Enmity is not the symmetrical reverse of friendship or love

Evidence

As should already be clear, Derrida’s entire discussion in Politics of Friendship is crucial for what I am trying to address throughout this book. I will underscore here the particular importance of the following: “What is said of the enemy is not symmetrical and cannot be said of the friend, even under the heading of structural or shared conditions of possibility” (Derrida, Politics of Friendship, 122/F144). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 820

Categorization

• XREF: Derrida’s asymmetry claim counters the friend/enemy symmetry assumed by most political theory from Schmitt through Agamben.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 820