Says the French philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy (Beni Saf, French Algeria, 1948) that Hamas attacking Israel on October 7 was a “pogrom” that would change Israel and the world. He criticizes the international community for leaving Israel alone at such a terrible time and for not understanding the scale of the massacre. He publishes in Spanish his book “The Solitude of Israel” (The Sphere of Books), in which he creates an argument in the great geopolitical war, in which actors such as Russia, China and Iran are important. They serve THE STORY OF SPAINThe Sefarad-Israel Center in Madrid this Friday, surrounded by strong security.
Israel has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Do you think it is time to end this war? It is time for the remnants of Hamas to release the hostages.
You say Israel is alone. Why? Ask Joe Biden.
He has sent them billions of dollars in weapons and diplomatic support… He also asked them not to answer, to agree to give up. Hezbollah has been throwing stones at them every day and (Biden) asked them not to respond. It’s not what a good friend would do.
Mr Biden also called on Mr Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza… And do not enter Rafah in the south. And to stop the war and sign a cease-fire, which would allow Hamas to re-establish its forces and re-establish its Army. Yes, the United States has provided weapons, but very reluctantly.
Washington has just asked Israel in a letter to allow food into Gaza and has threatened indiscriminately not to send more weapons… But they already allow it. Vehicles enter Gaza.
Not at the speed needed, according to many humanitarian organizations. Not enough in recent weeks, that’s for sure. But cars are not allowed to enter. Israel is searching for them. Then they enter and Hamas arrests them.
Human Rights Organizations (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International), United Nations, or attorney general of the International Criminal Court Are they all wrong to say that Israel is violating the laws of war? The attorney general of the International Criminal Court has boycotted the court. The court belongs to countries where there is no law, where there is no justice. That’s what it was created for.
That is, only African or Asian countries, but not democratic ones, why? Who said African countries? No, fascist countries. Russia or Belarus is not African. Enough racist language. Israel is a country where the prime minister can go to jail, like Ehud Olmert. Or where the president has spent many years in prison for sexual assault (Moshe Katsav).
So if the leader of a democratic country, like Benjamin Netanyahu, commits war crimes or crimes against humanity, what you are saying is that the International Court has no say in that? The International Criminal Court No. There is justice in Israel. If the prime minister of Israel commits war crimes, believe me, eventually and properly the case will be answered, and more properly than in the International Criminal Court.
The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, in every speech, called on Hamas to release the hostages, and then criticized Israel’s increase in Gaza. What do you think of his role? What do you think about the recognition of the Palestinian Authority? A mistake. If there is ever a time when a two-government solution is impossible, it is now. With Hamas in charge of Gaza or the Palestinian Authority, which did not oppose the October 7 attack, this is not the time to accept this.
The government says that it could not have expected, after the destruction of Gaza, that it would have to contend with the fact that there would be no permanent Palestinian state after the war. And it was time to give hope to the Palestinians. The best way to give hope to the Palestinian people is to free them from the terror of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian National Authority.
You have written in detail about October 7, about the suffering of Israel. You know what about the suffering of Palestine and what is happening in Gaza? See pictures of what’s going on there? In my book I answer this question. Yes, I see pictures of Palestinian suffering. Every day. It’s the first thing I see when I wake up. Those images haunt me, and I think about them day and night. I am very concerned about those who use political words like “from the river to the sea” like their vice president (Yolanda Díaz). For me it is not a rhetoric, but a real experience that I know myself.
Have you seen sniper shooting at Palestinian children in the so-called ‘killing zones’ provided by Israel in Gaza? Israel investigates all suspected war crimes. They say the case is false.
But there are testimonies from foreign doctors, American Jews, Canadians, there are videos… There is a debate about this in Israel. And they are denying these allegations. We will see. I believe in the Tsahal (Israeli Army). And they are quicker than other soldiers to admit their mistakes when they make them. For example, with the tragedy of (helpers who were killed by Israeli gunfire) at the World Central Kitchen…
They were strangers…He was. But Israel investigated. Within a week they realized the disaster and their responsibility and dismissed the army officers. When the US military is deployed in Afghanistan, it takes six months.
We know that Israel could kill Ismael Haniyeh in Tehran, put explosives in thousands of “pagers” and “Walkie Talkies”. It is a powerful country. Do you think he would have fought the fight differently? Initially, the opposition to Hezbollah and Hamas has been very different. The beeper operation was developed over many years. The fight against Hamas is not ready. Israel made a big mistake: they were ready to go to war with Iran, but not against Hamas in Gaza.
