Bernard-Henri Lévy

Thursday

Bernard-Henri Lévy

Anti-Semitism has returned to French politics

From our UK edition

New Caledonia is an archipelago in the South Pacific not far from Australia. James Cook discovered it in 1774, but, after concluding that too many languages were spoken there, he declined to annex it to the British Empire. France, not as cautious, made it a distant colony under Napoleon III. Today, riots are convulsing the territory. Supposedly ‘decolonial’ in aim, they are most certainly violent and fuelled by the anti-white racism that, from London to Brussels and Paris, has become the trademark of the new radical left. The strangest thing is that among the flags of the Kanak independence movement, one also sees Azeri flags. Why Azeri?

Tuesday

Bernard-Henri Lévy

Sacrificing the Uighurs to the Olympics

It’s hard to say what was most distressing about the opening days of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The lament of the athletes “injured” by the swabs inserted into their noses for Covid testing? French speed skater Gwendoline Daudet’s anguish under the bubble after she was eliminated from the mixed relay? The embarrassing spectacle of Uighur skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang lighting the snowflake-shaped Olympic cauldron under the gaze of Xi Jinping, an image that the spokespersons of the International Olympic Committee found “charming”? The fact that, unlike in Berlin in 1936 or Moscow in 1980, the matter of a boycott was scarcely mentioned, as “it was shown” that the topic would have a “negative impact” on the athletes’ morale?

Sunday

Bernard-Henri Lévy

The bell tolls for us in Kabul

From our UK edition

Some events are like this. They creep up like a stalking wolf. Or, as Nietzsche put it, on doves’ feet. We don’t hear them coming and need a third ear to make out, behind the ‘still, small voice’, the echo of the explosion. It happened at Leuctra, in Boeotia, on that day in the 4th century BC when the sacred band of Thebes cut 400 Spartiate equals to pieces, tolling the end of Lacedaemonian hegemony, though no one knew it at the time. Or at the battle of Chaeronea, 30 years later, which marked the start of the waning of Athenian power. Or the seemingly minor battle of Pydna, in Thessaloniki, which set in motion the crumbling of Alexander’s dream and was the first real victory of the nascent Roman empire.