Not so many years ago it was the rightwing politically which feasted on antiSemitism and now it's the left. Sad, huh? I could actually sympathize with the left on OTHER issues, but . . . So, I ask you, how many Canadians do you suppose vote Harper, who really don't want to, but . . .

Anti-Israelism is the accepted replacement narrative for 'unacceptable' antisemitism. All those who automatically condemn Israel for the 'occupation' ignore the Arab wars,the pre-1967 Palestinian terror for decades and hate rhetoric which led to the 1967 war. They also ignore Israel's offer to return all captured territor, with minor adjustments around Jerusalem to allow Jews access to the Western Wall. in July 1967 in return for peace with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. All the Arabs rejected land for peace in 1967 when it was offered, just as the y did in 1947 when offered by the UN. Once the media , academics and politicians accept a false pro-Arab story they automatically accept the false anti-Israel story.

As usual for Dr. Gerstenfeld...the target was nicely circumsribed and the good Dr. hit IT dead-on!!! Anyone disagrees? Enough of the mealy-mouth excuses to justify the unjustifiable...may the Left perish so that Israeli society can survive ...unharmed!!! Enough accommodations with the Arab murderers...enough is enough! Death to ALL anti-Israeli anti-semitic posters/benefactors/enablers. We'll get you all in the END, just like Eichmann and cohorts!!! Am Yisrael Ch'ai!!!

Another informative analysis by Manfred Gerstenfeld. I had never thought of the 'bandwagon effect' but it is obviously real. The 'going along' with the opinion of others and trying to join in and provide an 'example or case' of one's own is a well- known social reality. I think it particularly applies in this case in Academia where a kind of fashionable anti- Israel stance has become the norm. Prejudice is in the saddle and rides mankind, and the Jewish people especially.

Exactly, which speaks to their emptiness, fear and desperation for acceptance at the expense of moral and logical certitude. Heaven forbid they should go against the grain by expressing an original or unpopular thought and standing by it. Excellent article, as always, Dr. Gerstenfeld.

against Israel and a regular apologist for Arab terror .It is regularly quoted by the foreign media. Some of the foreign funded so called peace groups are not much better.

What IS wrong with the world???

Brilliant analysis at last . Could Dr Gerstenfeldt also tell us if there is a relationship between the bandwagon effect and the popularity of facebook and twitter ??? Now the question is how to overcome this hysteria

The academic side applies not only to Europe but also to the USA. A recent study found that of top research universities with Middle Eastern Studies, only two -- Johns Hopkins and Princeton -- did not receive funding from Muslim states or Muslim foundations. Such funding can influence appointments and publications.

Lead by extreme labor leftists for many years. It is destroyingIsrael from within.

What are you trying to prove ? That antisemites are right because ALL Jews agree or are represented by those non representative fringe misfits? You sound like a Haaretz commentator! You could get dozens of thumbs up for an illogical, incitement comment like yours there

And because of the silence of the passive and apathetic, there is no organized effort stopping them from controlling the rabbinate and speaking for "Jewry." So yes, that's the image that predominates in the world. They don't represent me, either. But yes, sadly, they DO represent Jews to the world. Blaming it all on "antisemites" has never solved the problem and never will. We must solve it internally first and let the world SEE THAT. That's the ONLY solution.

i look forward to your writing and thank you for keeping us informed

Every society has its racist minority, the mindless ones who have to have someone to blame of fear, whether Jews, Arabs, black people, gypsies, Irish, whoever. They usually remain a minority unless a racist party wins power in the government, such as in Israel today. Anti-semitism is a very different thing from criticism of Israel though. Most in the West see Israel's continued occupation of and conduct in the West Bank as abhorrent and shameful. Israel's conduct on the international stage - Cast Lead, MV Marmare, illegal settlements and land theft, expulsion of Palestinians by pseudo-legal means, etc., hardly endears it to anyone. The good professor might usefully correlate the rise in criticism of Israel's conduct with the rise in anti-semitism. It is the Jewish government and those who elected it who are in the world's cross-hairs. It is not a large step to go from being anti the Israeli Government to anti- Israel in general to anti-Jewish in particular. It is wrong of course, but when one makes the bed, it's no good complaining when you have to lie in it.

