About 20 years ago, I visited the campus of Stanford University, But that day, there was a huge demonstration going on, with all the passion that college students can muster up, against Israel and showing support for the Palestinians. The fact that none of these kids had an inkling of what they were talking about didn't slow them down at all.I remember hearing all sorts of antisemitic jokes as a kid growing up in NY, even from my "friends." In Texas people would say that I wasn't like most Jews, as if they were complementing me — that being Jewish was a bad thing. I had no idea what they were talking about, nor did I ask since at that time in my life, I didn't know much about the Jewish religion or heritage.
Obviously they thought most Jews were bad in some way and they used the word Jew as a pejorative. It wasn't my fault that I came from a screwed up family that wasn't conducive to me being successful. I was just a mechanic at the time, and the people I hung around with were all blue collar workers — not that there's anything wrong with blue collar work, but there's just not much money in it. I guess if they knew me now, they wouldn't say that I "wasn't like most Jews."
Jews experience antisemitism from both sides. From the left it comes under the guise of being anti-apartheid, which is how they describe their contempt for the Israel-Palestinian problem. They support the "oppressed" Palestinians, who are primarily religious conservatives, and appose Israel, which is a liberal state. They often lie about the conflict, which almost always is the result of not having facts on one's side. That's what makes me think it's more disguised antisemitism than actual concern for the Palestinians.
At that time, there was a lot of that in this country. The liberal youth were being exploited to try to arouse American anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish feeling.
But I wouldn't call it antisemitism. After all, the "Palestinians" are also semitic. I'd call it anti-Jewish. Amazing how efficiently the extreme left was at finding their own way to have the same attitudes as the extreme right.