Simone de Beauvoir, Israël et les Juifs: les raisons d'une fidélité

Examines the personal, historical, political, ideological, philosophical, and moral underpinnings of Simone de Beauvoir's unwaivering support for Israel from 1948 until her death in 1986. Relates it to her fight against antisemitism, her understanding of the "Jewish question, " and the impact of the Shoah on her thinking. At the end of the 1930s she abandoned the universalist position that there are no Jews, only human beings, and embraced Zionism as a legitimate expression of Jewish authenticity. Her commitment to Israel grew as she got acquainted with Claude Lanzmann in 1951, and deepened after 1967 with the ideological attack of the Arab and communist world on Israel's right to exist. Though maintaining her distance from Israeli politics, de Beauvoir defended Israel in the international arena and among French intellectual and leftist circles throughout the 1970s-80s, exposing herself to harsh criticism by her pro-Palestinian associates.