As the plane from Frankfurt landed in Tel Aviv, I finished the last pages of The Sunset Lands, an unfinished novel by Julien Gracq, written in the mid-1950s but not published in English until 2014. Gracq’s book is the tale of a fictional late medieval kingdom, rich, self-satisfied, and decadent, whose leadership refuses to recognize the barbarian armies mustering on its borders.
The unnamed narrator sets out with friends for Roscharta, a distant city of the kingdom, where valiant defenders hold out against a barbarian siege. Because they know that their lives could be destroyed in a day by the head-chopping savages, they live richly and joyfully. Because they face the real and imminent threat of death, they know how to live with dignity and hope.
“This is Israel!” I thought. “Why can’t people see that?”
Then it hit me: Because I am almost 60 years old.
I came to Jerusalem last week to attend the National Conservatism conference. Though NatCon founder Yoram Hazony is an Israeli American, this is the first NatCon event to be held in the Jewish state. The fact that Israel’s October 7 anniversary occurred midway through the conference added weight and poignancy to the proceedings.