First, a little clarity on what I'm talking about. I am as aware as the next guy that the root for Semite may more aptly apply to Arabs than to Jews, many (if not most) of whom have no Semitic blood in them at all. But I am using the expression in the way that most people understand the term, as Jew-hater.
There are at least three types of anti-Semite. Type I are folks who don't like Jews. Type II are folks who are anti-Zionist. Type III are Jew killers and those who approve Jew killing.
Type I anti-Semites can be found all over the USA when people have no real personal connection with Jews. This personal non-connection allows folks to believe that Jews have horns, that the Jews killed Christ, that Jews control the Media and the Government and the Banking system, and are pretty much responsible for most of the bad stuff that is happening all over the world. These folks don't like Jews in the abstract because of misinformation; but they would stop short of wanting to deny American Jews their rights as American citizens.
Type II anti-Semites are anti-Zionist. That is, they believe that Jews are not entitled to have a country of their own. They further believe, erroneously, that the state of Israel is a religious state, that Arab Israelis are not citizens of Israel, and that Arab Israelis have no say in the national government. Many of them claim to base their anti-Zionism on the notion that Biblical claims are not a valid claim to statehood, despite the fact that the state of Israel and its borders have been determined in the same way as every other nation in the world, by military conflict, not by Biblical stories. To suggest that the state of Israel is in any sense based on Biblical claims is to ignore history. There are Orthodox Jews in Israel and elsewhere who would claim that the Bible is the basis for their claim to the land, but politically their claim is just stuff they tell themselves and is otherwise meaningless.
Type III anti-Semites are Jew killers and those who approve their intentions and actions. They may begin as Type I anti-Semites but their beliefs overwhelm reason and lead them to believe that Jews are the personification of the devil and must be destroyed. To say that these folks are psychopathic ignores the fact that if unchecked they become genocidal murderers. Yes, they are mentally ill; but they are potentially much more than just deranged. The same motives that would justify their killing of Jews is easily manipulated to killing other unapproved groups.
Then there are the pro-Palestinians.
Many pro-Palestinians claim to desire a two-state solution to the Middle-Eastern conflict. But that solution is not one that most Palestinians are committed to. The declared majority Palestinian goal is a Palestine with no Israel. On the other hand, the vast majority of Israelis are in favor of a two-state solution. This is what ignited the war in 1948: the Muslims in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine refused to accept a two-state solution as approved by the UN, so they went to war to eliminate the Jewish state, and in the process lost their own claim to land ceded them by the UN two-state mandate. Ever since then, they have declared that the land that Israel won in these conflicts is "illegally occupied" by Israel. In addition, they have never recognized the right of the Jewish state to exist at all. So one has to wonder about the real intentions of these "pro-Palestinians" who somehow identify with the Palestinian cause but desire an Israeli solution.
Many pro-Palestinians also disapprove of the Israeli responses to Palestinian "provocation," as though suicide bombers who murder 20 Israeli civilians are martyrs who are driven to acts of desperation by Israeli intransigence, as though the victims are to blame for their own death, like the girl who is raped being responsible for driving the rapist to his crime. As though Israel has no right to defend itself against attack. As though Israel has no right to excessive counter-attack, as though Israel's response can only be justified as long as their targets do not include innocent civilians, even as "collateral damage." In other words, they seem to hold Israel to a higher standard. That's a pretty explanation but it's BullShit.
Many pro-Palestinians seem to believe that Israel is the source of much of the world's terrorism. I will only dignify this by suggesting that they don't much care for history or world events. Whatever causes them to emphasize Israel's military excesses in a world filled with military excess is a question that they should ask themselves.
Many pro-Palestinians seem to believe that Muslim outrage entitles them to special treatment. Americans and Europeans and Israelis seem to be able to handle internal disagreement without resorting to killing each other. I wonder why pro-Palestinians favor savage cultures over civilized cultures.
Some pro-Palestinians equate the Nazi concentration camps with Israel's barb-wired containment camps. If these folks honestly fail to see the difference between forced-labor and death camps and forced detention, they should return their brains to Wal*Mart and try to get their money back, as these people are truly too stupid to be anything worse than Type I anti-Semite.
Are pro-Palestinians type II anti-Semites? They claim to want a two-state solution to the conflict, despite the fact that the vast majority of Palestinians want a one-state solution. If they truly believe what they say, their energies ought to be directed to altering the consciousness of Palestinians, not condemning Israelis for defending themselves against attack and for counter-attacking. It is a never-argued truth that if the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace and a two-state solution, whereas if the Israelis laid down their arms, there would be hundreds of thousands dead and Israel would be destroyed.
While I must stop short of calling pro-Palestinians out and out anti-Semites, I do believe that they need to examine their real underlying motives.