Was it necessary to drop thousands of one-ton bombs on populated areas, which have destroyed 70% of Gaza? I’m not a martial artist. Has Israel taken all necessary precautions to protect civilians? I don’t know. What I do know is that they have done more to prevent civilian casualties than any other army I have seen in similar situations: they have done more than the French in Mosul (Iraq) or the Americans in Afghanistan. Yes, it is not enough.
The fact that they care more than other armies is questionable. I will use the words of the German Foreign Minister, who cried out against burning people alive in the attack on refugee tents in Rafah… If the German minister had been at the battle of Mosul, which I know very well, because I have been there four times, he would have seen worse things.
Is that the standard then, Mosul? I don’t know if it was worse, but no one cares about it, or Raqqa (Iraq). War is the greatest problem that mankind has ever invented. There are always accidents and injuries to civilians. That is why we must stop war. This is why the international community had the responsibility to stop the war in November or December…
All the leaders went to embrace and support Netanyahu. They went to ask Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, while the opposition was Hamas. Or that they did not enter Rafah (south of Gaza). Or that he joined Hamas.
Not at first. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, went to sign a blank check for Netanyahu, saying that he has the right to defend himself… Is it a blank check to recognize your right to defend yourself when a country is attacked?
But they did this without asking him to stop them. Others, like Pedro Sánchez, said: we support their right to defend themselves, Hamas is a terrorist group, but there are limits to the type of war they can carry out. What do you think of Sánchez’s role? What I think is that Sánchez, before giving advice to Israel, should put his house in order and burn his vice president for the clear words of the terrorist group.
In his book he confirms that Israel is fighting for its existence. But Israel is a nuclear state, armed with weapons, and the Iron Dome that protects it… Hamas and Hezbollah are puppets, proxies of Iran, which is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in 2019 that Iran was two to three weeks away from having all the means to deliver a nuclear bomb.
What do you think about what is happening in the Government of Israel, the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir or the Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich? Is it a peaceful relationship? In my book I say that his name just warms my mouth. I can’t say it clearly.
And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? It’s not the same. He is a cunning, evil politician who has joined these people.
You have been in government for 20 years, what have you achieved during this time? Israel’s worst “pogrom,” as you call it in your book? We’ll see what that person’s legacy is in the end. I don’t know. Everyone said that (former Israeli Prime Minister) Isaac Rabin was a bad politician and a brutal leader, and he was the one who made the Oslo accords. Menachem began to make peace with the Egyptians. Everyone believed that Ariel Sharon was a butcher and left Gaza. Maybe Netanyahu will allow the Palestinians to get rid of Hamas, Lebanon to get rid of Hezbollah, and the surrounding countries to get rid of terrorist groups.
And ending the occupation of the West Bank and displacing 700,000 residents? The West Bank has always been busy. Before that he was in Jordan, between 1948 and 1967, and since then in Israel.
But the West Bank project is the root of the Middle East crisis… I don’t believe it. When it was occupied by Jordan, there was already a problem in the Middle East, and there was a war with the Arab countries.
Don’t you think that if Israel withdraws from Gaza, the prospect of a peaceful future will be possible? I hope they stop soon. But I don’t think it will be enough to bring peace to the region. The key to peace is that fundamentalist Islam weakens and that the Palestinians wake up to the reality of Israel’s existence. Instead of being a curse, it is an opportunity for them. If they get it right, there will be a bright future for them.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has accepted the reality of Israel. But in 2023 alone, before October 7, Israel killed 250 Palestinians in the West Bank; 50 of them, children…Abbas accepts that fact as a smart move.
The ANP spends 40% of its budget on defense, mainly to ensure that Israel… Mahmoud Abbas must accept the existence of Israel sincerely, with his heart, not as a calculation.
We know that thousands of Palestinian children have died. What do you think your parents will be doing in the next few years? I hope and pray that they will curse the evil leaders who were with them and who committed this unforgivable crime.
I mean what will you think about Israel. Retaliation, right to self-defense? I believe it’s like in post-Franco Spain: that wounds heal. That they can be together. Like the Germans and the French after Nazism. But again we must remember that the danger must be condemned, first, on Hamas and then on the world, which did not do what was necessary to prevent it.