Israel has always had a dual identity; Israel the physical place and Israel the people. The two identities are inextricably and irrevocably linked. That aside: 1. Cast Lead -- Israel is a sovereign state, and has an affirmative duty to protect and defend its civilian population from injury and the threat of injury. By the time Israel launched Cast Lead, the number of missiles fired from Gaza reached a little over 8,000. I wonder how many countries would tolerate even one missile fired at its civilian population. Since then, by the way, the number has grown to 15,000. 2. MAVI MARMARA -- The Palmer Report found that Israel's blockade of Gaza is but fully legal and internationally recognized. Had Israel chosen to send a missile amidships and sank the MAVI MARMARA, it would have been in defense of that fully legal and internationally recognized blockade. Do keep that in mind. 3. Settlements -- Israel acquired non-sovereign Judea and Samaria in the course of fighting a defensive war against Jordan. Judea and Samaria are, therefore, Israel's to settle, retain and even annex. The illegal Arab squatters in Judea and Samaria are citizens of Jordan -- there is absolutely nothing prohibiting Israel from repatriating that violent and terrorist rabble to Jordan following annexation. Seven decades of terror have been more than enough. 4. Land theft -- You cannot steal non-sovereign land, particularly following a war which you did not start and in which you emerge the victor. Rules of eminent domain do apply Following the Second World War, Germany lost 25% of its land mass, Italy lost the province of Istria and Japan lost Iwo Jima (subsequently restored) and Okinawa (90% of which remains under American control). Why would you attempt to argue that a separate set of rules should apply to Israel? And Israel has had to defend against six wars. Isn't that enough? 5. Expulsion -- There have been no expulsion of Arabs from Israel. Many left voluntarily, heeding their leadership's call to make way for the conquering Arab armies. Well, it didn't quite work out that way, but that is scarcely Israel's fault, and Israel is under no obligation to allow the return of those who left voluntarily. If the Arab countries and the ersatz "Palestine" Authority and assorted terrorist organizations were to spend money on absorbing the displaced persons, they would have been settled into new homes long ago. But no, they believe that it is far more important to line their own pockets and purchase weapons to use against Israel and innocent Jewish civilians -- both in Israel and in the Diaspora. On the other hand, if you would like to talk about expulsion, what about the one million Jews who were unceremoniously expelled from their homes in Arab and Moslem lands following Israel's stunning victory in the War of Independence? Most were forced to leave with little more than the clothes on their backs. They were never compensated for their homes, property, businesses and appropriated bank accounts. You fail to make any mention of that. In sum: Israel is in the business of preserving a safe haven for the Jewish people, something at which most of the world has failed dismally, particularly the Europeans. We are not really interested in "endearing" ourselves to anyone. I, for one, find it particularly appalling that the U.K. continues to illegally occupy six counties in northern Ireland. Do you care what I think? Why should I care what you think? You're from Britain. Possibly the worst criminals in history -- just look at the dismal legacy the British have left throughout the world. So who the hell are you to dare to criticize Israel? Particularly since you are so light on facts.

Forgot to mention one additional point. The modern State of Israel was not invented out of whole cloth -- it was the re-establishment of the ancient Jewish homeland from which the Jewish people were exiled for 2,000 years. There is no need to recite the persecution that the Jewish people endured in that 2,000 year interregnum. What is key, however, is that anti-Semitism has NOT gone away -- since the birth of the modern State of Israel, it has simply lumped the focus all together and turned into hatred of the State of Israel. There is no difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment or anti-Zionism. It's all the same thing, couched in a way that makes anti-Semites feel a little bit better about themselves. So much criticism for Israel in the international community; so little criticism of the vile acts of terror of the ersatz "Palestinians" or the war-mongering of the Arab states and the sturm-und-drang promises to destroy the State of Israel out of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Do you wonder that Israel -- and the Jewish people -- find it so hard to take anti-Semites seriously?

