This essay, on Israel, Hamas, civilisation and resistance, was published in the Observer on 13 October 2024 under the headline “Israel is not ‘saving western civilisation’. Nor is Hamas leading ‘the resistance’”. “Israel is not invading Lebanon, it is liberating it.” So proclaimed France’s pre-eminent liberal philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy as Israeli tanks drove across the border and its war planes bombed villages in the south and residential districts in Beirut. “There are moments in history,” he exulted, when “‘escalation’ becomes a necessity and a virtue.” For […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: benjamin netanyahu, bernard-henri levy, civilisation, david nirenberg, ethnic cleansing, gaza, hamas, hezbollah, israel, israeli invasion of lebanon, jews, judaism, lebanon, likud, palestine, plo, ronald schecter, sabra and shatilla, the jewish question, zionism