Re: CHAT: Anti-Semitism

Mark wrote:

"On Sun, Apr 11, 2004 at 10:50:42PM +0100, Joe wrote:
> 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.
"The term "anti-Semitism" has relatively little to do with one's opinion of
the policies of the state of Israel.  It is analogous to "racism" - it is a
bias against the Semitic people - more narrowly, the Jews, although I have
seen it used to refer to the anti-Arab paranoia distressingly commonplace in
the US since 2001-09-11.

"To be sure it is - like all such emotionally loaded terms - sometimes used
as you indicated, to discredit one's opponent in an argument.  ("He blames
Israel for the incident, but that's just because he's an anti-Semite.")
However, this use should not be taken as an indication that genuine
anti-Semitism - simple dislike of, even hatred toward, the Jews, simply
because they're Jewish - doesn't still exist.  Homophobia may be getting all
the press these days, but good old-fashioned bigotries like racism, sexism,
and anti-Semitism are still alive and well even within our modern supposedly
enlightened societies."

Well put. I've seen "anti-Semitic" used to discredit the opponents of the
writer. It really disgusts me. (Even worse, I've seen people who disagree
with Israel or the U.S.'s policies accused of being friends of Al-Qaeda! I
feel it's extremely unfair to label people like this.)

Anyway I think that "anti-Semitic" doesn't make sense, because if you are
that according to my definition, you dislike or hate Jews _and_ Arabs
because that's who they are. There should be two terms, "anti-Jewish" and
"anti-Arab".

Trebor.