"anti-semitism" includes "Palestinians, Syrians and ethnic Jews"

[JHH]

from Wikipedia
Semitic

Ethnicity and race
In Medieval Europe, all Asian peoples were thought of as descendents of Shem. By the nineteenth century, the term Semitic was confined to the ethnic groups who have historically spoken Semitic languages. These peoples were often considered to be a distinct race. However, some anti-Semitic racial theorists of the time argued that the Semitic peoples arose from the blurring of distinctions between previously separate races. This supposed process was referred to as Semiticization by the race-theorist Arthur de Gobineau. The notion that Semitic identity was a product of racial "confusion" was later taken up by the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.
Modern science, in contrast, identifies an ethnic group's common physical descent through genetic research, and analysis of the Semitic peoples suggests that they share a significant common ancestry. Though no significant common mitochondrial results have been yielded, Y-chromosomal links between Near-Eastern peoples like the Palestinians, Syrians and ethnic Jews have proved fruitful, despite differences contributed from other groups (see Y-chromosomal Aaron). Although population genetics is still a young science, it seems to indicate that a significant proportion of these peoples' ancestry comes from a common Near Eastern population to which (despite the differences with the Biblical genealogy) the term Semitic has been applied.

[The Magistrate]

1. No Matter How Often This Is Trotted Out, Sir, It Remains Nonesense

The term Anti-Semitism was coined in the late nineteenth century with the specific meaning of hatred for Jews, which the fellow who coined the term thinking this was a good thing, that a nation required in large doses for its politital, social and cultural health. By employing a euphemism for Jew, he felt he could gain a greater currency in polite society, where the word Jew had a vulgar connotation. It had nothing to do with any actual scientific, linguistic, or ethnic analysis.

[JHH]

3. My point is that jews are not the only people who are persecuted in the ME

[The Magistrate]

7. So What, Sir, Has That To Do With The Price Of Apples In Oregon?

People are persecuted all over the globe.

It has nothing to do with the actual meaning and usage of a word coined to a particular purpose and employed in that meaning ever since. The only reason this is trotted out is that some critics of Israel are over-sensitive when it comes to acknowledging the fact that some criticism of Israel certainly proceeds from race-hate directed towards Jews, a thing properly termed in English as "Anti-Semitism". They understand that race-hate is a bad thing, and wish not to be associated with it, and so try and defang the term and thus end the thing from the root. An unfortunate complication is that there is often a certain overlap between extreme criticisms of Israel put forward by its more strenuous opponents on the left, and the word and positions of the classic reactionary Jew-haters. This opens a line of rebuttal too inviting to expect opponents not to avail themselves of on occassion. The only real solution for it is for the left opponents of Israel to take some effort to distance themselves from those moved by race-hate for Jews, but even this will be uncomfortable, because a number of the more implacable Islamic opponents of Israel, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, to name just two, explicitly and frankly incorporate race-hate for Jews in their platforms.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cali]

12. That is a reprehensible

comment. It can be seen by your use of quotation marks that you're familiar with the meaning of the term. The occupation is terrible. It is unjust and cruel, but it is by no means indicative of a desire on the part of Israelis for a "final solution" for the Palestinians. It wouldn't have been going on for near 40 years, if it was. Suggesting such a thing indicates that you're rubbing up against some very ugly ideology, and your inability to absorb information provided to you in this thread by people who know more about the subject than you, is a honking big clue regarding your ability to apply critical thinking to said subject.

[JHH]

14. "Never Again" was what I was taught since 1st grade

If the world stood up to Hitler when he walled in the Warsaw ghetto millions would not have suffered unspeakable pain and death. At what point do we speak the truth that Innocent people are dieing. I meant no pain with my term "Finale...' and I am truly sorry if it offended any one but let us not forget how offensive bombing children is

[theHandpuppet]

5. Thanks for the insights

Appreciate the information.

