Which Semites? . . the Arabs or . the Israelis?
Exactly! It is almost unbelievable how Americans, including a majority on Free Republic, have been bamboozled.
But then so so many swallow the modern Media, even when they say they don't.
Right, most Americans and a majority of Freepers have been bamboozled. And some are just plain ignorant.
The term antisemite was coined by Wilhelm Marr, a mid to late 19th German racist/politician, as the name of his political party, the Antischemitchers (sp). It referred solely to the hatred of Jews, and had nothing at all to do with the linguistic (not racial) term semite. It was likely derived from the term semitismus which cropped up in the 1860s as a term referring to Jewry or the Jewish community.