israel-alone.md (1414B)
1 +++ 2 title = "A Screed of the Old Style" 3 date = 2024-12-19T13:36:42-08:00 4 [extra] 5 book = "Israel Alone" 6 author = "Bernard-Henri Lévy" 7 finished = 2024-12-19 8 rating = "★★★☆☆" 9 +++ 10 11 I got this book (and had it signed) on Election Night. Lévy had come to 12 visit the Stanford Hillel, to philosophize with students and watch as 13 the votes were called. A student asked him at one point how he could be 14 so certain that the West and its allies would triumph over the rising 15 Axis of Resistance. I remember I was struck by his response: "Of course 16 they will. It is good against evil, the evil must lose. It will be 17 defeated. That is what happens." 18 19 This book will do little to convince those who may disagree with what it 20 has to say. It presents few novel facts to those who share his 21 positions. It is a position piece: a statement, for anyone who is 22 interested, to read and comprehend the contours of Lévy's beliefs. 23 24 Two further notes: 25 1. However much of a conversational tone I believe myself to impart on 26 my writing, Lévy has vastly more. 27 2. I have never appreciated how vastly different the Francophone world 28 is from its Anglophone counterpart. 29 30 I would be interested in hearing how Lévy's thoughts have evolved in the 31 time since the publication of *Israel Alone*. It is not quite that the 32 book is outdated, but with the pace of change in the Middle East today, 33 there is certainly much more to discuss.