Articles de presse
Splendid
Isolation
Auteur : Tom SEGEV
Sujet : Benny Lévy et l'Institut d'études
lévinassiennes
Revue : Ha'aretz
Catégorie : Journal quotidien
Référence : Ha'aretz, 23 février 2001
Parution : 23 février 2001
Longueur : 1203 mots
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Last week masses of people thronged the box office of the Gerard Behar Center in Jerusalem, which usually hosts popular entertainment performances. It appeared that since the Eichmann trial held there 40 years ago, there had never been so many people wanting to get in. For NIS 20 a ticket, they enjoyed a "philosophy performance" starring Bernard-Henri Levy and Alain Finkielkraut. An hour before it began, the hall was full. They looked like judges: black suits, white shirts (Levy's unbuttoned at the chest), sleeves without buttons. The moderator, Benny Levy, also showed up in black and white, with a black silk skullcap on his head. He was once Jean-Paul Sartre's secretary. The table was covered in red, matching the hue of the curtain, also flame-colored.
France is well-endowed with professional philosophers, but even there, Levy and Finkielkraut are sprinkled with stardust. They came late, and preceded their ascent to the stage with a brief round of handshaking with acquaintances and fans. Then they spread out on the table before them a number of books to quote from, including the letters of Emmanuel Levinas, like them a French-Jewish philosopher, though less well-known in Israel, Before this, they had participated in a seminar organized by the Institute for Levinas Studies.
They spoke about memory, about forgetting, about- Israel's isolation. Some hours earlier a terrorist had run over seven soldiers - men and women - and one civilian at a bus stop; several days earlier, Ariel Sharon had been elected prime minister. But the discourse of the philosophers was conducted comme il faut somewhere in the realms of the abstract, a sign, it is well-known, of a high level of discussion.
They speak beautifully, and their bodies support the discourse: They fling their arms about, make a fist, knit their brows, raise their voices to a shout or lower them to a whisper. The audience sat there a s if hypnotized. Now and then it seemed as though the speakers were saying something patriotic, French or Israeli, and then the crowd applauded them.
As is the case with the Anglo-Saxon community in Jerusalem, among many people who came here from France, the right is very strong. They are angry at the French media and happy to get reinforcement for the theory that the criticism of Israel's policy reflects anti-Semitism.
They are also angry at the government of France. One member of the audience got up and said that even though the ambassador of France was sitting in the front row, he would not remain silent, and perhaps precisely because His Excellency was sitting there, he would make it a point to say that the government of France is hostile to Israel and will protest this most strongly. People clapped. Levy and Finkelkraut hastened to defend their government and this, too, met with applause. The moderator asked son excellence whether he would wish to respond, and His Excellence shook his head to indicate that he would not.
Memory vs. forgetting
They spoke of the memory of the Holocaust and debated what has superseded what. Has forgetting superseded memory, or memory forgetting? Finkelkraut, perhaps the more optimistic of the two, said that memory has been victorious. Levy said that forgetting is winning. They asked whether there were a "meaning" to Auschwitz and tried to formulate the uniqueness of the Holocaust. Finkelkraut said that care must be taken to ensure that the children of the hangmen also take part in the heritage of commemoration as, since it was a crime against humanity, the Holocaust was also a crime against the Germans. They tried to evaluate whether Israel benefits or loses from the nurturing of the memory: Perhaps it is losing, because as thev stress the nature of the slaughter of the Jews as absolute evil, the Jews in a way are denying Europe an important element in its cultural heritage: anti-Semitism.
By nurturing the memory of the Holocaust the Jews are also perpetuating two extremes of thinking - absolute evil and absolute justice - and this bi-polarity eases the creation of the opposite: The victims of yesterday become the hangmen of today, as no middle possibility is proposed.
Therefore, the more it encourages the memory - the greater Israel's isolation grows. This is expressed in the demonization of Israel in the media.
Alain Finkielkraut and Bernard-Henri Levy find themselves almost totally isolated in their defense of Israel's right, to fair coverage in the French media.
Many other important things were said, and the, hours went by until it seemed that the burden would crush the audience but the people many UP them n o longer young, remained staunchly until the last word was said and departed as they had arrived, full of awe and respect.
Toward midnight, over a salmon sandwich, Bernard-Henri Levy turned out to be a pleasant conversationalist, who has been doing a lot of writing in newspapers lately. Alain Finkelkraut, life-size, is also perfectly pleasant; when he detaches himself from his philosophical jargon, he's really a nice guy. He knows a bit of Hebrew.
These days, the two of them find themselves almost totally isolated in their defense of Israel's right to fair coverage in the French media. There was something quite Israeli, and were it not for the fear of insulting them one could say there was something almost American, in the supreme importance they attributed to the media, as if it were some philosophical construct. The reports from Israel and the accompanying commentaries reflect, they said, a tendency to negate the fact of Israel's existence, Levy said that he is somewhat familiar with France, and he identifies anti-Semitic motifs in Israel's image as the agent of diabolical evil, elements that are deeply rooted in French culture.
No, said Levy, he is not now discovering his Jewish roots, though some people think so. The hostile attitude of some of the French media angers him because it is not fair; he discovered his Jewish roots long ago and everyone has already written about that. He also does not retract his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Only he is a bit perplexed to find that he formulated his position back in 1969 and since then, nothing has happened to cause him to need to reformulate it, because in essence the situation has remained unchanged.
Levy and Finkielkraut see the election of Ariel Sharon as a tragedy; his election indicates despair. They too are not optimistic. Finkielkraut said that the time has come to acknowledge reality: The Palestinians are simply not prepared to accept Israel's existence, Levy does not believe in peace either. He thinks that most of the Jewish settlement s beyond the 1967 borders should be dismantled, which might allow for some sort of agreement. There will not be real peace.
Finkielkraut said that if he were an Israeli, he might support Sharon. Because Sharon carries with him not only Sabra and Chatila, but also the dismantling of Yamit. Someone has told him that Sharon might well conduct a pragmatic policy, but in principle he; Finkielkraut, does not believe in the power of politicians to make real peace between nations. Intellectuals might be more successful at it, he said.
Ha'aretz - 23 février 2001 - 1203 mots.
Tom Segev
