Bernard-Henri Lévy, a Zionist spin master masquerading as a ‘philosopher’

By Ivan Kesic

Bernard-Henri Lévy, a self-proclaimed "philosopher," has earned notoriety for himself as a supporter of controversial causes and illegitimate entities, most notably the Israeli regime.

He was at it again recently after jumping in defense of war criminals in Tel Aviv following the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants against them over the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Introduced in the Western and Israeli media as an "intellectual," "philosopher," and "peace activist," Lévy's words and actions illustrate that he is a PR agent for the Israeli occupation.

While the ICC's indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant on Thursday for their roles in the regime's war crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza has been widely welcomed, the move has frustrated Zionists and their apologists.

Among them is Lévy, a French national and a Zionist at heart, who vented his disappointment on X (formerly Twitter) and other social networks where he is followed by hundreds of thousands of people.

He took to X on November 22 to criticize the Hague-based court for "distorting international law" and disfiguring the noble idea of international justice."

He posted similar rants on Facebook and Instagram, where he wrote that the ICC indictment was "shameful" and "disgraceful," and that the same applies to calling Israeli crimes in Gaza genocide.

Lévy vehemently denied that genocide was taking place in Gaza, calling it "false, morally abject and a perverse inversion," while linking his review to the US conservative news website The New York Sun.

In the article, he anachronistically argued that the use of "genocide" for the Israeli campaign of extermination is "insulting to the real victims of genocide," or the victims of Nazism 82 years ago.

On November 25, he again took to X to defend the Zionist regime's genocide in Gaza and decry the ICC for issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu.

"The ICC in The Hague is only competent for countries with failing judicial systems, unable of trying themselves their leaders' misconduct," he wrote.

The court, he hastened to assert, was "created (and I was part of this reflection and conceptualization) for countries like #Russia! #China! #Iran! #Nigeria" adding that it has "no jurisdiction over tiny but democratic #Israel!"

"This mandate, in other words, makes no sense.   Netanyahu cannot, under any circumstances, be apprehended. Those who claim otherwise simply have no understanding of the international law."

Lévy's outbursts were met with widespread criticism for their bias, whitewashing, contradictions, hypocrisy, and double standards, especially since he had welcomed the ICC arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin in March last year.

In his tweet on March 17, 2023, the French "philosopher" described the indictment of the sitting Russian president as "great news, glaring truth and justice."

"The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir #Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the deportation of #Ukrainian children. The truth is glaring. Justice will prevail," he wrote then.

Long-time Zionist

Lévy's latest pro-Zionist rhetoric and inconsistencies are nothing new, but a continuation of his uncompromising apologetics in favor of the Israeli regime.

Late last month, he also produced a book, "Israel Alone," in which he argued that the Tel Aviv regime, openly and unabashedly supported by the United States and European countries, as the title suggests, actually stands "alone."

He dehumanizingly referred to the Axis of Resistance as "barbarians," while spouting the classic clichés that anti-Zionism amounts to "anti-Semitism" and that the Zionist entity "fights for the entire collective West."

Lévy's statements to the media and on social media have also been riddled with such twisted interpretations, and in the last few weeks alone, he has used them to justify all of the most extreme moves by the Netanyahu cabinet.

In collaboration with the influential Zionist organization B'nai B'rith International, he regularly participates in pro-Israel conferences in Paris, defending Israeli genocidal actions against Palestinians in Gaza and Lebanese in Lebanon.

Despite the global outcry, he welcomed the Israeli ban on the operations of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on whose aid millions of civilians depend, questioning the organization's humanitarian mandate.

He has also supported the Israeli aggression against Iran and Lebanon, claiming that they are "not invading, but liberating Lebanon," and that those who do not understand this have "lost all moral and political compass."

According to available evidence, over the past quarter of a century, Lévy has been known as a fierce advocate of aggressive Israeli, American, and French foreign policies, justifying all of their wars, as well as their proxies in numerous conflicts.

