And they did not shrink from misrepresenting the history of
the Arab-Israeli conflict to serve their cause. Derrida in his
conversations with Roudinesco refers to “an anti-Israeli in-
doctrination that rarely avoids anti-Semitism” ( 117 ); and he
sees in references to the so-called Jewish lobby “a clear token of
anti-Semitism” ( 118 ). (Derrida, it is important to add, also
showed great sympathy for the tragic situation of the Pales-
tinians.) Shortly after Derrida’s interview with Roudinesco,
things would get much worse, with Arab fury unleashed in
France in retaliation for Israel’s war in the Palestinian territo-
ries. In April 2002 alone there were 400 anti-Semitic attacks in
France; synagogues and Jewish schools were firebombed.
French Jews were panicked, and many emigrated, aware that
more French citizens sympathized with the Palestinians than
with the Israelis.^10 As his conversation with Roudinesco indi-
cates, Jewish identity was once again forcing itself on Derrida’s
attention, as it had done in the 1940 s in Algeria.
Derrida was about to encounter a test case for his political and
prophetic voice. The events of September 11 , 2001 , called out
for a response from all philosophers and intellectuals. When
Derrida heard about the fall of the World Trade Center towers
he was in a café in Shanghai, on a lecture tour of China. Sev-
eral weeks later, he returned to Europe, where he received the
Theodor Adorno prize from the city of Frankfurt. He was
ready to reflect on the significance of the terrorist attacks.
Shortly after the Adorno prize ceremony, Derrida flew to
New York, where he observed the aftermath of September 11
and where he was interviewed by the Italian journalist Gio-
vanna Borradori. The interview was later published as a book,
Philosophy in a Time of Terror(which also included a conver-
sation between Borradori and the German philosopher Jürgen
Politics, Marx, Judaism 237