The future of Israel 

In our world filled with violence, for every state, and especially for Israel which, unlike other countries, cannot survive a defeat, determination and strength are strong guarantees of existence. But they are not the only ones.

From the school of Yavneh in Judea to the academies of Nehardea and Pumbedita in Babylonia, via wisemen, scribes and scholars such as Rachi in France or Spinoza in the Netherlands, all have built a stronghold around the Law where Jews, in the land of their ancestors or in the Diaspora, have been able to lay down their collective fate. Freud calls this stronghold "the invisible edifice of Judaism.”

As a guardian of this edifice, among others, as the prophets of the Bible did, I take the liberty of calling political leaders to order, when they deviate from the moral principles that are meant to unite us. Respect for these principles is as necessary for Israel's existence as the security of its borders. And yet, the recent statements of some of your government ministers prove that they have ignored it.

A normal people

I will end on an anecdote that will amuse you. In 1968, I visited David Ben Gurion in his house in Sde Boker, a farm in the heart of the Negev desert. He was visibly pleased to receive a young French intellectual who had crossed the vastness of Russia to Kazakhstan, and to Uzbekistan, before finally finding refuge in Paris, thus embodying a part of Jewish history. After lunch prepared by his wife Paula, he offered to drop me off in Tel Aviv.

His car was comfortable, although not air-conditioned, and the windows were rolled down. At the entrance of the city, the car stopped at a red light, not far from the old opera house where he had celebrated the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948.

A young woman approached the car and leaning towards me, said in Yiddish: Dou kimst? Are you coming?” She was a Jewish prostitute! Who on top of that spoke my mother’s language! I was shocked. Ben Gurion laughed. "You see, we are finally a normal people”, he said, “I bet we even have our own thieves, our own corrupters, our own scoundrels...!"

He was about to continue with the list of pariahs that threaten all the states of the world when, furious, I interrupted him, "But David, I don't want to be normal!"

Pursuit of justice 

I knew that thanks to those in history who had opposed such normality, Jewish people had survived exile, persecution and even the Shoah. What I did not know was that one day in the not-too-distant future, an Israeli government would attack the Supreme Court of Justice that Ben Gurion had built in order to prevent politicians from twisting the Law in their favor. Or to change the constitution as they pleased.

This same Supreme Court has been admired by democracies around the world. Finally, I did not know that we, the victims of religious persecution, would one day risk reigniting the religious war for no other reason than the ambition of a minister in your government.

I understand that my convictions may upset you, as a politician who has made promises to his voters. But as a man with a sense of responsibility toward history, you should be pleased that there are still Jews in the Diaspora and in Israel to counter this normality which threatens democracy and undermines that call so dear to Abraham: "Justice, justice shall you pursue."

In wishing peace for all of Israel, please accept, Mr. Prime Minister, my most respectful sentiments.