On October 16, 2004 President Bush signed into law the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act, which establishes a special department within the US State Department to monitor global anti-Semitism, reporting annually to Congress.

As one of the major steps in the implementation of that law, Secretary of State Condi Rice swore in Gregg Rickman as head of the State Department’s office of global anti-Semitism on May 22, 2006. 

Mr Rickman will not have to define anti-Semitism. His state department office has already done that for him. In its “Report on Global Anti-Semitism” and its “Global Anti-Semitism Report,” the US State Department lists the following set of beliefs as anti-Semitic”: 

1.                  Any assertion “that the Jewish community controls government, the media, international business and the financial world” is anti-Semitic. 

2.                  ”Strong anti-Israel sentiment” is anti-Semitic. 

3.                  “Virulent criticism” of Israel’s leaders, past or present, is anti-Semitic. According to the State Department, anti-Semitism occurs when a swastika is portrayed in a cartoon decrying the behavior of a past or present Zionist leader. Thus, a cartoon that includes a swastika to criticize Ariel Sharon’s brutal 2002 invasion of the West Bank, raining “hell-fire” missiles on hapless Palestinian men, women and children, is anti-Semitic. Similarly, when the word “Zionazi” is used to describe Sharon’s saturation bombing in Lebanon in 1982 (killing 17,500 innocent refugees), it is also “anti-Semitic.” 

4.                  Criticism of the Jewish religion or its religious leaders or literature (especially the Talmud and Kabbalah) is anti-Semitic. 

5.                  Criticism of the US government and Congress for being under undue influence by the Jewish-Zionist community (including AIPAC) is anti-Semitic. 

6.                  Criticism of the Jewish-Zionist community for promoting globalism (the “New World Order”) is anti-Semitic. 

7.                  Blaming Jewish leaders and their followers for inciting the Roman crucifixion of Christ is anti-Semitic. 

8.                  Diminishing the “six million” figure of Holocaust victims is anti-Semitic. 

9.                  Calling Israel a “racist” state is anti-Semitic. 

10.              Asserting that there exists a “Zionist Conspiracy” is anti-Semitic. 

11.              Claiming that Jews and their leaders created the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia is anti-Semitic. 

12.              Making “derogatory statements about Jewish persons” is anti-Semitic. 

Boy, that makes me an “anti-Semite” on all 12 counts!! Oh no!! What ever will I do?