Veteran AF: Bernard-Henri Levy

Showing posts with label Bernard-Henri Levy. Show all posts

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Levy--The World Changed The Month It Was Published

On September 10 of the year just passed Bernard-Henri Levy published his new book Israel Alone. I have read several of Levy's books since returning to Judaism in 2017, so I read this one eagerly.

Levy made clear that on campuses in Europe and America, Jew haters were attacking Jews with impunity. Western leaders kept saying there must be a cease fire no matter how many Jews are raped or murdered. Israel did seem quite alone and embattled. Hezbollah attacked from the north. Iran had attacked with a barrage of missiles. The Houthis were firing ballistic missiles from Yemen. Hamas continued to hide in hospitals and use Gazans as human shields.

Israel looked quite alone.

As I read the book, I realized the deep lament at the center of this brief book had receded somewhat. A week after the book was published, Israel attacked Hezbollah killing and maiming thousands of its tactical leaders in the Pager Attack. Terrorists taking a huge dose of their own medicine.

Before the month ended Hassan Nasrallah and most of the top leaders of Hezbollah were dead in an air strike that showed how deeply Israel had penetrated the terrorist organization. Then Israel smashed the Hezbollah rocket launchers and attack tunnels on its border.

Israel attacked Iran and took out all of Irans air defenses. Israel or any other of Iran's enemies with an air force could attack at will. A month later, pro-Russian/Iranian Syria collapsed. The Russians are gone. The Iranian supply route to Lebanon is gone.

The Trump administration takes office with Trump threatening there will be "all Hell to pay" if Hamas does not release all of the hostages from the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Among the predictions of chaos after January 20, many believe Trump will begin mass deportations. He may. But several of Trump's cabinet picks have plans to revoke the visas of students who are supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups. The first deportations may be terrorist supporters on visas. There will be nomass protest of deporting those who cheer Hamas and other terrorists.

Israel is still largely alone, but since Levy's book was published, Israel has crushed several of its enemies and winners always have friends.

Saturday, December 3, 2022

The Genius of Judaism by Bernard-Henri Levy Book 42 of 2022

When I began my Jewish journey after torch-carrying Nazis marched in Charlottesville. In my search after that horrible night, Bernard-Henri Levy in his book The Genius of Judaism was one of the first writers to show me I really am a Jew.

Jews themselves fight over who is a Jew. My family and Jews I knew growing up said I was not a Jew. I do not have a Jewish mother. When I joined a Synagogue, it had to be a Reform Synagogue. To be Conservative, especially to be Orthodox, I would have to convert.

For non-Jews, my Jewish Dad means I am a Jew, the same way that having an Italian Dad would make me Italian. Of course, every white supremacist and Nazi in America hates me even if my mother is not Jewish.

Levy went showed me what an amazing tribe I am a part of. To be a Jew is to have a unique place in the world in so many ways. Who loses their country and gets it back after two millennia? And keeps its culture together during that entire two thousand years.

I wrote this about my first reading of the book in 2018:

The book explicitly on faith that moved me the most was The Genius of Judaism by Bernard-Henri Levy. This book looks at the history of the Jewish people and Israel through the lens of the Book of Jonah. Levy shows us Judaism and his view of the Jewish world by his interactions with “Nineveh” in the form of modern-day enemies of Jews and Israel. One modern Nineveh he visits is Lviv, Ukraine.

I knew my trip last summer was to visit Holocaust sites would center on Auschwitz, But this book led me to pair Lviv with Auschwitz as two sad extremes of the Holocaust. Auschwitz is the most industrial site of slaughter, Lviv is the most personal. At Auschwitz, the Nazis built a place of extermination. In Lviv they simply allowed the local population to act out their own anti-Semitism.

Lviv was the most personal of the sites of Holocaust slaughter. Neighbors killed neighbors and dumped their bodies in ditches. Levy went to Lviv to make peace with this site of unbridled hate. He seems to have succeeded. I did not. Ukraine tried to kill my grandparents. Ukraine remains a cauldron of anti-Semitism.

Which brings up another aspect of Judaism which Levy makes so simple and beautiful. We Jews, at our best, are committed to Justice, to repairing the world.

Until this year, I was ambivalent about Ukraine as was Levy. From the beginning of the war, I have volunteered for Ukraine, sometimes three or four days a week making combat medical kits. Levy made a documentary backing the fight to keep Ukraine free.

When the Russians invaded, Ukraine needed all free people to rally to her defense. Whatever problems I had with Ukraine before February 24 are insignificant compared to the unjust attack on an innocent country.

Glory to Ukraine.

The book is a celebration of Jewish history and life and is beautifully written.

First 41 Books of 2022: