I don’t enjoy trying to plumb the minds of anti-Zionists or anti-Israelists (sp?).

I sense that a left/Marxist action is at play in many of the left (which is most of Europe). Israel, I suspect, is viewed as an illegitimate European colony, planted there by European powers. As the successful country, it is naturally, in this kind of logic, the oppressor.

In other words, I think the stale old oppressor/oppressee meme is sufficient without anti-Semitism to explain anti-Israeli sentiment.

What I don’t know is to how many people this applies and what difference it makes. Presumably an anti-Semite is going to behave badly towards Jews in his own society, while this hypothetical anti-Zionist would only act against Israel.

I used to think this was a major factor in Europe and wrote a blog entry on it. Today, I’m not so sure, as we see signs of anti-Semitism in Europe (how much is from non-Muslims I don’t know).

I remember the National Review some years ago spent a lot of ink trying to figure out if Buchanan was anti-Semitic, and I think they concluded he was not. Frankly, I didn’t read all of it because I didn’t care – he had done enough other annoying things to be off of my list of interesting people.

Finally, on terminology. Yes, people from the area are Semites (or Hashemites, or….. ). I don’t think it makes any difference for political discussion. The meaning of anti-Semitism is clear.