Thanks for reading and responding, Max (and 23 others).

The point of my essay was that if you take away the last two years, there is still a rise in anti-Semitism, unrelated to Gaza.

I understand your skepticism, because I share it. As a Christian, I have immunity to persecution, so I can't see anti-Semitism. It is as invisible to me as sexism. But Charlottesville happened in 2017, and my Jewish friends are letting me in on anecdotal experience, and that tells me something is happening.

If something is happening, then I can look at history and see the way that anti-Semitism has been used by people in power to shift blame and I can connect the dots to why there is a rise in anti-Semitism.

To me the two "antis" are linked. When the State of Israel is committing atrocities, there is a justified rise of anger against Israel. But that anger seems to also transfer to anger and blame against Jewish people in general. So this is a hot mess because when people are criticizing Israel it can be intended (or felt without intention) as blanket attacks on all Jewish people.

I don't think Israel should be able to do what it is doing and has done. Nor do I believe that Jewish people should be specifically persecuted because they are Jewish.