He has often justified Israeli aggressions with the cliché of "the most moral army in the world," which is a repetition of Ariel Sharon's statements from 2004, as well as with the regime's frequent demagogy of "the only democracy in the region."

The same worn-out platitude about "democracy" was used by Lévy to glorify all terrorists backed by the aforementioned Western powers.

Part of a PR campaign

Although Lévy has a habit of defending his support for Zionism with so-called "political worldviews," experts and investigative journalists have for years pointed to his direct cooperation with the top brass of the Israeli regime.

He was born into a Jewish Zionist family and visited the occupied territories as a teenager, but his stronger political engagement began at the beginning of this century, congruent with the then-US neocon-Zionist imperial ambitions.

Lévy is often placed in the context of the so-called "liberal hawks," a group of public figures, often former Marxists and declared liberals, who ironically have justified Western military aggressions with "humanitarian" arguments.

Their sudden appearance in the mass media and public space was not spontaneous, but part of an organized PR campaign aimed at winning over Western public opinion from all sides of the political spectrum.

Lévy is thus branded as a "thinker, intellectual, or philosopher," even though he briefly worked as a lecturer and did not produce any significant philosophical work or ideas, nor is he treated as a serious thinker by contemporary philosophers.

In fact, he has been widely criticized and ridiculed in philosophical circles for quoting Jean-Baptiste Botul, who is a fictional figure, which, as some suggest, shows his works are written by ghostwriters.

Political philosopher Perry Anderson called Lévy's prominence "bizarre" and a reversion to national standards of taste and intelligence in France's public sphere.

French investigative journalists Jade Lindgaard and Xavier De La Porte, in a co-authored book analyzing his words and works, called him a "pseudo-philosopher, an impostor, and an ace of postmodern agitprop."

The duo states that he skillfully camouflages his Zionism and has invented a discourse that delivers both propaganda and the antidote to that propaganda, eluding critical grasp and making it impossible to criticize him.

For example, he claimed to support the creation of a Palestinian state, but he supported all Israeli moves and policies that tried to prevent that from happening.

The unofficial IOF spokesman

Lévy is a long-time zealot advocate of the Israeli military (IOF) and has actively participated in the regime's PR campaign to whitewash its genocidal crimes and improve its public image.

This collaboration began in 2002 during the Second Intifada when accompanied by soldier Olivier Rafowicz and with the permission of the Israeli regime, he visited their army barracks, giving eulogies about them to the media.

Accompanying him, Lévy visited the battlefield again in 2006 during the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, presenting Rafowicz as an ordinary soldier and an expert on the situation on the ground.

In reality, Rafowicz was the IOF's spokesman to the foreign media; French-born and a perfect French speaker, in charge of PR relations with French journalists.

During the neatly choreographed tour, Lévy also visited minister of military affairs Amir Peretz, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, and former PM Shimon Peres, but he did not talk to a single Israeli opponent of the war, not one Palestinian refugee and no one from Lebanon.

Once again, in 2009, Levy covered the Israeli aggression on Gaza, telling foreign media that he entered Gaza City and there were no signs of any destruction.

The implicit message was that Israeli shelling had not been as destructive as claimed in the media, but his claims were quickly exposed as a lie because he did not visit Gaza but Abasan al-Saghira, a border town 20 km away.

Unlike foreign journalists, Lévy was not denied a visit to the troops, which, together with manipulative statements to the media, proves it was another regime PR stunt.

This time he also had ready access to the top dignitaries of the Israeli army and the regime, including PM Ehud Olmert, minister of military affairs Ehud Barak, and Yuval Diskin, the director of Shin Bet, the Israeli internal military service.

During all these excursions, Lévy delivered the regime's PR mantra of "the most moral army in the world" to foreign media, and was awarded two honorary doctorates by Israeli universities for his propaganda activities.

He continued his role as an Israeli field operative later during the Arab Spring protests, when he met with militants in Libya and Syria, claiming to the media that they were ready to recognize the Israeli regime and establish diplomatic relations.

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