Can it Be Anti-Semitic to Criticize Israel?

April 21 -- The worst anti-Semitism is obvious — Jewish cemeteries defaced, synagogues torched, Jewish schoolchildren stoned.

But what about protests against Israel, which appear on the rise in the United States and Europe?

"The slander of anti-Semitism is something that no critic of Israel has really been spared," said Christopher Hitchens, a Washington-based British writer known for his support of the Palestinian cause.

"I know of many honest people who really doubt the wisdom of Israel's attempt to hold on to Arab territory, and who simply feel that the raising of their voice on it would be more trouble than its worth because of an allegation that, as I say, no serious person can bear to be accused of," he added.

Israel Not Immune to Criticism

If you ask them the question directly, Jewish rights activists say critics of Israel might not have to fear charges of anti-Semitism as much as they think.

"Israel is not immune from being criticized," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which keeps on eye out for anti-Semitism. "Israel is a sovereign nation. It can make mistakes. And people can criticize it with impunity."

But the record has shown that the criticism cannot be made with impunity. In attempting to objectively report the story of the unrest in the Middle East, news organizations receive criticism from supporters of both sides.

"Your anti-Semitic approach to Israel is the reason I stopped watching your show," one viewer wrote in a typical e-mail to ABCNEWS' Nightline.

The Los Angeles Times was boycotted for a day by several hundred readers that organized a protest over what they perceived as the paper's anti-Israel bias.

Foxman understands why many Jews are sensitive.

"The gas chambers and crematory in Auschwitz did not begin with bricks, they began with words," Foxman said, referring to the origins of the Holocaust in Europe.

"Anti-Semitism is probably the oldest group pressure there is in history," said Elie Wiesel, a human rights activist and Holocaust survivor. "It survived fascism, it survived Nazism, it survived communism, but it's still here."