Bernard-Henri Levy, addressing the Gatestone Institute. Photo: Raymond Hamlin.

“Jews are, of course, a main target of the radical Islamists, but not the only ones,” world renowned French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy told The Algemeiner on Tuesday.

During a talk titled “The European Union and Totalitarianism,” hosted by the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based think tank specializing in strategy and defense, BHL, as he is known in France, was responding to a question about Monday’s Sky News report about advanced Islamic State plans to attack Jewish children in Turkey, on the heels of a series of ISIS-perpetrated bombings and other murders that have rocked Europe and Africa in the past week alone. The two other targets of global jihad he pointed to were Christians, who are being slaughtered across the Middle East, and what he called “enlightened decency,” a term he elaborated on by saying that it is “not by chance that [the radical Islamists] have been attacking cities, such as Paris, Brussels and Istanbul.”

Referring to this as “metrocide,” BHL said, “All fascist movements hate cities, because they symbolize and embody civilization,” and “Islamofascists” are no different in this respect.

Going through a list of what he called “stupid and disgusting excuses” made by the West for the global terror wave (i.e. that terrorism is rooted in misery, poverty and despair; that terrorism is an act of revenge or retaliation for Western aggression; and that it is a response to Western military, political and cultural imperialism), BHL asserted that “Islamofascism has not been studied and analyzed as it should have been.”

Related coverage

August 21, 2019 1:23 pm

0

‘The Eyes of the Country’: IDF’s Maritime Command Center Protects Israel From Seaborne Threats

  JNS.org - The Israeli Navy’s maritime control centers play a crucial role in securing the country’s coastline from a range...

He also argued that Europe has not taken advantage of the “laboratory” that Israel both constitutes and provides for how a country can be in a state of emergency where terrorism is concerned and at the same time uphold democratic values.

“Israel’s state of emergency began 67 years ago,” said BHL, who is promoting his latest book, L‘esprit du judaïsme (the spirit of Judaism). “And it has found the means to remain a vibrant democracy.”

BHL was honored Monday night at The Algemeiner‘s third annual “Jewish 100 Gala,” along with UK Justice Minister Michael Gove, philanthropist Jeffrey Rosen and Broadway star Tovah Feldshuh.