Europe’s concept of the enemy is structured by the Arab and the Jew

Evidence

One answer to this last question (and some engagement with the former) as it will be offered here is that the enemy-as a concrete, discursive, vanishing field, “the shadow of an ageless ghost,” as Derrida puts it-is structured by the Arab and the Jew, that is to say, by the relation of Europe to both Arab and Jew. A second answer is that this structuring has, in turn, everything to do with religion and politics. The challenge of these two no doubt insufficient answers to what are already too numerous questions will be to demonstrate that, in Europe, in “Christian Europe,” they-the Jew, the Arab on the one hand, religion and politics, on the other-are distinct, but indissociable. Stated in a different idiom: The Jew, the Arab constitute the condition of religion and politics. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 29

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the book’s central thesis: the enemy as a discursive field is constituted by the paired figures of Arab and Jew within Christian Europe.
• XREF: Connects to other scholarship on the invention of the ‘Judeo-Christian’ and ‘Islam’ as European categories — perhaps Boyarin or Anidjar’s own later work.