The term “antisemitism” is often narrowly defined in modern discourse, reduced almost exclusively to hatred against Jews. This politicized framing has served the interests of powerful states, particularly Israel and its allies, by shielding certain policies and actions from critique. However, when we return to the original and accurate definition of the term—prejudice or hostility toward Semitic peoples—the picture becomes much more complex, and far more damning.
Semitic peoples are not limited to Jews. The Semitic language family includes a wide range of ethnic groups, including Arabs, Assyrians, Arameans, and many Ethiopians and Eritreans. Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Aramaic are all Semitic languages. By this definition, Palestinians, Yemenis, Syrians, Iraqis, and many others are all Semitic peoples. They are not outsiders to the term—they are central to it. Yet these are precisely the populations most devastated by U.S. and Israeli military campaigns.
In Palestine, particularly in Gaza, the Israeli state has engaged in a decades-long campaign of ethnic cleansing, home demolitions, military blockades, sniper attacks, and repeated bombardments. These actions are not just political—they are ethnonationalist violence directed against a Semitic population. Israel claims to represent Jews globally, but its policies have destroyed the lives of millions of Semitic Palestinians with impunity.
In parallel, the United States has waged a brutal and continuous campaign of military intervention across the Middle East and North Africa. Iraq, a majority Semitic Arab country, was invaded and occupied under false pretenses in 2003 during George W. Bush’s administration. The war led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, widespread displacement, and the collapse of Iraqi infrastructure, opening the door to civil war and the rise of sectarian militias. Semitic civilians bore the brunt of these consequences.
Even before that, George H.W. Bush’s 1991 Gulf War devastated Iraq following the U.S. response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. That conflict, along with years of subsequent sanctions under President Bill Clinton, crippled Iraq’s economy and health system. UNICEF estimated that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children died as a result of those sanctions—an indirect form of violence against Semitic people.
Under President Obama, the pattern continued with drone warfare expanded to an unprecedented scale. Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria saw extensive U.S. drone operations. The Obama administration also oversaw direct military intervention in Syria and the continuation of the war in Afghanistan, another region affected by spillover violence and drone strikes, despite Afghans not being Semitic themselves. Still, U.S. policies destabilized the broader region, harming many communities in Semitic-majority nations like Syria and Iraq.
Syria, another Semitic nation, was ravaged by a civil war that became a proxy battlefield for U.S., Israeli, Russian, and Iranian influence. The United States supported opposition groups, carried out airstrikes, and bombed supposed chemical weapons sites. Israel, for its part, frequently launched airstrikes in Syria under the pretext of targeting Iranian influence, but often with civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. Again, Semitic people paid the price, caught between superpowers playing geopolitical chess.
In Yemen, a Saudi-led war backed by the United States—with weapons, logistics, and intelligence—has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The population of Yemen is Arab and thus Semitic. Over 20 million Yemenis have faced famine and disease, and tens of thousands have died, yet few Western leaders or commentators dare call this what it is: systemic violence against a Semitic population.
Iran is a particularly complex case. While most Persians are not Semitic, the country is home to Semitic minorities, including Arabs, Assyrians, and Jews. The U.S. has maintained a policy of hostility toward Iran for decades, with sanctions, cyberattacks (such as the Stuxnet virus), and the assassination of high-ranking military officials like Qasem Soleimani in 2020. Under both Trump and Biden, tensions escalated with ongoing threats of war. In 2025, during Trump’s second term, U.S. and Israeli intelligence reportedly worked together to carry out sabotage operations within Iran, including drone strikes near civilian areas, increasing the likelihood of full-scale war. The lives of Semitic minorities and Iranian civilians alike have once again been placed at risk in the name of imperial deterrence.
Israel has also engaged in covert and overt actions in Iran, targeting nuclear scientists, bombing Iranian-linked facilities in Syria, and fueling regional instability. These actions, often cheered by Western media, ignore the Semitic communities within and around Iran who are affected by the blowback. From Arab Ahwazi groups in southern Iran to Assyrian Christians and long-standing Jewish communities, these Semitic groups are collateral in a conflict that is rarely framed through their perspective.
Across all these presidencies—Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama, Trump (both terms), and Biden—the pattern remains consistent. U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has centered on control, dominance, and intervention. These policies have disproportionately harmed Semitic peoples, whether through direct military violence, economic sanctions, or support for regional authoritarian allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel. Despite this, criticism of these policies is frequently silenced under the claim of antisemitism—an Orwellian twist that erases the real Semitic victims.
The hypocrisy is staggering. Governments like Israel and the United States loudly condemn antisemitism when it is politically convenient, yet they commit and enable violence against Semitic populations at a massive scale. The erasure of these groups from conversations about antisemitism is not an accident—it is an ideological choice. It reinforces a worldview in which some Semites are deemed worthy of protection, while others are treated as disposable.
Zionism, in particular, has fueled this double standard. Not only does it dehumanize Palestinians and Arab populations, but it also targets anti-Zionist Jews—especially Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, and progressive Jews who reject nationalism and settler colonialism. These Jews are vilified, silenced, and accused of self-hatred. In this context, Zionism becomes not only hostile to Arab Semites but also to Jewish ones who do not conform to its ideology.
If we are to take the word “antisemitism” seriously, we must demand a consistent definition. We must recognize that violence against Palestinians, Arabs, Assyrians, and other Semitic peoples—whether carried out by missiles, drones, sanctions, or settler expansion—is antisemitic by nature. The moral clarity we are so often told to uphold must include all Semites, not just those who align with the interests of empire.
True opposition to antisemitism must reject selective outrage. It must confront the reality that the very governments claiming to protect Jews from harm are often the ones perpetrating violence against other Semitic communities. Antisemitism does not only exist in swastikas and hate speech—it also lives in policy, in bombs, in sieges, and in silence.