Knowledge of the other is as much a precondition of enmity as of peace

Evidence

Although knowing and understanding are often considered paths to peaceful coexistence, it is easy enough to recognize that they are also conditions of enmity, confrontation, and war. “To know the Other,” writes Guy Brossollet, is the “indispensable method toward the ability to confront him … the inquiry is immense … To know the Other, of course, but also to know others, neighbors, allies, friends and neutrals, the decisions and attitudes of whom interfere with ours, and diminish, in the very midst of alliances, our freedom of action” (Brossollet, Essai sur Ia non-bataille, 13). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1009