Is anti-Zionism different from antisemitism?
Israel, as a democracy, is receptive to fair and legitimate criticism. However, all too often Israel is singled out and held up to standards not applied to any other state. Although valid criticism of Israel has absolutely no connection to antisemitism, some of the unreasonable condemnation has its roots in antisemitic attitudes, often disguised as “anti-Zionism.” Just as in the past Jews were the scapegoat for many problems, today there are attempts to turn Israel into an international pariah. “Antisemitism” is the name given to the form of racism practiced against the Jewish people. Though the literal interpretation of antisemitism would appear to denote hostility to all Semitic peoples, this is a fallacy. The term was originally coined in Germany in 1879 to describe the European anti-Jewish campaigns of that era, and it soon came to define the persecution or discrimination against Jews throughout the ages. Hatred of the Jewish people is an age-old phenomenon, traditionally associate