Reflections On Anti-Semitism

by Alain Badiou, Eric Hazan, Ivan Segré

Dissecting how facile accusations of “anti-Semitism” are used to stifle dissent

Since the inception of the “War on Terror,” Israel has become increasingly important to Western imperial strategy and ever more aggressive in its policies towards the Palestinians. A key ideological weapon in this development is the cynical and unjustified accusation of “anti-Semitism” to silence protest and dissent.

For historical reasons, this tactic has been deployed most forcefully in France, and in the first of the two essays in this book French writers Alain Badiou and Eric Hazan demolish the “anti-Semitism is everywhere” claim used to bludgeon critics of the Israeli state and those who stand in solidarity with the banlieue youth.

In “The Philo-Semitic Reaction,” Ivan Segré undertakes a meticulous deconstruction of a rampant reactionary trend that identifies Jewish interests with the “democratic” West. Segré’s aim is to uphold a universalist position and to defend Jewish tradition from Zionist ideological distortion.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction, Politics

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 2012

About the author

Alain Badiou, Ph.D., born in Rabat, Morocco in 1937, holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS. Alain Badiou was a student at the École Normale Supérieure in the 1950s. He taught at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) from 1969 until 1999, when he returned to ENS as the Chair of the philosophy department. He continues to teach a popular seminar at the Collège International de Philosophie, on topics ranging from the great 'antiphilosophers' (Saint-Paul, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Lacan) to the major conceptual innovations of the twentieth century. Much of Badiou's life has been shaped by his dedication to the consequences of the May 1968 revolt in Paris. Long a leading member of Union des jeunesses communistes de France (marxistes-léninistes), he remains with Sylvain Lazarus and Natacha Michel at the center of L'Organisation Politique, a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). He is the author of several successful novels and plays as well as more than a dozen philosophical works.

Trained as a mathematician, Alain Badiou is one of the most original French philosophers today. Influenced by Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze, he is an outspoken critic of both the analytic as well as the postmodern schools of thoughts. His philosophy seeks to expose and make sense of the potential of radical innovation (revolution, invention, transfiguration) in every situation.

Reviews

[Slow Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

great look at the weaponization of 'antisemitism' in western europe, its fascistic and cynical deployment against emancipatory politics

[Salahuddin Hourani]

ملاحظة لي: لم اقرا الكتاب بعد -نقده وفضحه لــ "صناعة الهولوكوست" واستغلاله حتى الحد الاقصى بشكل جائر

[Sara Salem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book split into two parts: the first on the problematic idea that anti-semitism is on the rise in Europe because of "Muslim immigrants" and the second a discourse analysis of major French writers who discuss anti-semitism that reveals their problematic assumptions. Especially enjoyed the part by Ivan Segré.