"Doesn't releasing 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 50 Israelis mean that Israel is underestimating Palestinian lives?" This question was really asked, by a presenter on Britain's Sky News. The brilliant response of the interviewee, Elon Levy, from the Israeli public relations department in English, is worth watching in itself. The look of shock on his face went viral on social media.
Elon Levy in an interview with the Berti Sky News network, photo: screenshot
Is it possible to conceive of a more stupid question? Is there any point in trying to answer with words, facts, arguments? Can basic logic cross the barrier of ignorance, stupidity, prejudice?
Israeli President Reveals in Sky News Interview: Gaza Terrorists Planned to Use Cyanide on Civilian Population (Archive) \\ SkyNews
We woke up on 7 October to the realization that beyond the fence teems with a murderous, sadistic, death-loving and destructive culture, whose moral standards are based on hatred. A few days later we woke up to the realization that the enlightened, civilized, democratic world was infested with idiots and anti-Semites. And not the low-brow, shaven-headed kind for which they shouted at Knesset members that they were "friends of Nazis," but rather the more elegant ones. Art lovers, activists, sophisticated hipsters, cool professors of philosophy and sociology, media people, cultural agents. People think, so called.
The courage to love
Today, in Israel Hayom's "Sixth Cabinet," the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy writes here that he is "pro-Israel." Anyone familiar with the mood and public debate in Western capitals can understand, and appreciate, how provocative, unusual, and courageous this statement is. It is one thing to throw out some condemnation of the atrocities committed by Hamas proxies – and another to declare support for Israel in its war.
There is something else that makes Levy's unequivocal, incisive stance particularly relevant, and it has to do with his unique position in the field of culture. Although he was educated in prestigious institutions, and passed through the mandatory academic stations where French intellectuals pass, on the other hand, as he himself once testified, "I am no longer a professional philosopher." This has to do not only with the fact that he spread his talent across many different fields of endeavor, but also with the fact that he was not an ideal and obedient apprentice of the intellectual establishment.
His existence and extensive activity always defied the cultural establishments, which developed hostility and sometimes even contempt for him. But from this position, he was able to fully realize the great philosophical process that began in his youth: to rebel against the ideological conventions of the establishment intelligentsia. Perhaps, perhaps, his independence from tastemakers and fate-makers in the tall windows of ivory towers also has something to do with his resolute and unusual positions. Like his support for Israel, which is, in large parts of the European cultural field, almost taboo. He has the privilege of saying "no."
House damaged in massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz, photo: Liron Moldovan
Institutionalized hatred
What this means is that opposition to Israel, its perception as a crime against humanity, as an imperialist relic, as a can from the colonial era, as a contemporary incarnation of apartheid, as a perpetrator of violence and as a source of evil – are not superstitions that have spread among ignorant farmers in remote regions, but fundamental principles that have become entrenched in the hearts of the leading intellectual establishments and within the consciousness-shaping systems of the democratic West: the universities, for example. Leading media outlets. Scholarly Societies. Artistic collectives.
The ethos of these bodies is fraught with anti-Israelism, and identification with Israel's enemies is part of the acquired, public identity of its members. This is neither Greta Thunberg nor Judith Butler. They're just the stars of hate-business.
"We're dealing with the habitats of the elite in academia," a protest in Berkeley, Photo: AP
We are dealing with the complex vast networks of civil struggle organizations of all kinds. With the habitats of the elites in academia. We're dealing with vast social systems, not individual characters. We are dealing with organized establishments, not opinion leaders. We are dealing with entire social fields, not with "petition signers."
The encouraging part is that despite their power and resources, and even though they have the power to inflict enormous damage on Israel, these establishments are gradually losing their charisma in public opinion. You can see this in voting patterns. The displays of hatred against Israel in the academic elite of the United States on the one hand, and Trump's surge in the polls, on the other. Also in Europe; There are no Sartres and no Albert Camus; There is a Wilders stylus. Also in Israel, by the way. And this is also reflected in the fact that despite the foam on the lips of the demonstrators bathed in hatred for Israel, the political and diplomatic institutions have not completely lost touch with reality.
This means that Israel has who and what to work with. But the first thing that must be internalized is that blind and low-brow hatred of Israel is an institutionalized phenomenon, not a marginal one. Yes, we are surrounded by idiots.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us