Has Anti-Zionism become conflated with Anti-Semitism? If it has, who bears responsibility?
The question of whether Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism are, in fact, synonymous has been raised repeatedly in the context of debates over Israel/Palestine.
As someone with more than a passing familiarity with organized anti-Semitism and its attempts to co-op anti-Zionism for its own purposes, I am of the following opinion.
Anti-Semitism is both real and lethal, as the events at the National Holocaust Museum in DC tragically illustrate. It is indisputable that anti-Semites attempt to advance their agenda in the guise of anti-Zionism, just as they use constitutionally guaranteed freedoms in order to advance an ideology that would abolish them.
It is equally indisputable that Zionists and their supporters have attempted to use anti-Semitism as a political cudgel and a tool for advancing their agenda as well. A fact that has sometimes led to turning a blind eye to the immediate threat posed by anti-Semitism in the US, in favor of advancing that agenda.
A striking example of this in my own experience occured in the earlier nineties as the Soviet Union was dissolving. The sclerotic leadership of the local ADL spent untold amounts putting up billboards around town reproducing the image of the red flag of the Soviet Union with the legend: "Once again Jews are fleeing a sea of red." This built off the Free Soviet Jewery campaign of the 1980's which promoted immigration to Israel.
Problem was that this took priority with our local ADL even as the Soviet Union was disincorporating before the world's eyes and, as we soon discovered, our state was becoming number 1 in the nation in terms of the concentration of Klan and Nazi organizations.
This pretty much set the tone until the old leadership was replaced. Actual anti-Semitic organizing activity was ignored in favor of an emphasis on anti-Semitism as an aspect of the I/P conflict.
The point is that if anti-Zionism has become conflated with anti-Semitism, it is due in no small part not only to efforts of anti-Semites but to the efforts of some pro-Zionist elements as well. One side seeks to legitimize itself via an association with anti-Zionism, the other seeks to delegitimize anti-Zionism by validating that association.
Speaking for myself, I think anytime you find yourself adopting a meme promoted by anti-Semites, ie: that there is no distinction between opposition to Zionism and opposition to "them Jews", it's time to ask yourself some searching questions.