Moshe Machover

Moshé Machover, born in Tel Aviv in 1936, is a mathematician and socialist activist who has been active in and written extensively on Middle-Eastern politics.

In 1962 he co-founded the Israeli socialist organisation Matzpen. He was a lecturer in mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then a visiting lecturer at the University of Bristol. In 1968, Machover moved to London where he was Reader in Mathematical Logic at King's College London from 1973 to 1995. Since 1995 he has been Professor of Philosophy at the University of London (now retired).

Together with Shimon Tzabar and others, Machover established the Israeli Revolutionary Action Committee Abroad.

A collection of his essays on the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians – Conflict and Resolution, is published by Haymarket Books.

He is a member of Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI).

Latest articles by Moshe Machover

What’s really behind the war?

South Africa provides no strategic guide. The indigenous population is neither needed nor wanted. Zionism has two key strategic aims: ethnic cleansing and maintaining regional hegemony, Moshé Machover explains

Online Communist Forum, Sunday October 6 5pm

Moshé Machover: What’s really behind the war in the Middle East?

Gambling on all-out war?

In the current situation it is virtually impossible to predict how far Israel would be prepared to go in spreading the war, but its strategic aims are clear, argues Moshé Machover

Promise myth as template

An ancient saga is harnessed in service of settler-colonisation. Moshé Machover looks at how modern Zionism not only forged a nation through religion, but finds justification for ethnic cleansing and genocide in the words of Yahweh

Not a zero-sum game

Capitalist solutions are no solution. Moshé Machover argues that only a regional socialist ferment can win Jewish-Israeli workers away from Zionism and the politics of national privilege

One-state, two-state illusions

Winning the Hebrew working class in Israel is vital; so is wider regional change. Towards that end we need a minimum programme of demands, insists Moshé Machover

Online Communist Forum, Sunday April 21 5pm

Israel and Iran: war spiral provides cover for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Speakers: Moshé Machover and Yassamine Mather

Netanyahu’s war wish

A provocation like the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus has long been expected, says Moshé Machover. War with Iran would provide the cover needed for the mass expulsion of yet more Palestinians

After October 7

The war in Gaza has to be put in regional, global and historic context. Moshé Machover talked to Yassamine Mather at a Voice of Revolution meeting held online on December 20

Zionist drives and divisions

Eradicating Hamas provides a useful cover, but everything points to ethnic cleansing, says Moshé Machover

Expect the worst

October 7 was a disaster for the Palestinian people because it has created the conditions for yet another round of ethnic cleansing. There is also the danger, argues Moshé Machover, of a wider regional conflagration

Oppression breeds resistance

A revolt of the hopeless by the hopeless for the hopeless. Moshé Machover explores the background to the predictable Hamas attack on Israel and the likely consequences

Online Communist Forum, Sunday October 8 5pm

L-content and price

Moshé Machover expands on his arguments in favour of applying statistical reasoning to the problems of analysing capitalism at its most basic level

Escalation on every front

Moshé Machover looks at the new Israeli government and what it means when it comes to Palestinian oppression, ethnic cleansing, religious intolerance and the danger of war with Iran

After the election

Netanyahu’s coalition is a rag-bag of rightists, religious fanatics and rabble-rousers. But it is dangerous. A regional war and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is a real prospect, argues Moshé Machover

Turbocharging Zionist colonialism

Negotiations to form a far-right coalition are still ongoing, but there can be no hiding Netanyahu’s victory. Moshé Machover locates the drift to the right in the Zionist project itself

Very much in control

The US may be in decline, writes Moshé Machover, but the left is doing little or nothing in the way of strategic thinking

Messianic colonialism

Religious ideology and nationalist ideology have a unique interrelationship; after all, even secular Zionists have to justify their ongoing colonial project with reference to a god they do not believe in. However, as Moshé Machover shows, it is the religious Zionists of the far right who are increasingly setting the agenda, not least by staging all manner of highly dangerous provocations

Two impossibilities

Neither a one-state nor a two-state solution is feasible, argues Moshé Machover. Instead we ought to think outside the Israel-Palestine box and argue for a working class solution

Hypocrisy all round

Moshé Machover highlights the selective condemnations of oppression and explains why Israel’s prime minister can pose as the peacemaker

Behind Israeli apartheid

Amnesty International’s moralistic condemnation is totally inadequate. As Moshé Machover has long argued, anachronistic settler-colonialism is the root of Israel’s racist apartheid. Only de-Zionisation can end it

Factory of falsehoods

Moshé Machover slams the hypocrisy of an Israeli aggressor state demanding sympathy as a victim state

Getting BDS and DSA right

Not surprisingly, last week’s article by Daniel Lazare, ‘Taking a pass on Israel’, has caused some considerable controversy. Thankfully, three well-informed comrades have written replies. Needless to say, our sympathies are fully with the critics

Down but not out

A master schemer and skilled rabble-rouser, with well cultivated US links. But above all going with the flow of history was key to Netanyahu’s success. No wonder Moshé Machover thinks it is far too early to write off this flawed and deeply unpleasant man

End Zionist oppression

The latest murderous colonial onslaught, especially against those caged in Gaza, was driven by Netanyahu’s narrow personal interests. This is an edited version of the talk Moshé Machover gave to the May 23 Online Communist Forum

Stench of Zionist colonisation

What is going on in Jerusalem? Why the provocations? Moshé Machover looks behind the latest flare-up of violence

Moving to far right

Moshé Machover looks at the dynamics and strange deals that might be done following the indecisive general election

Let them be damned

Labour’s witch-hunters in the governance and legal unit should be treated with the contempt they deserve

Freedom of speech

Open letter to the Labour leader, Labour Disputes and Labour Legal Queries

Weapon of first resort

The appointment of an overt anti-Arab racist as Israeli ambassador to the UK has created big problems for Zionists in Britain. Moshé Machover gives his take

Victim of Zionist colonisation

Rashid Khalidi 'The hundred-years war on Palestine: a history of settler-colonial conquest and resistance' Profile Books, 2020, pp336, £17.99

Weaponising ‘anti-Semitism’

Labour’s leaked report does not tackle the central question, argues Moshé Machover

181 pages oozing hate

Moshé Machover spoke to the London Communist Forum about Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’.

Champion assassinator

Moshé Machover focused on the Israeli aspect in his address to the Hopi meeting.

Two impossibilities

Neither a one-state solution nor a two-state solution is feasible, argues Moshé Machover. This article is based on his talk at Communist University.

Three political dimensions

Israeli politics cannot be understood in terms of classical left and right, argues Moshé Machover. This article is based on a talk he gave to the October 6 aggregate meeting of CPGB and Labour Party Marxists comrades.

Populism, annexationism, messianism

Moshé Machover looks at the growth and increasingly influential role of religious zealots

‘No political attachment’

Binyamin Netanyahu’s approach to the Israeli far right is regarded by many US Jews as highly offensive. Moshé Machover welcomes the opinion shift

End of a love affair?

The relationship between US Jews and Israel is becoming more and more strained, argues Moshé Machover. This is an edited version of his talk to the May 22 London Communist Forum

Zionist chutzpah

On the 70th anniversary of the nakba, Moshé Machover notes a remarkable piece of hypocrisy

Falsely accused of anti-Semitism

Moshé Machover - recently reinstated into the Labour Party - has written this testimony on behalf of Tony Greenstein

Target for a witch-hunt

Moshé Machover, recently reinstated into the Labour Party following his summary expulsion, addressed a meeting organised by the CPGB and Labour Party Marxists on November 12

Build the momentum

In an outstanding victory against the rightwing witch-hunters, Moshé Machover has been unconditionally reinstated as a Labour member. David Shearer of Labour Party Marxists urges comrades to build on the success of the campaign to overturn his expulsion

Scurrilous allegations

Following his summary expulsion from the Labour Party Moshé Machover has responded to the governance and legal unit. This is a slightly abridged version of his letter

Expelled for saying the unsayable

Labour Party Marxists attracted much praise and support from delegates at the Labour Party conference, in particular because of the excellent ‘Anti-Zionism does not equal anti-Semitism’ article written by Moshé Machover. Since then the right has taken its revenge. Around the country anyone who has expressed a liking for the LPM online or forwarded an article could well be on the receiving end of an expulsion letter. One of them is Moshé Machover. LPM’s Reg Kingston spoke to him

The war Israel planned

Military action against Syria had been contemplated for several months prior to the Six-Day War of June 1967, writes Moshé Machover

Israel and the Messiah’s ass

On the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War Moshé Machover looks at the background and consequences

Class struggle or national war?

Moshé Machover replies to Tony Greenstein

Burial of the two-state ‘solution’

Netanyahu has been dealt a Trump card, affirms Moshé Machover

Palestine and Hebrew self-determination

Is there a Hebrew nation and how should it be defined? Moshé Machover proposes a strategy envisaging the defeat of Zionism

Immeasurable loss

Obituary: Moshé Machover remembers Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, 1934-2016

The decolonisation of Palestine

Zionism constitutes a unique colonisation process, argues Moshé Machover - which means that the route to Palestinian freedom must be equally unique

Don’t apologise - attack

The right will not let up if we retreat before their smears, argues Moshé Machover. This is an edited version of his speech to the May 15 London Communist Forum

Zionism and anti-Semitism

This interview with Israeli communist and Weekly Worker writer Moshé Machover was conducted by the Croatian online publication Slobodni Filozofski

New context, new focus

In the second of three articles, Moshé Machover examines the colonial question in Lenin’s wake(1)

Colonialism and the natives

Moshé Machover begins an examination of the Israel-Palestine conflict by looking back at controversies in the Second International

The dog and the tail

Jeff Halper War against the people: Israel, the Palestinians and global pacification Pluto Press, 2015, pp352, £13

US imperialism and Israel’s role

The ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ is central to the US military-industrial complex, observes Moshé Machover

