Immersed in books and archives, israeli historian Zeev Sternhell, who died on Sunday, June 21, at the age of 85 years, was also a fighter, in the most literal sense of the term, a” mentsch “, said his friends, in yiddish : a man of value and exception. His wife, Ziva Sternhell, a historian of architecture, partner of the intellectual of his life and mother of his two daughters, Tali and Yael, called him with tenderness “Alexander the blessed “summing up the spirit that animated this character, but good living, fleeing the memories too heavy worn in the past, because he refused to begin his unwavering faith in Enlightenment and progress, in spite of the modes. This allusion to a film by Yves Robert, in the vein of the sixties, made his optimism is infectious, enhanced by its high waist, a look of serene and slightly amused, the provençal accent that coloured his French – its main written language he spoke fluently (as well as tips intonations Polish lived his Hebrew) – but also the unswerving commitment to a France that is not offered or position or citizenship in return.
In parallel to his academic career international, Zeev Sternhell was a reserve officer in the israeli army and, in this capacity, he has participated in all the wars fought by the jewish State, since the first conquest of the Sinai, “Suez” in 1956, up in Lebanon, in 1982. Just installed in Oxford for a sabbatical year, in 1973, he volunteered as soon as learned of the outbreak of the yom Kippur war. He confided without hesitation “having the military in the blood “. This passion-there has not prevented to actively contribute to the founding of the Peace now (Shalom Akhchav), in 1978, nor to oppose, with the same force, the occupation and colonization of territories conquered during the war of the Six-Days – where he has regained the field of battle of the Sinai.
Activism anti-war
His activism in the pacifist has earned him, in 2008, to be targeted by an attack at his home by a settler, from which it has escaped as by a miracle, the same year that he was awarded the prize of Israel for his work of political science. He defended with an ardor almost warrior its positions historiographical, this time using arguments, but never be afraid to make enemies, as soon as it is attacked to the characters, the more untouchable or colleagues hostile, hating above all the poor or favouritism.
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