WASHINGTON: A new law being proposed by Republican senators will serve prohibit criticism of Israel on American college campuses....

Illegal Action?

Maybe someone here can help me on this. It's something I've wondered about for a while. If you criticize a Jew, does that make you an anti-semite? Seriously. I think I've missed something in my education.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Semite as:
a : a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs
b : a descendant of these peoples

So, my question would be, how does criticizing a Jew make you an anti-semite? The definition in the dictionary refers to genetic characteristics...people who could be genetically traced back to ancestors from southwestern Asia. But Sammy Davis Jr. was a Jew. I believe Whoopie Goldberg is a Jew. Wouldn't they be classified as African-American?

Judaism is a BELIEF system, not a genetic characteristic. And sure it's bad to pass judgement on folks because of their condition of birth (skin color, etc.), but what you choose to BELIEVE comes to you voluntarily after you are born, and you need to ANSWER for the actions you perform based on your belief system. So if I want to claim Jews are bad because they did this or that, don't I have the right to?

Many people feel free to pass judgement on fundamentalist Christians (individually and as a group), so if we criticize ONE belief system in the land of free speech and are allowed to do so, how can our laws be warped to protect another belief system?

And I guess that's the crux of my problem in sorting this out. Judaism is a VOLUNTARY BELIEF SYSTEM. You are not born a Jew, so if I were Buddhist and a Jew insulted me and I kicked his ass (fundamentalist Buddhist), how could that whiner expect special treatement under the law? And why would I be accused of hating a whole genetic group of people because of the thoughts someone carries around in his head?

I know the article cited above refers to criticism of Israel, but we have been so brainwashed on the subject of anti-semitism, I think it's time for me to work this out. I don't understand how a voluntary belief system has been merged in the public mind so successfully that now, when you criticize 'a jew', you are automatically assumed to be criticizing millions of others who are of the same 'race'. Judaism is NOT a race. It is a religion voluntarily taken up by people after they are born.

I personally think Judaism is just another religious control system set up in the dim past to take advantage of us, so in saying that, did I just commit an act of anti-semitism? If so, someone will have to tell me why.