I was born and bred in NYC. Went to public school and worked mostly in the public sector. I've lived my life among one of the most diverse populations in the world. As a Jew, I've also only lived in a communities pn which Jews, though a minority, are accepted and frequently assimilated. Throughout my life I've rarely faced antisemitism personally and feel that even in the greater USA, public occurrences of antisemitism have been relatively infrequent.

Not recently.

Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, to my view, antisemitism has reared its ugly head big time. Not merely the blatant calls for my people's extermination from neo-nazis and the like but more subtle antisemitism cached in the call for Palestinian liberation.

Before you get too upset, let me be clear - Israel has a right wing problem, a Netenyahu problem and for years, pro Palestinian voices on settlements have been ignored. Many Jews, including myself have been vocal for a while against some current and past Israeli policies but these calls aren't antisemitism. I'm talking about the "pro Palestinian" talking points and rallies.

I'll go into more details but the TL;DR is pretty simple. If there's a rally and it only talks about an immediate cease fire or other Israeli acquiescence without calling for the release of the hostages and the end of Hamas' terrorist actions then that rally is antisemetic.

When the slogans and signs read "from the river to the sea," that's antisemitism - it's echoing the age old call to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth.

Even when some people "try" to be balanced and say that Israel has a right to defend itself, they follow up with a call for Israel to immediately stop any retaliatory or defensive action knowing that history has shown that this only empowers terrorists like Hamas. The talking heads never actual give a reasonable course of action for Israel other than lay down your arms which reminds me of the line originally attributed to Golda Meir "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down there weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

It's also worth looking at recent history. Multiple times, Palestinians were offered a 2 state solution going back to the late forties when modern Israel began. The Arab nations thought it better to decline and try to destroy the Jews. This history repeated time and again most notably at the turn of the century when Arafat said no to a deal that would have given the Palestinians 95% of what they wanted.

But let's get back to the antisemitism.

Beyond what I've already said you have to consider why nobody calls out the Arab nations on their treatment of Palestinians (or even Hamas who would rather build tunnels and rockets to kill Jews rather than build infrastructure to support Palestinians). From 1947 to 1967, Arab nations controlled Gaza and the West Bank. Where was the outcry for Palestinian Independence?

Some people say that the Palestinians elected Hamas. Others note that there hasn't been a free vote in Gaza since 2006. Okay, but then why aren't there protests and rallies about that?

It seems that if you're Arab (or I guess European) you can abuse and kill Palestinians and it's okay, it's only an issue if you're Jewish.

This is all to say that from my point of view, a HUGE amount of the pro Palestine posturing is thinly veiled antisemitism - no more, no less. If people truly cared about Palestine and a two state solution (as I do) they'd call out Hamas, work to rid Palestine of them, work to establish self rule and at the same time call out Israel's current leadership and policies.

People have to be more aware of this and the inherent dangers but I fear ignorance and hate are more the order of the day.