‘Keep Left for Israel’: Tribune, Zionism and the Middle East, 1937-1967

This article provides the first detailed analysis of Tribune's approach to Zionism and the Arab-Israeli conflict from the year of the socialist weekly newspaper's establishment in 1937 through to the period of the 1967 ‘Six Day’ war. It analyses the nature of Tribune's enthusiasm for Zionism in this period, locating it within a contested pro-Israel tradition in the British Labour movement. The article argues that the debate inspired by Tribune's Middle Eastern coverage provides a valuable insight into the dilemmas faced by left-wing journalists and intellectuals bidding to shape Labour Party policy towards the Middle East, and casts fascinating light on the development of the anti-Zionist positions which became increasingly influential among left-wing activists later in the twentieth century.