Zibby is joined by French writer, philosopher, filmmaker, and humanitarian activist Bernard-Henri Lévy to discuss ISRAEL ALONE, a powerful analysis of the global response to October 7, the new virulent waves of antisemitism, and why Israel is waging an existential war against barbarism alone. Bernard-Henri shares his experience traveling to Israel immediately after the 10/7 attacks, witnessing the aftermath, and drawing inspiration from the resilience of Israeli communities. He also delves into the global rise in antisemitism, Israel’s solitude in its fight against terrorism, and the broader implications for humanity when freedom is attacked.

Transcript:

Zibby: Welcome Bernard. Thank you so Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss your amazing powerful new book, Israel Alone.

Thank you so much. 

Bernard: Thank you. 

Zibby: In the book, you talk about being in Israel on October 8th and everything that came next. Talk about this particular book, I know you've written so many, how essential it was to write and what everybody picking it up needs to know about the book. 

Bernard: I don't know what, um, what has to, what has to be known.

Uh, difficult for me to reply. Only thing I can tell you is, uh, is two things. Number one, a writer of my sort, a Jewish writer, always has a remote rendezvous. a remote meeting with this sort of book. Anna Arendt had it, Saul Bello had it, any Jewish writer, Raymond Aron has, in France, has. I had a secret rendezvous with that book.

I wrote a lot about Israel. I, I am, I, I defended Israel all my life. I went to Israel since 60 years. I met every single prime minister of Israel since David Ben Gurion. But I never wrote. a proper book about Israel. There is here and there in my previous books some some notes, some pieces of chapter and so on, but never a proper book.

So I knew in the back of my mind that I had this secret rendezvous as any Jewish secular writer. Number two, suddenly there was, how can I say, I will not say of course the circumstance and even less the opportunity, but the event of October 7 was. the occasion to, to fulfill, to, to meet, uh, this rendezvous.

And I remember so well, I was on October 7th at my home in Paris, in my apartment. I heard the news and that immediately felt concluded and felt in my, in my flesh that there was no other place in the world where I should be, except in the kibbutzim, which were at that very minute. So I took the first possible plane, the first one, there was no Air France.

Every company canceled the flight to Israel. I found the flight and I was there the day after in the south, in the city of Gderot. Then two days after I was in Kfar Aza and Beri. And the book took place there. This book about Israel. This book of philosophy, it is not a book of opportunity. You know, it is not on the, I read often that it's a book about the October 7th.

Not really. It's of course, it is that it started on October 7th and it started with a promise, which I did an oath, which I made to the families of hostages. To the re, uh, recipe of the massacre to whom I promised to write it, but it is much broader and it was really, uh, created by, by what I saw, what I heard, the testimony of the of those who saw everything, of those who escaped the pogrom, of the, the families who started to wait for the, the comeback of their beloved ones. I spent all these weeks in Israel and I was, it was one of the worst experiences of my life. And I lived a few experiences and a few dark experiences in my life, even in this sort of of events.

I, I have been also a war reporter, but all my life, but this October 7th, the days after For me, it shook me from, uh, top to toes and, uh, and I made the oath to, to, to fulfill the rendezvous. 

Zibby: Oh my gosh. Well, thank you for sharing what the experience was like for you and, and more. I mean, the whole premise of this book is that for so many other nations, well, not the whole premise, but a part of it, is that Israel is on its own, that other nations have people coming to its defense and, and Israel is there.

I mean, they're there. fighting every day. And you talk a lot about how people debate if Israel has the right to defend itself, but that really it has the right to win. 

Bernard: Exactly. That's exactly my, uh, what I, what I claim on and on since the first publication of the book in French till this minute to you.

The right to defend oneself, of course, of course, even the worst state on earth has this right according to the law, international law. The real right Uh, which Israel have and the real duty, which we have is to let Israel do it, which is to win, to win against terrorism, to win against the barbarity, to win against the axis of, um, radical, uh, Islamist movements, countries, and so on led by, by Iran, of course, but not only Iran, Turkey, uh, Russia.

Well, Who is, uh, maneuvering the whole thing. So this is a right which Israel has. And Israel does it, uh, as you would say proudly in your own book. There is a, all this period has been horrible. We are living a really terrible time since one year. The only positive point is that all these events oblige us, permitted a sort of Jewish pride to wake up in each of us, Jews in America, those who contribute to your book, Jews in the rest of the diaspora, and Jews in Israel.

And that was a sort of affirmation, a calm. cold blooded, not bragging, not hubris, not with hubris, no, but a self affirmation of being a Jew, which you know, again, so, uh, as well as me, which has been one of the effects, a paradoxical effect of this terrible, um, um, unprecedented trauma. 

Zibby: Yes, I feel that in my bones as well.