For whatever eason, Israel for most of its existence, ignored defamatory statements instead of rebutting them with truth. By so doing, people came to believe such narratives. Israel needs to play a major game of catch-up and answer every defamatory remark from the past as well as the present and keep repeating these lessons until they become almost self-evident.

The best way to avoid any "defensive" war in foreign country is to don't go there without invitation.

Excellent posts Sarah. Thank you & Kudos to you for your wisdom & loyalty. Shabbat Shalom to you & yours.

AND THE WORLD JEWRY IS 'ANTI-SEMITISM'! .... Can the real Sarah B. tell us why AS has gotten worse after 2000 years? Think you Jews might be doing something wrong again, and again, and again, etc...2000 years worth???? I bet Yenet wont post this.... tata

I have been an American Jew for 82 years. I grew up in an anti-Semitic society, attended schools taught by anti-Semitic teachers, worked in companies run by anti-Semitic owners. My parents taught me not to hate, and so, I accepted anti-Semitism as a painful fact of life, but I did not hate back. There remains one facet of anti-Semitism that shocks me, even to this day. That is the hatred of some Jews for Jews. When I was at college, at the end of WWII, I met a young student who had the concentration camp tatoo on his arm. When I asked him about it, he told me that he had been a standout member of the Hitler Youth in Germany, until it was discovered that his grandfather had a Jewish mother. For that reason, he was removed from the Hitler Youth and sent to a concentration camp. Although he was abused at the camp, he had no resentment toward the Nazis. Rather, he told me that he hated his grandfather for the Jewishness that had cost him his place in the Hitler Youth. And that, I think, may explain some of the hatred that some Jews may have for other Jews. They blame them, and their Jewishness, for the anti-Semitism that they have been subjected to. They would like to assimilate and become part of the society that bears the anti-Semitism towards them. Just as so many liberal Jews today would like to become part of a "One World" that they imagine will not be anti-Semitic. They are wrong. They are Jews, and they will be considered to be Jews. It remains for them to consider themselves as Jews, and to do so proudly and with reverence.

. . . why aren't you living there? And why do you keep parrot the same, tired rationalization of Israel's appalling colonialist behavior in the occupied territories, which the whole world (including the USA) recognizes as belonging to a future Palestinian state. You really are pathetic.

the Jews were never exiled by the Romans. This is a myth. Your posts here contain myths, lies and childish mistakes mixed up with some correct facts and lots of arrogant racism. Nobody outside Israel is buying your fairy tales anymore.

MANY MANY MORE THAN ANY OTHER GROUP SHAME YOU CAN'T KEEP UP,SO ALL YOU CAN DO IS SPEW BILE. FITS .

So long as you hide behind your anonymity rather than establish yourself as a known and respectable commenter in here (like Sarah has done), your comment carries zero weight.

The jewish community is thriving as opposed to the palestinian community that it has oppressed. Its high time you stop whining and playing the card of the eternal victim

Who asked you guys to pop up in Palestine and engage in "defensive wars"? You can't build a legal nation based on some religious baloney of chosen people, promised land, wanderings, 2000 years, blah, blah. And if you guys have been consistently hated for 2000 years and are still being hated, rather then shrieking about anti-semitism go for some introspection. begin with what you are doing in palestine in the first place.

That's the Jewish way of getting anything...It's how they got Palestine..And now the forged Palestian land sales are being exposed.. ... Israel was 40 years in the planning...and then as all bad ideas, its time came right after WW2.. And it's been a total disaster for millions ever since...and now Israel has reached the laws of diminishing return..and going quite rapidly... You believe your own lies Peter, that's why your still 'whining about Anti-Semitism'..The BNP of all Israel and all Jews has always been Anti-Semitism...you know it and so does the world... 2000 years of the same complaints and all that supposed superiority and Nobel Prizes and you still can't figure out why you're so despised??? Hahahah..so much for Jewish smarts!! TATA