Benveniste argues the stranger is by necessity an enemy

Evidence

Thus the Nay finds its opponent directly in front of itself here. But the metaphor of a pair of wrestlers is misleading. There is no pair. This is a wrestling match not of two parties but of one: the Nought negates itsel£ It is only in self-negation that the “other,” the “opponent,” bursts forth out of it. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 449 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The enemy is collective and impersonal, a people rather than an individual — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 412; The brother, not the stranger, is the paradigmatic figure of the enemy — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 421; Nietzsche saw civilization’s inner restraint dissolve entirely against the stranger — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 378 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The enemy emerges from the self’s own self-negation, not from a true pair. #complicates (0.75) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 449
• The enemy is derivative and potential rather than primary and natural #complicates (0.74)