I feel like there was a whole community that didn't know how close they were. And now all of a sudden everybody is like, you know, like gophers coming out of the grass, right? Here we are, and we're all together. And that's amazing. As someone who has studied, been in Israel so much, foremost thinker on this topic, when you, uh, have all these anti Semitic attacks and things.

For example, the, the whole shelf awareness scandal that I posted about that we talked about last week and you came out in the Wall Street Journal and you're like, this isn't the first time, but it's so blatant. What, what do you make of things like that? What do we do with that? If, when it feels like, every direction.

It's coming at us. It's like we're in a rainstorm. And like, I don't even know which way to put my umbrella. How do you, what do you do with that? 

Bernard: We do what, uh, we do what, uh, what Barry Weiss did in Free Press. I did in the Wall Street Journal. What you are doing now, we, we don't let that go. We don't permit it.

We don't, uh, uh, we don't receive this offense. It is a sort of natural disaster. We express all our indignation. That's not normal. It's not normal that the author of so many books as I did, I don't even dare to say is banned and censored for this book precisely because the title is supposed toxic because of the presence in the title of the word Israel.

I wrote all sort of book in my life. I, I launched many scandals in my life, really, in my country and in America when you were not born long, long time ago. This time. It is the fact that the word Israel is on the front page, which made self awareness, this obscure, uh, outlet, maybe important, I don't know, shiver, decide, uh, uh, think that it could be an offense and an embarrassment for their readers.

It is It is coward, it is stupid, it is infamous, and it is, it is anti Semitic. And we have to say it. And we have, I can tell you, there are so many Americans who believe that. What I'm just telling you, uh, and what the Wall Street Journal and Free Press said. I received so many testimonies of friendship and sympathy.

They, their action of censorship was even from their point of view counterproductive, I think. 

Zibby: Yes. 

Bernard: I hate to say that, honestly. I hate to say it and I don't need that. But, uh, uh, they could not have done as much publicity to this, to, to this book than by doing what, what, what they, they, they just did. So they are just morons and anti Semitic morons.

And it is anti Semitism period. What can I say to say that the word Israel is an embarrassment? Come on, either way to be anti Semite today. 

Zibby: How do you think we can engage all of the people who you're saying, they, they wrote you notes, they write me notes, they say how can I help, whatever, their allies, the non Jewish allies, who I think are so important and underused and not speaking up enough.

How can we engage all of them? all of the other people who see this injustice for what it is, but don't necessarily feel comfortable sticking up for us or saying things publicly. How can we engage everybody else to, like, to, to call it what it is? Why do we have to be the only ones speaking out? 

Bernard: They have to understand, and I think they understand, that it is not about us.

Honestly, I can survive if my, if my, if Israel alone, uh, is banned, uh, by, uh, um, by an outlet in America. I can survive. But today, today it's me. Tomorrow it will be others. Tomorrow it will be because there will be another world on the, on the cover of another book. It's a law in history. The Jews are on the, on the first line.

When the Jews fall, then you have second line, third line. A lot of other people will, will, will fall after them. So, they have to know. That we are on the front of the barricade of a world of liberty, of freedoms, which is their world. If we accept this breach in the First Amendment, the right to say Israel on the cover of a book, if we accept that this right is breached, is broken, if we accept that, It opens to anything and I'm sure that there is in this, in your country, a lot of, uh, of Catholics, a lot of Christians, a lot of people who, who believe or not believe.

who understand very well that, that it is the very core of humanity which is hurt when somebody hits a Jew. I'm not hit. Okay. It's just a book, but they understand that. That when the Jews are are are beaten at the end of the day, it is the humanity. It is the very mankind which is hurt in the depth of its core.

They know that. And when they don't know, Not bad to, to repeat it and to make it known. 

Zibby: Do we want everybody to be posting on, like, what, are there any steps? I want to give people steps of things they can do. I, cause I feel like for me, as we were talking about, like I took a step, right? I got all these authors together.

I wrote this book. That's like one thing I could do. It was a big thing, but whatever. What can people 

Bernard: You already did a good job. Thank you. You already did a good job. 

Zibby: Thank you. Thank you. But what else? Are there simple things people can do? Should they just share posts to stories? Should they, like, talk to friends?

What can people do who want to help who are Jewish or non Jewish? Because I feel like sometimes people don't know what to do, but they want to be good people. They know they should be helping because it's the right thing to do, but they just don't know what to do. 

Bernard: Not to remain alone, first of all. Alone, we can share posts, we can go on your Twitter account, on your Instagram account.

