I recently read an article, The New Anti-Semitism: Graffiti on the Walls of History (http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2004/issue4/0404p34.html), while studying for a research paper. Admittedly, I do not know much about Jewish history or Jewish culture, so I started to look up words in the dictionary to have a better understanding of what I was reading.  When I read the definition of Semitic and tried to apply it to the article I was reading, I was confronted with a problem. The definition from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/semitic seems to include people from Arab decent. More specifically the Arab definition found at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/arab stated that an Arab is “a member of a Semitic people…”
Based on these definitions the word anti-Semitism could refer to hostility directed toward people groups who can trace their heritage back through to a proto-Semitic point in history. But contrary to this logic Mr. Zuckerman says in his article “The new anti-Semitism is not exclusively hostile to this or that individual Jew, or to Judaism. It is directed primarily against the Jewish collective, the modern State of Israel.” Wouldn’t Mr. Zuckerman’s statement refer to more toward anti-Zionism than anti-Semitism?

Thank you,
Steve

Apparently Mr. Zuckerman is incorrectly defining semitic people of similar languages.

A group of languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family and spoken in North Africa and southwestern Asia. It includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Maltese and Amharic.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=2&oi=define&q=http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=semitic

of or relating to the group of Semitic languages; “Semitic tongues have a complicated morphology” a major branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family Semite: of or relating to or characteristic of Semites; “Semite peoples”

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=2&oi=define&q=http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=semitic

Zionism is a movement of some Jewish people who wished a return to Zion (Israel).

The Arab people are an offshoot of a ####### (born out of wedlock) son of Abraham and an Egyptican handmaiden. They have nothing more than in common than do the Mongolians with the Watusi tribe of Africa. The common bond is DNA…

Mr. Zuckerman was not trying to define people groups in his article.

I am trying to get a grasp of terminology so I can better understand current events and religious relationships between different people groups. 

Thank you for the distinction between people who are Semites, and people who merely speak a Semitic language. 

A quick etymology search revealed the root word for Semite is Sem, Hebrew for Shem, as in the son of Noah.  Shem can be interpreted “name” which possibly, is symbolic for the name of the Lord. 

After further research I have discovered the difference between Arabs (illegitimate children) and the “People of the name”, or more excellently put in 2 Chronicles Chapter 7:14 “if My people, upon whom My name is called…”, the Lords people.  Also, I found two verses, Genesis 21:12, 13 that calls legitimate seed to Abraham thru Isaac then, specifically excludes the son of Hagar from being called to Abraham. Abrahams seed thru Hagar was however, to become a “great nation.”

This brings a whole new light to the term Semitic, and a new sensitivity to anti-Semitism.  It has made me realize how hypocritical it is for Christian people to be anti-Semitic (see http://www.ouradio.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/7/ post by purr ) since Jesus was a Jew.  An anti-Semitic person cannot be a Christian other than in name only. 

Steve

Steve

Sorry but the word semite is not the root word of Shem, son of Noah.

Read Genesis 9:25-26.

G-d cursed the son of Ham whose name was Cannan

Genesis 9:25 And He said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

9:26 And he said: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant.

Many have incorrectly thought that Noah’s son Shem was the progenator of the Jewish people and the Arab peoples. If you can read the Hebrew text it would be easier to understand the meaning of the translated words into English.

Cannan was one of the sons of Ham who uncovered his father’s nakedness. The Cannanites were the early branch of the people known today as Arabs.

Steve

Sorry but the word semite is not the root word of Shem, son of Noah.

Read Genesis 9:25-26.

G-d cursed the son of Ham whose name was Cannan

Genesis 9:25 And He said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

9:26 And he said: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant.

Many have incorrectly thought that Noah’s son Shem was the progenator of the Jewish people and the Arab peoples. If you can read the Hebrew text it would be easier to understand the meaning of the translated words into English.

Cannan was one of the sons of Ham who uncovered his father’s nakedness. The Cannanites were the early branch of the people known today as Arabs.