"New Anti-Semitism"? Objections to the policies of the government of Israel are not expressions of anti-Semitism. It is a legitimate political opinion and doesn’t deserve to be smeared as anti-Semitism. Sympathy, even support, for the plight of the Palestinian people does not imply hatred for all Jewish people, or for the people of Israel.
"The new anti-Semitism emanates from elements of the Arab and Muslim community". How can this be? Are not Arabs themselves a Semitic people?

Apparently the ECAJ rates journalists as either supportive of Israeli policies in the Middle East or anti-Semitic "hate mongers". Why should Israel not be held to account for its policies without accusations of anti-Semitism?

Israel is a power. It can no longer claim the role of perennial victim.

Whenever articles referencing anti-semitic behaviour turn up I now look for the inevitable emotional hook: never criticise Jews (or Israel) because of what happened in the holocaust. So here we go again, another article which segues back and forth between Israel and the holocaust, all in the guise of commenting on anti-semitism.

I'm pleased that the author thinks Australia is a tolerant country. I wonder if the Muslim community agree.

So lets look at an intolerant country, Israel where I wonder if "Politicians, civic and faith leaders can speak out when episodes of racial hatred and bigotry occur". It seems many want an each way bet: set up a state based on religion, act with the military force of a nation but then retreat behind cries of anti-semitism when that state is criticised. If a wall is built to remove people from their own land and segregate them then, I believe, comparisons to past action are justified. No one is suggesting Israel is killing Palestinians (en mass, at least) but the Palestinians are being 'ghettoed'.

Lets not try to defend the indefensible by attempting to deamonise the critics.

I agree "authorities need to ensure that curriculum content dealing with Jews and Israel is soundly based..." and not biased to ignore current atrocities in favour of those of the past.

Paul and Manny. I think I escaped accusations of anti-semitism, but only by the skin of my teeth Basil Fawlty style ("I mentioned the war, but I think I got away with it!").

However the specification for "the new anti-semitism" has fairly caught me by the left leg. Guilty as charged.

I think I'll just take a long walk off a short pier.

- happy now?

Anti-Semitic ideological constructions are imbedded in religious doctrine. These ideologies are expanded by academics then reflected in state policy and implemented by state functionaries.

The NAZI process of ‘euthanasia’ began in the psychiatric institutions with people who were considered biologically inferior by way of mental impairment and ended in concentration camps with people who were considered biological inferior due to racial characteristics such as the so called “Jewish race” homosexuals and itineraries known as gypsies.

This is very much about state politics and any suggestion that Israel does not have a right to exist, is simply an elaboration of the NAZI program.

One issue that continues to puzzle me is why the Jews have been so disliked over millennia. As a race, they don't fare well in the Magna Carta, nor in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
In a 1886 booked called "Post-Norman Britain" written by H.G. Hewlett and published for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, he writes:

"In connexion with this subject a passing reference must be made to the Jews, who flocked into England in great numbers soon after the Conquest; and, in spite of the severe persecution to which they were repeatedly subjected, remained here until 1290, when they were expelled in a body. During the two centuries of their residence in the chief cities and towns of the kingdom they appear to have occupied the position of capitalists, or money-lenders, without devoting themselves to any industrial calling. They unquestionably performed a useful function in this capacity as commercial intermediaries ; but the religious aversion with which they were regarded by the Christian world, and the complete segregation from social intercourse with it which their creed imposed upon them, precluded their ever becoming incorporated with the body politic. The shrewdness and rigour with which they drove their bargains and enforced the law against their debtors, combined with these causes to render them so generally detested, that the decree for their expulsion was hailed with public acclamation, and its severity aggravated by several acts of barbarity."

Can anyone enlighten me as to why there are so many examples throughout history of the Jews being held in such low esteem?
Bernie Masters

I fail to see why comparing Israel with pre-1994 South Africa is anti-semitic - especially considering many white South African Jews were quite happy living under apartheid. The comparison maybe wrong but I can't see where anti-semitism comes in.

The comparison with Nazi Germany really is anti-semitism because of the implication that Israelis are nothing more than mass murderers. That accusation glosses over the fact that there are Hebrew supremacists/fascists within Israeli politics and should be distinguished from the Israeli left.

As for questioning Israel's right to exist, what does that really mean? Israel's right to exist or Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state? I absolutely oppose the latter proposition in the same way I oppose, for argument's sake, Australia's right to exist as an Anglo- Christian state