On mine, I have, uh, also the same, uh, accounts on these, uh, so suppose social network, okay, Twitter, Instagram, they can go on our threads, but people can also try to, to gather. And for example, uh, I'm going to be in the States now, uh, on some campuses, I'm going to make a campus tour. As you, as you know, tomorrow from, uh, coast to coast from, uh, Los Angeles to, to the Ivy League universities, I'm going to, to, to, to, to speak there and to speak with all my, my, my strength, my, my pride.

My hope, my wisdom, so people can come and we can discuss and we can share, uh, the same space of, uh, of worlds and of, uh, of speaking, uh, this can be done. And when you, when people gather, when they don't feel alone or less alone, They feel strong, they feel strong and there are in your country about Israel, about being a Jew, about the fact that when you hate a Jew, you hate humanity, there is A lot of people, believe me, I, I know I'm, I know your country.

I toured a few weeks ago already. I will tour again. I did it. I saw people, not Jews necessarily, but they know that, and they know that Israel is fighting for freedom. And they know that Victoria of Israel would be the Victoria of the US and of the free world. And they know that if Israel accepted to, to.

To, to stop, to cease fire, to, to make a, uh, a compromise with, uh, with Hamas or with Hezbollah. They know that it would be a disaster for our values and for our interests. American people, the wise Americans and the wise French know that, that it is a matter of value, a matter of creed and a matter of interest.

National interest and economic interest for all of us to, to help little Israel to win. It's a very little country fighting a very big war for a big lot of people who will be the ultimate beneficiaries. of the victory of, um, of Israel. So this has to be said on and on and on. And that's what I do in my, in my book.

This is what I will say, what I will do to say that in this campus tour in, uh, in Harvard and in, uh, and in Michigan and in, uh, OIO and so on. 

Zibby: That's amazing. Do you ever feel fear? Do you ever get scared about speaking up about,.. 

Bernard: You know, I told you briefly at the start of this conversation, in one of my life, in one of my lives, I am a war reporter.

I did a lot of war report, good or bad, I don't know, but I did a lot for big newspapers. Okay. I was in, uh, in Pakistan. I was in Afghanistan during the war. I was in Mosul filming the liberation of the city. I spent the last two years and a half in Ukraine, most of my time filming on frontline in the trenches with the brave Ukrainian fighters fighting the war.

Again, another frontline, but same battle against Putin. So I was reasonably afraid when I, when I, when I covered all these wars, but not so much. So I'm not very afraid to defend, honestly, to defend the book. It's uh, I lived so many things. Which could have made me scared that I cannot say that I'm scared by anything coming from Mr. Shelf Awareness or from I don't know what. No, no, not very scared. 

Zibby: Do you feel hope? Do you feel hopeful? Do you feel like things are going to right themselves or not. 

Bernard: Yes. Yes. Because I think that Israel will win on most of the, of the fronts where Israel is engaged and that, uh, alas, this is the key. I hate to speak like that because I'm an intellectual.

I would love that the ideas have by themselves the power to impose themselves. But sometimes. Yeah. It's not enough. An idea has not enough strength, inner strength to impose itself. So in this case against Hezbollah, against Hamas, against Tehran, against Houthi, against all these bad people, it's necessary to have a military territory.

Israel will have it. I'm sure. And it will not be. It is not be. It is not easy. It has a high cost in terms of Israeli lives and in terms of source of civilian life. But Israel will win. And then What will happen? It will happen the same as when we, France and America won against ISIS in Mosul. It will happen as what happened in 2001 when the West and America won against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda, ISIS. And tomorrow, we lose their magnet, we lose their strength of attraction, of course, there will be remnants, but they will lose their our aura, their aura, you know, they will lose their power to attract people say you cannot fight an id and when you and, uh, is Islamism is an id, you, you cannot kill an id.

And if you, if you kill one, one terrorist, you will have 10 more. Not true. In 2001, when American, uh, jets and fighters, uh, destroyed the military apparent of alga, it really broke al Qaeda. Not completely, but it broke the, America broke the power of attraction of al Qaeda. In 2016, we did the same with ISIS. We destroyed in Mosul and in Raqqa, the, the, the state which they had.

And again, it lowered considerably the, the, the level of power of ISIS. And now it will be the same for Hezbollah, for Hamas, and I think for. Iran. And for this, I am hopeful. And there are a lot of people in the world who secretly, in all parts of the world, including in the Middle East, who hope for, who pray for the victory of Israel.

They don't dare to say, and they don't dare to act. They let Israel act, but in the depth of their, of their heart, they hope for the victory of Israel. 

Zibby: Amazing. Thank you so much. This has been amazing. Thank you for being such a leader of all of us. And I hope you feel through the wind at your sails that we are all just hoping to keep you up in the air and lifting you up.

Keep talking, keep speaking out, keep doing everything you're doing and best of luck with the book. 

Bernard: Thank you very much. 

Zibby: Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you.