Some of the European left continues to long for the days of imperialist empires: the imperialism of the white man, who took it upon himself to spread civilization. This racist view has not been changed during the many years that have passed since the end of imperialism, or the abundant blood that has been spilled, or the frightening moral collapse. Instead, this racism has moved to some of the exhausted left-wingers of our countries, or some of those repentant leftists. It is a left that believes, due to its fierce racism, that Jewish Zionism is a part of the western campaign to spread democracy, freedom and progress in the third world. They are repentant leftists who believe in Zionist fables. They are secularists who believe in the biblical promise to the Jews. They add new fables to the mix, such as that promoted by the ‘new' French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy (he was preceded in this by Arab writers), which can be summed up as: the Palestinian figure Hajj Amin Husseini was responsible for the Holocaust, and for the rise of Israel because he met with Hitler. Levy (A French, Algerian-born Jew) is known in cultural circles because he is a vulgar Zionist propagandist. He falsifies facts and history. According to famous historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Levy is “barely competent enough to obtain a high school certificate.” Gilles Deleuze washed his hands of Levy when the latter sought his protection from the mocking of intellectuals. American intellectuals despised him when he published his book American Vertigo, even though he did so to defend the policies of President George Bush – or perhaps because he did so. However, Levy is a successful person. Leading newspapers give him space on their pages. He writes in Le Monde and two weeklies: Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Point. He is a friend of editors-in-chief, and of President Nicolas Sarkozy, and of leading businessmen and financiers, who seek out the friendship of intellectuals (Le Monde Diplomatique). In short, the philosopher has become a successful public relations man. He exploits his personal relations and the newspapers in which he writes to promote Zionism. He went to Israel. He met military leaders and the defense minister. He wrote about the “Israeli Defense Forces,” and that its soldiers were “young amateurs in the prime of life who feel as afraid as kids every time they fire their artillery.” When Israeli historial Shlomo Sand, the author of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented, was asked about Levy, he described him as a ‘hypocrite'. The philosopher had written that the IDF had called Arabs (the inhabitants of Gaza) and asked them to flee before being shelled. That this army did everything it could to avoid civilian casualties. Sand asked: “Where do Palestinian families flee? Israel truly took all of the precautionary measures, but in the interest of its soldiers. The dead (Palestinians) there occupy our minds much.” Sand said that Israel resembled an orphan. “It is like a child that came into this world as the fruit of a rape. It has the right to live. The creation of Israel was a rape of the Arab residents of Palestine. The fruit of this rape is an Israeli society that has been formed and that evolved over 70 years. We do not deal with a tragedy by creating another tragedy. This child has the right to live, and we should deal with it in a way that it does not repeat the crime of its father. Let us not search for excuses. We should not forget that those who have launched rockets at Ascalon know that it is built on the ruins of a big Arab city, from which their parents were expelled.” There are two types of racism: the first is European, and it arose and developed in the bosom of the left, and was brought with the ‘strugglers' when they moved to the extreme right, such as Levy and another philosopher, Andre Glucksmann. The second is represented by Sand and the new Israeli historians. The first is hunkered down in a cultural ghetto that resembles the racist separation wall; to protect Israel it uses the Holocaust as an excuse. The second has reached, through experience, the idea that protecting Israel will only take place thanks to a second reading of its history and an acknowledgment of some Palestinian rights; it wants to move away from the fables that founded the Israeli state – since it became well-rooted, it can remain in its vicinity. Al-Hayat 12/05/09
