Nationalism, Postnationalism, Antisemitism. Thoughts on the Politics of Jurgen Habermas

This paper explores some of the ways the question of antisemitism figures in the political writings of Jurgen Habermas It pays tribute to Habermas determination to confront the legacy of European antisemitism in his re constructive politics especially in relation to his vision of the postnational constellation It also addresses the limitations of an approach to antisemitism which grants key analytical status to a national postnational dichotomy The last part of the paper concerns the transmutation of the content of postnational theory from offering a critical engagement with the legacy of European antisemitism into a standard of judgment that contrasts an idealized image of Europe as a postnational political community with a particulansed image of Israel as the incarnation of the defects of nationalism I argue that this is an uncritical turn It is not the product of any change in Habermas own work but of a misappropriation of his theory that nonetheless has roots in what it misappropriates The paper calls for more attention to be given to the symbolic universe through which antisemitism functions