Bernard-Henri Lévy at the 92nd Street Y. Photo: Screenshot.

“Anti-Zionism is the new dressing for the old passion of antisemitism,” famed French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy told a New York City gathering on Wednesday.

In a conversation at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan moderated by Charlie Rose, Lévy — author of the new book The Genius of Judaism — said, “If you are anti-Zionist, that means you wish for a huge disaster for the Jewish people.”

Lévy — an advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — criticized the anti-settlement resolution recently approved by the United Nations Security Council, saying it happened at the wrong “place and moment” and stood in stark contrast to the Security Council’s inaction in Syria.

There is a “shameful balance” against Israel at the UN, Lévy said.

In an op-ed published by The Algemeiner last week, Lévy wrote he was “deeply shocked by the circumstances” surrounding the passage of the resolution, which was enabled by a US abstention from the vote on it.

The existence of the Jewish state, Lévy noted on Wednesday, “is absolutely crucial.”

“I am unconditionally partisan to Israel,” he said.

Israel’s story, Lévy went on to say, is “one of greatest human and political adventures of modern times.”

The religion of Islam, Lévy stated, is “certainly the biggest question of the day, the most burning issue that we have to face… And what we have to face is the war inside Islam, between two Islams — between enlightened Islam and radical Islam. The war is far from being won by the moderate, democratic [side].”

Watch the full discussion between Lévy and Rose below: