commit ea6dbe4e32ae50632010ee5dbc6721bf53cae2be
parent 01cd3ddc56084373ba020c5bdf484159eaebf99f
Author: FIGBERT <figbert@figbert.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2024 13:37:19 -0800
Add Israel Alone review
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1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/content/reading/israel-alone.md b/content/reading/israel-alone.md
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+title = "A Screed of the Old Style"
+date = 2024-12-19T13:36:42-08:00
+[extra]
+book = "Israel Alone"
+author = "Bernard-Henri Lévy"
+finished = 2024-12-19
+rating = "★★★☆☆"
++++
+
+I got this book (and had it signed) on Election Night. Lévy had come to
+visit the Stanford Hillel, to philosophize with students and watch as
+the votes were called. A student asked him at one point how he could be
+so certain that the West and its allies would triumph over the rising
+Axis of Resistance. I remember I was struck by his response: "Of course
+they will. It is good against evil, the evil must lose. It will be
+defeated. That is what happens."
+
+This book will do little to convince those who may disagree with what it
+has to say. It presents few novel facts to those who share his
+positions. It is a position piece: a statement, for anyone who is
+interested, to read and comprehend the contours of Lévy's beliefs.
+
+Two further notes:
+1. However much of a conversational tone I believe myself to impart on
+ my writing, Lévy has vastly more.
+2. I have never appreciated how vastly different the Francophone world
+ is from its Anglophone counterpart.
+
+I would be interested in hearing how Lévy's thoughts have evolved in the
+time since the publication of *Israel Alone*. It is not quite that the
+book is outdated, but with the pace of change in the Middle East today,
+there is certainly much more to discuss.
