OT: article - No, anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1098625,00.html

"People who take this view say the line is crossed when critics single
Israel out unfairly; when they apply a double standard and judge
Israel by harsher criteria than they use for other states; when they
misrepresent the facts so as to put Israel in a bad light; when they
vilify the Jewish state; and so on. All of which undoubtedly is foul.
But is it necessarily anti-semitic?

No, it is not. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a bitter political
struggle. The issues are complex, passions are inflamed, and the
suffering is great. In such circumstances, people on both sides are
liable to be partisan and to "cross the line from fair to foul". When
people who side with Israel cross that line, they are not necessarily
anti-Muslim. And when others cross the line on behalf of the
Palestinian cause, this does not make them anti-Jewish. It cuts both
ways.

There is something else that cuts both ways: racism. Both anti-Jewish
and anti-Muslim feeling appear to be growing. Each has its own
peculiarities, but both are exacerbated by the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, the invasion of Iraq, the "war against terror", and other
conflicts.

We should unite in rejecting racism in all its forms: the Islamophobia
that demonises Muslims, as well as the anti-semitic discourse that can
infect anti-Zionism and poison the political debate. However, people
of goodwill can disagree politically - even to the extent of arguing
over Israel's future as a Jewish state. Equating anti-Zionism with
anti-semitism can also, in its own way, poison the political debate."