The Red-Green Alliance - The Long Path Podcast Episode 5

In this episode of The Long Path Podcast, we explore the idea often referred to as the “Red-Green Alliance” — the ideological convergence between elements of the radical left and Islamist political movements. Joining us are Z3 Fellows Hussein Aboubakr Mansour and Izabella Tabarovsky, two thinkers who approach this topic from very different historical perspectives. Mansour studies the intellectual history of political Islam and how modern revolutionary ideologies shaped Islamist movements. Tabarovsky focuses on the legacy of Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda and how it influenced modern discourse around Israel and antisemitism.

Together, we unpack the historical roots of the Red-Green Alliance, including the role of Soviet Union propaganda campaigns against Zionism, the ideological overlap between revolutionary leftist movements and Islamist political thought and how these ideas continue to shape political discourse today. We discuss how Soviet anti-Zionism reframed Jewish self-determination, why these ideological frameworks proved so durable and how the language developed during the Cold War still appears in modern activism and international politics. This conversation explores the intellectual origins of the alliance, why these movements sometimes find common ground and what understanding this history can reveal about contemporary political debates.