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or even wanted to capture all power through a
putsch .
And not fear–
ing a dictatorship, he prefers a powerful workers' state to an "in–
dependent workers' movement. " He sees "independence" in this
context as a euphemism for control by Mapam.
"Why give them by fiat what they failed to obtain on their
own - the right to speak for the working class?" Trotsky surmises in
his first public statement , released to the press four weeks after his
arrival.
Davar
reprints the statement in full in the popular Friday
edition.
But others choose sides against Trotsky. Not everyone has fond
memories of the early years, before Stalin's Thermidor, of the Soviet
state. Zionists whose activities were outlawed by decree of the
Yevsekzia,
an order signed by Stalin and Agursky (whose son will
later move to a West Bank settlement as for that matter would
Trotsky's grandson) recall that Trotsky did not oppose it. At that
time, when Rabbi Maze had asked him to intercede on behalf of the
Jews, he had demurred. "The Trotskys make the revolutions," the
rabbi answered back, "and the Bronsteins pay for them ." By what
right, these people and others wanted to know, did he now come to a
place whose birth he had done so much to abort? Although he was a
victim of anti-Semitism, was he not at fault?
There were also grumblings on the Left. The tiny Communist
Party loudly-as loudly as it could-opposed his coming.
Mapam,
then a not-insignificant left-Zionist party, was contesting the elec–
tions to Israel's new parliament, the
Knesset.
Reflecting a combina–
tion of several factors, their platform was unabashedly pro-Soviet:
an assessment that the Soviet Union would soon emerge as the
dominant power in the Middle East, a profound sense of gratitude
for Soviet sacrifices during the great war, and a sincere Marxist
dogmatism. (One day, they hope, Stalin will visit a kibbutz and
realize his error in opposing socialist Zionism.) Although kibbutzim
should be Trotsky's Israeli address, rather than the more moderate
social democratic
Mapai
of his host, Ben-Gurion, their support for
Stalin repels him; and they, for their part, want no part of him.
His arrival and presence become the subject through which a
power struggle within
Mapam
works itself out into the open. Dr.
Sneh, a recent proselyte of the left and full of the enthusiasm of the
new convert , insists that such a man has no place in Israel. Hazan, a
leader of the Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard) Kibbutz move–
ment , does not go so far, although he reiterates his love for the Soviet
"second homeland." Tabenkin, in whose veins the nationalist blood
