Re: CHAT: Anti-Semitism

Paul Bennett wrote:

> On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 22:31:49 +0200, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
> wrote:
>
>> Quoting Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>:
>>
>>> On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 14:35:05 -0400, John Cowan <cowan@...> wrote:
>>>
>>> > For this reason, some people (including me) use the spelling
>>> > "Antisemitism"
>>> > in English as well, to indicate that it is an indecomposable term:
>>> there
>>> > is after all no "pro-Semitism" to which it could be opposed as a
>>> coherent
>>> > philosophy, though the term "philo-Semitism" is occasionally found
>>> > meaning simply "person who likes Jews as a group".
>>>
>>> Beg to differ. There are people (this is not the whole Jewish
>>> population,
>>> nor is it an exclusively Jewish group) who believe almost fanatically
>>> that
>>> the Jewish state has done no wrong, can do no wrong and will never do
>>> wrong. I'd call them pro-Semites, without hesitating.
>>
>>
>> I'd call them "pro-Israelis", rather.
>
>
> Probably, but in the context of a discussion where the word
> "anti-Semitism" was being used in it's modern narrow sense, I wouldn't
> hesitate to use "pro-Semitism" to identify the polar opposite set of
> opinions.


See, I don't see that there is a modern narrow sense.  Sometimes people
who disagree with the policies of Israel are called anti-semites, but
that is rarely what the term is defined to mean - rather, it is a broad
brushstroke at attempting to discredit the opponents.

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