Searching for a pretext

What lay behind the election?In this edited transcript of a talk delivered to a Communist Platform meeting on March 22, Moshé Machover looks at Netanyahu’s motives

Netanyahu’s double gamble

Calling the general election is partially the result of the dissonance between Washington and Jerusalem, writes Moshé Machover

Zionism: Quest for legitimacy

Israeli communist Moshé Machover examines the significance of Zionist claims that Israel is the ‘nation-state of the Jewish people’

Mainspring of the Arab revolt

Moshé Machover reviews: Adam Hanieh, 'Lineages of revolt: issues of contemporary capitalism in the Middle East', Haymarket Books, 2013, pp273, £14.99

Palestine/Israel: Belling the cat

Does the demise of apartheid provide a model for the ending of Zionism? Moshé Machover exposes this notion for the fallacy it is

The party we need

Is ‘actually existing Leninism’ the right model? In this edited version of his speech at the CPGB’s Communist University earlier this year, Moshé Machover explains why it is wrong

Global economy: Too big not to fail

The very size of the global economy produces a tendency to crisis, argues Moshé Machover¹

Israel - Palestine: Déjà vu all over again

Moshé Machover finds the recent 'peace process' talk oddly familiar

Zionist myths: Hebrew versus Jewish identity

This is an expanded version of the talk given by Moshé Machover at the March 3 London conference, ‘Reclaiming an Alternative Jewish Culture and Identity’

Syrian bombing: Netanyahu attempts to provoke new confrontation

Over the weekend of May 4-5 Israel launched air raids against targets in Syria. Yassamine Mather and Moshé Machover, two members of the Hands Off the People of Iran steering committee, discuss the issues raised by this latest development

Review: Nation-states, globalised capital and a former Marxist

Moshé Machover reviews, Nigel Harris: 'The return of cosmopolitan capital'. IB Tauris 2003, pp292, £24.50

Anti-war anniversary: Party with all-round strategy needed

Moshé Machover looks back at a decade of anti-war protest. This is an edited version of his speech to the March 9 ‘Ten wasted years?’ school, organised by the CPGB

Israel: Implosion and polarisation

Moshé Machover gives his impression of the Israeli elections

Israel-Palestine: Race against history

What future for Israel? asks Moshé Machover

Israel-Gaza: Why did Israel do it?

The success or failure of the onslaught on Gaza can only be judged against the operation’s aims, writes Israeli socialist Moshé Machover. This is an edited version of a talk given to the December 8 CPGB aggregate

Value, prices and probabilities

What is the connection between value and price? Moshé Machover concludes his discussion of the labour theory of value

The centrality of labour-power

Moshé Machover begins his examination of the labour theory of value by looking at the preliminaries

Netanyahu's war wish

The threat of a military provocation by Tel Aviv against Iran is very real, warns Israeli Marxist Moshé Machover

Saving labour or capital?

Does the rate of profit tend to fall? The traditional Marxist argument upon which this theoretical proposition is based is badly flawed, argues Moshe Machover

Zionist 'negotiating strategy' sham

What does Mahmoud Abbas expect to achieve at the UN? Moshe Machover analyses the Palestinian bid for statehood

Israel rocked by protests

Moshe Machov

The Arab awakening and the prospect of unity

In this edited version of a speech given to the CPGB's Marxism fringe on July 3, Mosh

The long road to the Arab revolution

Moshé Machover addressed last weekend's CPGB aggregate on the defeat of the Libyan revolution, Al-Jazeera, and the goal of Arab unity

Nuclear dangers and capabilities

With the decline of US hegemony and the loss of its ally in Egypt Moshé Machover fears that Israel could react irrationally and launch a spectacular attack on Iran

Grounds for optimism

Israeli socialist Moshé Machover talks to Mark Fischer about the implications of the uprising in Egypt for the whole region

Why I am not an Israeli peace activist

Genuine socialists fight against the Zionist project, writes Moshé Machover

Voting - present and future

The electoral system we demand under bourgeois rule is not connected to the forms of democratic decision-making we advocate for the future communist society, argues Moshé Machover

Proportional representation and Brown's opportunist ploy

What sort of electoral system should communists advocate? Moshé Machover - mathematician, lecturer in philosophy and leftwing activist - examines the alternatives to 'first past the post'

UCU debate closed down

Moshé Machover's article was written in 2005, before the Association of University Teachers and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education merged, in June 2006, to form the University and College Union. The UCU's inaugural congress in May 2007 carried a motion agreeing to circulate a call to boycott Israeli academic institutions and to encourage members to debate it. But on September 28 the UCU leadership, pleading 'legal advice', declared that any such boycott, and even the proposal to debate it, would be 'unlawful'. This letter of protest was sent to The Guardian, but has not been published

Rights and wrongs

A boycott of Israeli academe should target institutions, not individuals, argues Moshe Machover

Imperialism, Palestine and Israel

Is the Israeli tail wagging the US dog? In this edited version of a talk given to the London branch of the Campaign for a Marxist Party in August, Moshé Machover looks at the history of western intervention in the Middle East