Israel

Unfailingly present whenever Israel is in danger, Bernard-Henri Lévy has rolled up his sleeves since the 1970s to find peaceful solutions. But when the philosopher thinks about Israel, he is also thinking about the entire world. And when he becomes involved in Bosnia, Georgia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, or Afghanistan that involvement reflects his thinking about Israel. The post-Holocaust principle of “Never Again” inhabits his words and deeds with respect to Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

Bangladesh

From Les Indes rouges (1973) to The Will To See (2020), Bangladesh remains close to the heart of Bernard-Henri Lévy. The only Muslim country led today by a woman is a model of tolerant Islam, sheltering a million Rohingya refugees driven out of Burma by the military junta. About this country at the mercy of climate change and western consumerism Lévy declared after his 2020 visit that it was “on the front line of the battle against radical Islam, poverty, migratory chaos, and ecological cataclysm.”

Adventures on the Freedom Road

Published in October 1995

As this century saw the rise first of Communism, then of Fascism, French intellectuals have hurried to take sides and devote their writings to the good of their chosen Cause. To follow Bernard-Henri Levy, one of the high members of the “new philosophers”, in his quest is an altogether stimulating exercise.