[JHH]

6. your welcome

[theHandpuppet]

2. My partner took part in the Nat'l Geographic genome mapping project

Her matrilineal line was traced back from Oaxaca, Mexico. What a trip! Out of Africa through the Middle East, then Asia, Siberia, across the land bridge to Alaska and then all the way down to southern Mexico. It was fascinating.

I haven't done mine yet and haven't decided whether to do so or not. My matrilineal line is Jewish, so I figured my map would be boring compared to hers. It certainly isn't that far from Africa to Palestine (though they ended up in Germany), not like going from Africa to Siberia to Mexico!

[cali]

4. It's a term of art- not all words are etymologically precise

Anti-Semitism (alternatively spelled antisemitism) is hostility toward or prejudice against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group, which can range from individual hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution. The highly explicit ideology of Adolf Hitler's Nazism was the most extreme example of this phenomenon, leading to a genocide of the European Jewry. Anti-Semitism takes different forms:

<snip>

Etymology and usage

Cover page of Marr's The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism, 1880 editionThe word antisemitic (antisemitisch in German) was probably first used in 1860 by the Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider in the phrase "antisemitic prejudices" (German: "antisemitische Vorurteile"). Steinschneider used this phrase to characterize Ernest Renan's ideas about how "Semitic races" were inferior to "Aryan races." These pseudo-scientific theories concerning race, civilization, and "progress" had become quite widespread in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, especially as Prussian nationalistic historian Heinrich von Treitschke did much to promote this form of racism. In Treitschke's writings Semitic was practically synonymous with Jewish, in contrast to its usage by Renan and others.

German political agitator Wilhelm Marr coined the related German word Antisemitismus in his book "The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism" in 1879. Marr used the phrase to mean Jew-hatred or Judenhass, and he used the new word antisemitism to make hatred of the Jews seem rational and sanctioned by scientific knowledge. Marr's book became very popular, and in the same year he founded the "League of Anti-Semites" ("Antisemiten-Liga"), the first German organization committed specifically to combatting the alleged threat to Germany posed by the Jews, and advocating their forced removal from the country.

<snip>

Pages and pages more over at wiki

[RSMS9999]

8. ok

african american also means white people who moved here from africa.

What is the point of trying to twist the meaning of words?

[msongs]

10. yes they are and words have meaning nt

[oberliner]

11. ok, from this day forward, anitisemitism includes...

Palestinians, Syrians and ethnic Jews.

Now, what should we call remarks that are only insulting and offensive to Jews and do not address those other groups?

Or are there not enough of those comments and incidents to warrant their own term?

[JHH]

13. I do not know of remarks that offend "only" jews

I am offended when any human is degraded regardless of their beliefs

[oberliner]

15. I do not know of remarks that offend "only" Jews, Palestinians, & Syrians

Why does there need to be a word for offending those groups at all?

Those sorts of remarks are obviously offensive to all people who are offended when any human is degraded regardless of their belies.

[JHH]

17. I was responding to your comment in Post 11

"Now, what should we call remarks that are only insulting and offensive to Jews and do not address those other groups?"

[oberliner]

19. fair enough

I think that there should be a word to describe hateful comments and actions specifically directed at Jewish people.

That was my only point.

Sorry for being so snarky about it.

[Behind the Aegis]

16. Wrong!

You prop up a Wikipedia definition...why not go a little further and look up "anti-Semitism" on Wikipedia and find out how wrong you are!?

[JHH]

18. I am trying to point out that Jews Palestinians& Syrians are Semites

and have a common back ground one in which they could build a lasting peace on

[11cents]

20. Thanks, but we Jews, Palestinians, etc., already knew this.

Have always known it, without having it pointed out to us by some dude on a discussion board. And, gee, it seems that people all over the world with seemingly "common backgrounds" don't get along. In fact, the more similar people's background are the more likely they are to fight. It's been called "the narcissism of small differences."

(You keep changing your mind about what you were "trying to point out," BTW.)