“… Professor Karega-Mason is certainly right that there is both a historical and a conceptual distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, though it is also true that the two are not mutually exclusive. As with other hatreds, sometimes defensible political opposition becomes indistinguishable from indefensible group hatred, and sometimes politics is simply an excuse for hatred.

“… To be clear, I do not contest Professor Karega-Mason’s right to say whatever she wants on Facebook or anywhere else, her own skepticism about freedom of speech notwithstanding. But anyone who is tempted to think that what she has said was not anti-Semitic or can be creatively contextualized away ought to think about what would constitute anti-Semitic speech, and whether they would apply such alibis or restrictive, ahistorical definitions to any other form of hate speech.