BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY or BHL, French members of the Israeli lobby [I]

BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY or BHL *

A philosopher who’s never taught the subject in any university,
a journalist who creates a cocktail mingling the true, the possible, and the totally false, a patch-work filmmaker, a writer without a real literary oeuvre,
he is the icon of a media-driven society in which simple appearance weighs more than the substance of things.
BHL is thus first and foremost a great communicator, the PR man of the only product he really knows how to sell: himself. [8]

Bernard-Henri Lévy (French pronunciation: [bɛʁnaʁd ɑ̃ʁi levi]; born November 5, 1948) [9]

Lévy is proudly [sephardic] Jewish, and he has said that Jews ought to provide a unique Jewish moral voice in world society and world politics.

For some bizarre reason, Levy seems to be convinced that his beloved Jews-only state is an “exemplary democracy”. He says: “One does not boycott the only society in the Middle East where Arabs read a free press, demonstrate when they wish to do so, send freely-elected representatives to parliament and enjoy their rights as citizens.” *

"LIBERATION" of PALESTINA

Lévy was born in Béni Saf, French Algeria, to a wealthy Algerian Jewish family. His family moved to Paris a few months after his birth. His father, André Lévy, was the multi-millionaire founder and manager of a timber company, Becob

The son of André Lévy, an influential merchant of exotic African woods who ran the Bécob firm, Bernard-Henri Lévy repeatedly exploited his political ties to help his father’s ailing firm.

Having begun as the ideology of various discontented students and sons of the bourgeoisie in the post-1968 period, it evolved very rapidly as these forces themselves became affluent or—in the case of Lévy—immensely rich. Today it serves rather openly as French members of the Israeli lobby and as the verbal fig leaf for the strategic interests of imperialism

Learning Pholosophy *

From the giant publishing house of Grasset—where BHL has been an editor since 1973—he launched his first media operation: the creation of the “nouveaux philosophes,” a band of scribblers of whom he was the most visible, whose leitmotif was anti-Marxism, anti-Communism, anti-anti-Americanism, and the embrace of the free market as guarantor of human well-being. Their books championed monotheism and anti-ideology as the only possible response to the moral collapse of Communism, thus fostering depoliticization in the wake of the evaporation of the “spirit of May 1968” and the triumph of consumer culture.

"LIBERATION" of AFGHANISTAN: With Ahmad Shah Masoud- Afghanistan *

BHL launched his second book, Barbarism with a Human Face, from the platform of the high-rated, prime-time literary talk show, “Apostrophes.” A handsome dandy, with studiously coiffed long hair, and a white shirt carefully unbuttoned to reveal his tanned chest, BHL caused the TV host’s daughter to tell him afterward, “I have seen Rimbaud on television!”

That unbuttoned white shirt, by the way, is an important element of BHL’s TV and public images and it tells a lot about the man. If you tried it with your own shirt, the collar would sag. But BHL’s shirts are specially designed by the famous shirt-maker Charvet, with collars that withstand the unbuttoning and never disappear under his jacket. The effect costs some $400 apiece, but BHL is a very rich man. The business magazine Capital recently named him one of the 100 richest people in France.

With Perez *

Born with a silver cuillère in his mouth, BHL inherited the family’s huge lumber business, Becob. He played a major role in running the company, until it was sold in the early ’90s. The company specialized in rare woods from Africa and—as Une Imposture Francaise reveals—while BHL was running the company, numerous international bodies and a report from the Canadian government denounced it for keeping its African workers in penurious semi-slavery, which rather contradicts BHL’s pretensions to be an international humanitarian activist.

"LIBERATION" of DARFUR: French "Guevara" in Darfur *

Maybe you did't know about BHL’s shady stock market speculations, his being questioned by the authorities about insider trading and the secret shell companies he owns in France, Switzerland, England and America, and his troubles with the taxman over undeclared revenue that led to a recommended indictment. Before it could be executed, the indictment was quashed by one of BHL’s new-found conservative friends, the then-Minister of Finances, Nicolas Sarkozy, the rising star of the right. Sarkozy is only one of the many politicians BHL has cultivated, by praising him in print while also commissioning Sarkozy to write a book for Grasset—a favorite BHL ploy for seducing everyone from TV hosts to literary critics.

Sarkozy is only one of the many politicians BHL has cultivated

BHL changes his political allegiances like one of his shirts. A courtier of Francois Mitterrand, BHL supported his presidency by helping create SOS Racism, ostensibly a civil rights group for young Franco-Arabs and blacks.

"LIBERATION" of SUDAN *

Une Imposture Francaise, however, reveals that the group was only a media-driven vote-getting mechanism for Mitterrand that was completely created by the Elysée Palace (France’s White House). He also helped launch the monthly magazine Globe, designed to be a media arm of Mitterandian propaganda, in which BHL’s column was featured on the front page of every issue.

LIBERATION of IRAN: Bernard-Henri Lévy speaks at a rally in support of Iranian woman

AFP/Boris Horvat

It's a bit troubling how BHL is regarded as a "philosopher." A professor of philosophy (is he really?); an author historian, perhaps; politician, certainly. But a philosopher? He hasn't brought any new ideas even to Capitalism itself, so to Thought at large? He's no philosopher, and so it is no surprise that he deals in politics.

LIBERATION of GEORGIA: Georgia at War: What I Saw

BHL was rewarded for these efforts with the chairmanship of the government commission that provides subsidies to French cinema. BHL used this post, which has life-or-death power over French films, to finance his own failed cinematic creations as well as movies starring his glitzy trophy wife, the actress Arielle Dombasle. But, when he sensed that Mitterrand’s star was fading, he began cozying up to and promoting the conservatives’ Prime Minister, Edouard Balladur—and was soon rewarded with the presidency of the state-owned TV network Arté, where he continued using taxpayers’ monies to subsidize his own productions, those of his friends and, of course, projects featuring Dombasle. [8]

LIBERATION of LIBYA:Benghazi Ferbuar 2011.

About six months before the conflict erupted in Libya, Mahmoud Jibiril actually met with Bernard-Henri Lévy in Australia to discuss forming the Transitional Council and deposing Colonel Qaddafi. [4]

LIBERATion of LIBYA

Tagging along for the photo-op was insufferable self-promoter and self-described "new philosopher" Bernard-Henri Levy, he of the perennially revealing torso under a neatly pressed white shirt, and he of the notorious phone call from Benghazi who "sold" a war to the beleaguered Gallic Liberator (as if King Sarko would refuse any push to enlarge his grandeur).[ 3]

LIBERATION of LIBYA : French members of the Israeli lobby with Younis

On March 4, the French literary dandy Bernard-Henri Lévy held a private meeting in Benghazi with Moustapha Abdeljalil, a former justice minister who has turned coats to become leader of the rebel "National Transition Council".

BHL about "new-philosophy" in Libya

That very evening, BHL called Sarkozy on his cellphone and got his agreement to receive the NTC leaders. The meeting took place on March 10 in the Elysée palace in Paris. As reported in Le Figaro by veteran international reporter Renaud Girard, Sarkozy thereupon announced to the delighted Libyans the plan that he had concocted with BHL: recognition of the NTC as sole legitimate representative of Libya, the naming of a French ambassador to Benghazi, precision strikes on Libyan military airports, with the blessings of the Arab League (which he had already obtained). [7]

BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY or BHL French members of the Israeli lobby

...tomorrrow will be continued

Libya S.O.S. - war diary 2011/12

Pages

Nov 5, 2011

BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY or BHL, French members of the Israeli lobby [I]