The author states a fact, that anti-zionism or political opposition to israel's policies provides a "hiding place" for "latent" anti-semitism. But he provides no solution!! He presents andeither/or case. Basically if you're opposed to zionism from a political or religious perspective or critical of israel's policies, you have two choices. 1) Be silent, in order not to encourage the latent anti-semites. 2) Speak and be labelled an anti-semite. I fear that both these options are more likely to increase the "latent" anti-semitism.

78% of Germans want their govt. to treat Israel as any other country is antisemitic!!!!!!!! WOW. What logic. Oooops I forgot...the goy should treat The Chosen People above any other standards. Klieger is showing some schizophrenic tendencies.

I say that also. However, I do second the author's allegation. Whenever non-Jews say that they oppose Israel / Zionism, they mean that they hate Jews and Judaism. I am one of the most vocal Jewish opponents of Zionism, both religious and secular. But I will never affiliate myself with any non-Jewish "anti-Zionist". Those who do so (such as some people affiliated with Neturei Karta) are traitors to the Jewish people, traitors to the Torah and are going straight against the opinions of all Torah sages. Jews must be loyal to the words of the real Torah sages, in Eretz Yisroel meaning the Edah HaChareidis ("Edah Haredit") of Jerusalem and the rabbonim and rebbes of the correct movements. They will guide us in the path to take.

Thx for the article

Many people just want to see the world a better place. Others who cannot live up to higher standards prefer to blame others for the fact they are lazy and want things handed to them. Jews arent the only scapegoats, but since we have contributed far more than any other people on the plant to science, medicine, education, culture, art (on a per capita basis) they are jealous. We dont fight back enough. We need to go on the offensive militarily, politically, economically. Jews may be small in number but strong willed and able to do anything when we put our mind to it. It is why the Arab empire will never defeat Israel. Israel is eternal. Hundreds even thousands of years of occupation of Israel has not kept us from our homeland. Only we can prevent it and should not. It is important for people to try to live up to higher standards. It is important for Jews to increase our numbers significantly. If we were 130 million people in the world instead of 13 million it would be different. Tikkun Olam may be more effective too. Anti-semitism is weakness, inferiority, jealousy, pathetic people.

When your against a Jewish State When you justify suicide bombings as a legitamate tool. When you fail to critize the Arab human rights issues but always critizie Israel. When you rewrite history to justify any critisim of Israel but never seem to do that on any other issues.

Anti-Semitism is hatred for Jews and is irrational. The author states facts. You demand solutions. I will give you the solution: Treat the Jews and Israel as you would do with any other people and with any other country. I wonder why some people restrain their criticism just to Israel and do not criticise any other country. Why do they criticise a country that is forced to defend itself? We should also take into account that those attacking Israel do it in order to wipe the Jews out of the ME, which is plain anti-Semitism. If this were not the case, the conflict would have not even started. In 1947, the Arabs did not accept another Arab state because what they wanted was a ME without Jews and that is what they attempted no sooner Israel became independent.

The hundreds of Jews and Israelis like I protesting against humiliating Palestinians at checkpoints and in other ways breaching people's human rights under the guise of security is NOT anti-Semitism. In fact, it is people like you, Noah Klieger, with your hysterical kneejerk blanket cries of anti-Semitism as the default response to any criticism of Israeli policies that are causing genuine anti-Semitism to flourish. Your practice is causing otherwise decent people in the world to get desensitized to the scourge of anti-Semitism. Remember what happened to the boy who cried wolf? That's what's happening to us. We've squandered what little sympathy the world had for us in the wake of hashoah, and frankly we did it in the past ten or so years.

Leaving aside the difficult question of can you be Jewish & NOT Zionist, I find myself unable to disagree with this article. It's not a scientific opinion - I feel it in my gut. There it is, lurking behind pretty liberal rhetoric - don't you believe in peace? Isn't a country for all it's citizens? Wouldn't all the problems of the Middle-East disappear if Israel would also disappear? Or make more & more concessions? But reality is more complex than liberal rhetoric. What if your neighbors don't want peace? What if a minority group wants your country to cease to exist? Could any ideology be less liberal than Islam? How could any so-called "progressive" person overlook the reality of the Muslim world? Yet, leftists of all types have no problem criticizing Israel for human rights abuses while turning a blind eye to the serial abusers of the Muslim world. How do you explain this except for an anti-Jewish bias? Where is the outcry over China's occupation of Tibet? Russia's situation with Chechniya is more complicated but their solution has hardly been humane. Kurdish rights in Turkey? Barely a whisper of criticism. The carnage in Iraq - blame it on the Americans. Except that it's Iraqis carrying out the killing. But when we defend ourselves the very legitimacy of our existence as a country can be brought into question.

