Phyllis Chesler

Today, anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism. In 2002, when I first wrote this, my editor was alarmed. “Are you sure you want to say this? Can’t we criticize Israel without being called anti-Semites?” I assured him that what I had written was accurate. Clearly, when you criticize only Israel for crimes other countries commit, for crimes that Israel does not even commit; when you criticize and condemn only Israel in every world forum—you are looking at the “new” anti-Semitism, which is the title of my 2003 book.

Zionism does not equal racism–but anti-Zionism does.

I have been challenging anti-Semitism among leftists and feminists since the early 1970s. I first began to document the “new” anti-Semitism in 2000, right after the Palestinians launched the Intifada of that year. At first, I was something of a lone voice. The organized Jewish world either denied or minimized the possible rise of anti-Semitism and the existential threat that Israel might face. As early as 2004, I wrote about the possibility of a Second Holocaust (God forbid!). For standing up for Israel, the Jews, for America, and for the West, I sacrificed my reputation as a politically correct intellectual. I lost many publishing opportunities and most of my former friends and allies. http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2010/08/12/what-only-the-jews-can-do-about-anti-semitism/

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