So Kottke links to a post titled: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East, I found the list a bit genralized and not overly informative. I did have a problem with point 6:
Arabs are Semites. We’ve all heard the term antisemitism being used — often to describe Arabs. This doesn’t make sense given the fact that the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and refers to anyone who speaks one of the Semitic Languages. That includes both Jews and Arabs.
Well yes, "Semitic" refers to a language group but historically the term "anti-Semitic" referred specifically to Jews. In fact Jews themselves can be anti-Semitic (see Karl Marx.) There is even a book with the title of my post, by Bernard Lewis that explores the origins of Anti-Semitism in the Middle East. When looking at the meaning of a word you can't just look at the etymology of it, you need to know how it has been used in the past and currently. Damn straight Arabs can and (some) are anti-Semitic, there is nothing contradictory about this idea.javascript:void(0)
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