“I fear that both these options are more likely to increase the "latent" anti-semitism.” So you think Jews should not talk about anti-Semitism because this stirs anti-Semitism. When you guys come out trying to make the Jews silent, I can understand what anti-Semitism consists of. You say pointing out anti-Semitism as a fact stirs anti-Semitism. Yet you claim it is not anti-Semitism but Israel’s policies. This means you support the pals. Why do the pals have the right to whine and make an uproar over the misery they bring upon themselves? Don’t you realize this will stir anti-palestinism?

This is the basic fact about Jews and Israel. Nobody has ever been on our side until the 1940's. That's when after hundreds and hundreds of years of mistreatment we finally got an ounce of respect from the world. Now, it's been 60+ years and the world is tired of being "nice" so they blame the new guy in the region for all it's problems. It's a sick twisting circle that the world can't understand that Israel has a right to exist and once that is accepted all wars in the region will END. If Israel lays down its arms, it will be destroyed. If the Arab countries lay down their arms, there will be peace. It's a fact people, so start accepting them and not antisemitism.

Anti-Zionism is the conviction that Israel, of all the world's countries, does not have the right to exist. It is the conviction that the determination of what constitutes Israel's 'secure and defensible borders' should not be made by the Israeli people, either directly or via representation. Israel constitutes today the world's largest Jewish community , with the numbers of Jews living in Israel approaching nearly half of the world's Jewish population. Any destruction of Israel would mean a second holocaust of Jews. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semitic as they only hate and want to harm Jews who live in Israel. This is as absurd as claiming one is not a racist as one only hates and wants to harm Blacks who live in Africa , not Blacks elsewhere. The enemies of Israel want the physical elimination of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel. This constitutes anti-Semitism. The point is that they want a Judenreihn "Palestine" the same way that Hitler wanted a Judenreihn Europe. Jews in Israel are targeted for one thing , being Jews. The anti-zionist believes that the only children, who it is justified to murder are Jewish children (in the Land of Israel). Someone who is prejudiced against Israel or Israelis is just as much a bigot as someone who is prejudiced against Jews per se. The point is that anti-Zionism should be treated the same as anti-Semitism BECAUSE the aim is to destroy the Jews of Israel the same way the Nazis destroyed the Jews of Israel. I just find it interesting that if somebody is against British Jews they are anti-Semitic, if they are against American Jews they are anti-Semitic , if they are aganst European jews they are anti-Semitic , but if they hate israeli jews they are merely 'anti-Zionist' but not anti-Semitic. As Judea Peal puts it : "As a form of racism, anti-Zionism is worse than anti-Semitism. It targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the people of Israel, who rely on the sovereignty of their state for physical safety, national identity and personal dignity. To put it more bluntly, anti-Zionism condemns 5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal statelessness, traumatized by historical images of persecution and genocide. "

1- what's anti-simitism in your eyes ? 2- Is the Jews are the only simitic people on earth ? 3-What makes people anti-simitic ? 4- If the Jews are not the only simitic people on earth why you call any action against Jewish people or against Israel anti-simtism ? and now a word stop useing this excuse to hide your mistakes and not to face your facts and the Swiss was right when he said it's more anti-Zionism and anti-Israel but this facts doesn't suit you that's why you reject it all the time .

what crap yourself. you and your hundreds of thousands can keep your eyes wide shut and all the nastiness will just go away. We depend on the worlds sympathy? Guess what? they have none, never did and never will, and you are a stinking Hellenist.

Hard to believe, but here it is: A writer who actually has the stupidity, lack of logic and who flies directly in the face of what is obvious to anyone.

just victim of propaganda.

There are self hating Jews like yourself who would do almost anything to be liked. I call it the UC Berkley Syndrome Extreame leftest who are against anything right of left.

When it is right in your face. There have been too many events in Eurabia where Jews or their places of worship have been attacked. This is not going to stop if we keep quiet, so why do so many Jews (like #9) make excuses and apologize for these acts??? Sounds and looks like the European appeasement of terror. I wonder if Steiner is a Europaean?

The separation has to be made between anti-semite facists and moderate "anti-zionists"(so labeled) opposed to the ACTIONS of Israel. "Anti-zionists" want an Israel were Jews, Muslims and Christians can live as equals, which the Zionist regime will not let happen, and I am aware of its reasons. These people are not the facists who beat Jews or vandalise graves and who are their nations shame. Please, anti-zionism is not anti-semitism because Zionism is not Jewdaism. Make the separation, otherwise you fight the wrong people. The people of Britain support peace in Israel.

Yes and some of my best friends are black also you are a racist and a antisemite then what next should we Jews do start a resistance against that non zionistic goverment and start using violence to get back our Jewish country? You Brits are basically moral imperialist always think you know how to save the world.

My Dear Israeli mates of YNET NEWS.If any of you knows Persian , have a look at this link : http://www.tik.ir/display/?ID=37336&page=1 In Iran , in an official examinations , the lecturers and exam designers were blaspheming Mohammad the Prophet.I guess now you can realise why the Arabs say : Iranians are not Muslim !!!!!!! This is much worse than the caricatures in the last summer in Europe!!

