It is true that there are people with genuinely anti-Jewish bias and a desire to harm or persecute Jews. Clearly. And we all know that. You can call that "anti-Semitism" if that's the term you wish to use, though it's a rather odd term...since many Muslims are also Semitic people...but that's the sort of weird thing that happens now and then with the English language. People use terms that don't make sense if you look at them literally, but they become customary regardless.

If you want to say that someone is anti-Jewish, which clearly is the matter than concerns people who use the term "anti-Semitism", then you might as well say it's "anti-Jewishness" and be done with it. Call it what it really is.

Anyway, yes, of course there are people who are virulently anti-Jewish. We all know that.

Then there are other people who are not anti-Jewish at all but who are deeply opposed to various political and military policies of the Israeli government. That does not equate to being anti-Jewish. A good many Jews are deeply opposed to those same Israeli government policies....not a majority of them, clearly, but a good many.

As you say, bobad, "silence is not an option". Correct. To remain silent in the face of anti-Jewishness is not an option. To remain silent in the face of terror attacks on Israelis OR Palestinians is not an option. To remain silent in the face of land-grabbing and aggression by Israel upon its Palestinian neighbours is not an option.

No one is obliged to remain silent in the face of any such hostile actions, regardless of which side of the line they are on.

The sense of historical persecution which Jews feel is felt just as keenly by the Palestinians and Muslim people who have suffered under Israel's heavy hand since 1948. This is what you should realize. Jews are not the only people in this world who are carrying a tremendous load of pain over the past and present sufferings of their own people. Jews do not have a monopoly on that kind of suffering. They are also capable of inflicting that kind of suffering on others.

The reason you are seeing an escalation of what you call "anti-Semitism" (anti-Jewishness) is for one reason alone: it is because of the aggressive policies and behaviour of Israel toward other occupants of the western part of the Middle East in the last 5 or more decades. Period. Those actions have created a counter-reaction in many people against Israel...in some people against Jews...and that counter-reaction was inevitable. Israel has sewn seeds that have caused much hurt to the Jewish community worldwide, because those seeds have aroused what you term "anti-Semitism" (anti-Jewishness).

Look, it's simple. If you or your cousin or your neighbor kick a dog around long enough, he will eventually turn and bite someone. And if he's not too smart or he's limited in knowledge, he may well bite the wrong person in his anger...someone who had nothing to do with kicking him in the first place.

If you want to reduce the rise in anti-Jewishness worldwide, you won't do it by calling people "anti-Semites" to intimidate them into silence. You'll do it by changing the Israeli government's policies and not further persecuting the Palestinians and not further robbing them of their land.

As you said: Silence is not an option. The time hss come to act. Prejudice definitely does not end with Jews...nor did it begin with them. Prejudice is as old as humanity itself. Victims of prejudice can be found anywhere...in any community.