succession governments which followed Tsarism were outspoken murderous governments which set out to exterminate the masses of the Jewish population. Even today the countries which are in the foremost front of the fight against the Soviet Union are the strongholds of antisemitism in its most bloody form: the pogroms in Rumania, the economic boycott and anti-Jewish pogroms in Poland, the anti-semitic outbreaks in Latvia show that these white-guardist States have taken over the heritage of Tsarism also in the question of oppressing the Jews. Only in the Soviet Union, in contrast to all other European countries, are there no anti-Jewish pogroms. When, in the year 1929, the white-guardist troops crossed the Soviet frontier into Siberia and took possession of the first frontier town, their very first act was to carry out an anti-Jewish pogrom. It was not until the Red Army arrived that order was restored and the white guardist bandits were punished.

The Jewish bourgeoisie are therefore quite aware that a war against the Soviet Union is bound to involve a frightful massacre of the working Jewish population, which would put into shade all former slaughters and massacres of the Jews. The Zionists in their propaganda have issued as their main slogan the “defence of the Jewish nation”; and with this phrase the Jewish bourgeoisie seek to catch the Jewish masses.

But precisely at the present moment, when the immediate danger of war is threatening, the Zionists show their true countenance. They are openly aiming at an alliance with the white guardists; they are ready to extend their hand to the worst and vilest sort of pogromists.

It is not the first time that the Jewish bourgeoisie considered an alliance with reaction more important for their maintenance than the use of nationalist phrases. Immediately after the Bolshevist revolution in the year 1917, Mr. Pasmanik, a leading Zionist, joined the Russian monarchists from the camp of the “Black Hundreds”. In 1922, Mr. Jabotinski, another Zionist leader and member of the Zionist Executive, concluded a formal pact with the blood-stained pogrom-hero Petljura for fighting the Bolsheviki. In recent times it has become a tradition that every Zionist Congress passes resolutions against the Soviet Union. During the great campaign of the Pope against the Soviet Union, the Zionist and non-Zionist rabbis did not neglect to use their pulpits for the purpose of incitement against the Soviet Union. At the present time the Zionists in all countries–before all, however, in Palestine–are carrying on a regular incitement against the Soviet Union. The common action of Jewish capitalists with fascism in Italy, the approaching open bloc of the State Party in Germany, which is supported mainly by the Jewish bourgeoisie, with the anti-semitic national socialists in Württemberg, the actions of the ultra-Zionist groups of the Jewish bourgeoisie in Austria, who finance and support the Heimwehr, are a further proof of now the Jewish and especially the Zionist bourgeoisie do not shrink from going over into the camp of the most rabid anti-semitism, from betraying the Jewish masses and delivering them over to the pogromists if they can thereby maintain their class privileges.

That the Jewish bourgeoisie will not be content with supporting fascism financially and by means of propaganda, but in addition are endeavouring to find a place for themselves in the white-guardist troops which are being formed and which are to march against the Soviet Union, has been divulged by one of the well-known Zionist leaders. Dr. von Weiset recently made a tour of Poland on behalf of the fascist Zionists. He delivered a great speech in Warsaw at the end of March, in which he declared:

“At present there is taking place in the world an anti-Soviet concentration. The Haifa-Baghdad railway is being built for the purpose of war against Soviet Russia. We must take part in the anti-Soviet concentration with an army of 100,000 men. Our way, our solution lies to the Right.”

It is very doubtful whether the 100,000 men whom the Zionist bourgeoisie wish to place at the disposal of the white-guardist generals will help them in any way. But as regards the Zionist threats and war preparations against the Soviet Union, one must not belittle them, as the Zionist social fascists in the various countries always seek to represent the Jewish bourgeoisie as being liberal, advanced and not reactionary. It will be the task of the Communist Parties who are working among the Jewish masses, especially the Communist Parties in America, Poland, Rumania, Latvia, Palestine, France etc., to expose the true countenance of Zionism, to point out that the talk about the liberalism and the harmlessness of the Jewish bourgeoisie belongs to the realm of myth, that in the fight against the Soviet Union and against Bolshevism, the Jewish bourgeoisie, Zionism and its social fascist agencies form a single whole.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1932/v12n22-may-19-1932-Inprecor-op.pdf