French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut discusses wokeism and antisemitism
For woke activists, Israel is the center of evil, says French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut. Their ideology is more hardheaded than communism because it aligns itself with Islamism, he says.
Mr. Finkielkraut, you were quick to criticize wokeism at American universities. Occasionally, I thought your warnings were exaggerated. After Oct. 7 and the pro-Hamas demonstrations at various universities, I thought: He was right. What was going through your mind?
I was shocked. I was stunned. I was overwhelmed. Let's say, to paraphrase the French author Jean Racine: My misery exceeded all my hopes.
What was different?
After the massacre of Oct. 7, it seems that antisemitism has become the highest level of wokeism. Wokeism mercilessly reduces the complexity of human constellations to a confrontation between rulers and ruled, oppressors and oppressed. This ideology places Israel in the camp of the oppressors. This goes so far as to completely delegitimize the state. American student organizations describe Israel as a colonial enterprise from its beginnings to the present day. They dispute the right of the Jewish people to this land. They pretend that Jews settled there, in Palestine, like the Germans in Namibia or the French in Algeria. Hence the popularity of the slogan «From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.»
The river in question is the Jordan, the sea refers to the Mediterranean – there is no room for Jews there anymore.
Yes. It was a painful sight for me to see American students calmly tearing down photos of Israeli hostages. These hostages are settlers in their eyes, and settlers do not deserve to live. This is frightening, because this ideology shapes the elite or the future elite. Wokeism is the installation of hatred of the West in the heart of the West. And in this perspective, Israel is the center that bundles all the crimes, all the atrocities, all the abominations of the West.
How influential is this ideology outside the universities? How formative is it for Western society?
I believe that a large part of our society is insensitive and even hostile to woke ideology. However, wokeism is not completely isolated; in France, several political movements are characterized by it. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far left party, La France Insoumise (France Unbowed,) has very explicitly become an antisemitic movement. Mainly for patronage reasons, because the advance of wokeism goes hand in hand with demographic change, at least in Europe. La France Insoumise aligns its positions with those of Hamas, as it relies on the Muslim electorate. A large majority of Muslim voters voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the last presidential elections. This is also due to his vindictive and poisonous statements against Israel and Jews.
How do you rate Macron's Israel policy? To what extent does he cater to the sensitivities of Muslim voters as well?
The president of the republic was delighted that a united France marched against antisemitism in November. And then he decided not to take part in this march in order to preserve the unity of the country. With this balancing act, he proved that he is no longer the president of the united and indivisible French Republic. He is merely the busy manager of the French mosaic.
Macron also spoke out against the bombing of the Gaza Strip, while at the same time calling for an international coalition against Hamas.
Macron is an artist of simultaneity.
You were once a Maoist yourself.
For a few weeks.
Still, can you understand the radicalized students with a view to your own biography? Are they comparable to the communist students of the sixties and seventies?
It’s not the same. Wokeism is the total questioning of Western culture. It is a suspicious and even accusatory perspective on our entire heritage. Wokeism's favorite pastime is to judge the past, in the form of a tribunal, for being racist, sexist, homophobic and so on. Absolute sensitivity combats all forms of stigmatization. Communist ideology had to confront reality at a certain point in time, in the form of the Soviet Union and the Maoist regime in China. There is no such reality check for the woke. What's more, wokeism goes hand in hand with demographic change in our society. It aligns itself with Islamism. For this reason, it may be more difficult to shake off this ideology.
In your book «À la première personne,» you write that Western civilization is so obsessed with anti-racism that it is only working toward its own destruction: «The desire to survive in a real existence is transformed into a will to be nothing, to never exclude again, to never mistreat anyone ever again.»
Yes, it's like a death cult. Octavio Paz has described how we have perverted the great critical tradition that has kept our societies in constant dialogue with themselves. We have perverted it by putting it at the service of a hatred of ourselves and our world. This is all the more concerning because the West has terrible enemies today. It is good that the West not only has convictions, but also doubts. But we cannot confront our enemies with self-denial.
These enemies are appearing in the form of imperialism and Islamism. Will the West be resilient enough in the long term?
Let's put it this way: Despite everything, Europe has managed to mobilize against Russian aggression in Ukraine, which has surprised even Putin. In this respect, the West persevered. But will it stay that way? I don't know.
Individual lives are valued highly in the West. Russia, on the other hand, is sacrificing tens of thousands of soldiers in Ukraine. Hamas doesn't care about its own victims either and is deliberately instrumentalizing civilians. Will this willingness to sacrifice people eventually prove to be an advantage against a post-heroic West?
I believe that Hamas underestimated the Israeli reaction. Hamas believed it was protected by its hostages and did not expect such a devastating ground invasion. But it is true that Hamas does not care about its own population. They deliberately put them in danger because Hamas profits from dead civilians. They position their weapons, their launchpads and their ammunition stocks in schools, kindergartens and hospitals. This makes the Israeli army's task all the more complicated. Hamas confiscates a large part of the humanitarian aid for its fighters and has diverted huge sums of money to build its tunnels. And the leaders of Hamas themselves are extremely rich – but strangely enough, nobody takes offense at that. The humanitarian organizations that are now agitating against Israel do not denounce Hamas' behavior in any way.
Why do you think that is?
The West is blinded by woke slogans such as «Gaza is an open-air prison.» This phrase stops people from considering what Hamas could have done with Gaza. There are no more Israeli settlements in Gaza, Qatar is sending money, Israel has increased the number of work permits for Palestinians. Hamas has turned all of this into nothing and only produced hatred.
What are the roots of the immense interest of the Arab world in this conflict and its simultaneous strange inaction and lack of solidarity?
Israel is a convenient scapegoat. It distracts the Arab peoples from their internal problems, from corruption, misery, religious extremism and lack of freedom. The Arab peoples have a pathological focus on Israel.
Israel is perceived as an empire.
Yes, even though Israel has withdrawn from Sinai, as well as from Lebanon and Gaza. As a reward for withdrawing from Lebanon, Israel had to deal with Hezbollah; as a reward for withdrawing from Gaza, there is Hamas.
Has the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023 fundamentally changed anything in Israel, or has the existing conflict merely intensified?
A lot has changed. Israel was a place of refuge for the Jewish people. It was the country where no pogroms took place. And now a terrible pogrom happened within Israel's borders. A few years ago, David Grossman, the Israeli writer, wrote that Israel had tragically failed to heal the Jews of their wound – the bitter feeling of never feeling at home in the world. Where is home? Not even in Israel. That's what the Israelis and many Jews around the world have told themselves. Because after the massacre on Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents became more frequent and huge anti-Israel demonstrations took place in London, Berlin and Madrid.
There was a brief window of solidarity with Israel. But it ended with the army's ground offensive in Gaza, at the latest.
Yes, that's over. In the meantime, criticism of the Israeli army's actions has taken over. Even Oct. 7 is treated like an entry in an accounting system. There are 1,200 dead and several thousand injured, while the Israeli bombardments and attacks in Gaza have claimed many, perhaps 19,000 lives. Many people no longer understand what war is. They no longer want to hear about Hamas' deadly tactics.
You once wrote about «homesickness in one’s own country.» Do you feel that too?
France is changing rapidly and dramatically. If things go on like this, the country will one day be unrecognizable. Catastrophe is when things continue to run their course, Walter Benjamin said. The other day I was standing outside my house and a man came very close to my ear and shouted, «Go to hell, go to hell!» He repeated the threat, but he left, thankfully. It looks like things are running their course. That's why I feel this fear, this strange homesickness.