This subject has been written about numerous times. What defines anti-semitism in all of these cases is the question of being anti-Israel's actions, or anti-Israel as a country. Being critical of some of Israel's actions is a natural quality that is expressed by Jews in the diaspora and Israelis alike. Israel, like any other country, makes mistakes and has flaws, and it doesn't make one an anti-semite to be opposed to those things. Being opposed to Israel itself, as a Jewish state, however, is sheer anti-semitism. Anti-semitism in terms of Israel and otherwise is anything by scarce around the world, and to ignore it is to stick your neck in the sand. The only way we can survive is if we keep aware and fighting. The world will never be happy with us - and this is a known fact. When we were in Europe (and around otherwise) everyone wanted us out, and now that we've found a place to go, they hate us being here. We must find a way to maintain ourselves independently, and try to cause minimal irritation to the world.

I agree with Michael Steiner - total crap! Thinking people should be able to criticize the policies and actions of both Israel and the USA for their illlegal wars and oppression of other peoples without being labelled anti-Semitic or anti-American. Other countries are not perfect either and deserve criticism for policies and actions that violate human rights. But the USA and Israel are biggest military forces in the area and are the ones that are causing major chaos in the Middle East. Actually, I'd call them the biggest threats to world peace at this moment. Both are ready to attack Iran and cause even more havoc in the region. And yes, there's Britain too wanting to regain its former glory. Where are the intelligent people?? People with no scruples shouldn't be allowed to control the use of weapons of mass destruction. There's more to intelligence than being able to invent bigger and better ways to murder and destroy others. Where are the peacemakers, the intelligent people? May peace prevail on earth!

Anti Zionism is not a politically legitimate point of view but rather an expression of bigotry and hatred toward Jews. There is a willingness to accept classic anti-Semitism as long as it disguised as being criticism of Israel, criticism of Zionism, or criticism of Likud. It is the modern day version of the Jew as scapegoat and the Jew as international pariah. The anti-Israel climate around the world contributed to the legitimization of anti-Semitism, resulting in a wave of violent, ugly attacks against Jewish institutions, synagogues, cemeteries and communities. Therefore I fully agree with Noah Klieger. Jews are in great danger because of such a vicious anti-Jewish atmosphere.

With the extremist leftists, I have this issue that I don´t think they even deserve to be called jews. Those radical leftist, academic, communist, socialist, pseudo-intellectuals, are no part of Jewish Nation. They portray themselves as "progressive", and they want everyone to believe that they are the good jews, and portray israeli people and rightist jews as bad. Their main task, however, is to use their jewish identity to make western supporters of Israel to turn against Israel. They have gone so far, as to signing petitions like the Open Letter from American Jews to Our Government demanding israeli withdrawal from "occupied territories" END OF AMERICAN AID FOR ISRAEL. See, this is why these people need to be treated just like any other enemy of jews, if not worse. Don´t spare them, because they claim to be jews.

If I understand Critical Thinker's argument, it runs something like this: People should be able to be anti-American and anti-Jew without suffering the injustice of being called an anti-American or an antisemite. Sheer brilliance! Just think of the possibilities: A person could commit larceny, without fear of being called a thief. Another could commit adultery, yet avoid the stigma of a harlot. And a terrorist could commit homicide without condemnation as a murderer.

i do not get it : since Jews means people who believe Judiasam like other religion , u do not hear christian state or Muslim state (sorry) saying that it means terrorist state : so there so no Jews state per se , israel is state among other states and it has both jews beleivers , muslim believers and christian beleivers so saying israel is Jewish state is racism and not true so please stop all this tribal mind ser the world is bocoming golobel not little section of particular people . Reality Check , world

#25: " I agree with Michael Steiner - total crap! " i sure don't " Thinking people should be able to criticize the policies and actions of both Israel and the USA for their illlegal wars and oppression of other peoples without being labelled anti-Semitic or anti-American. Other countries are not perfect either and deserve criticism for policies and actions that violate human rights. " it really depends of what your talking about When you blame Jews for what the "zionists" did then its really just plain anti-Semitism(theres also more to it) " But the USA and Israel are biggest military forces in the area and are the ones that are causing major chaos in the Middle East. Actually, I'd call them the biggest threats to world peace at this moment. " Geez.. last time i thought it was the Jihadists calling for the west to be destroyed and dude.. What ever happen to iran , Hamas and , Hezbollah speeches? i'm guessing you IGNORED. " Both are ready to attack Iran and cause even more havoc in the region. And yes, there's Britain too wanting to regain its former glory. " the "The US , UK and , israel will be destroyed" speeches , songs and T.V shows and commericals , education sure adds a WHOLE lot for not having a aggrasive stance towards them. " Where are the intelligent people?? People with no scruples shouldn't be allowed to control the use of weapons of mass destruction. There's more to intelligence than being able to invent bigger and better ways to murder and destroy others. " who knows.. maby world peace would help? " Where are the peacemakers, the intelligent people? May peace prevail on earth! " good luck !