A new group to spread anti-semitism...

I'd like to know more about what happened in Toronto.

Throughout October, a largely unseen wave of anti-Semitism has been washing up across North America in a series of conferences run by a Jerusalem-based organization called the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.

At gatherings in Chicago and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sabeel-trained speakers have demonized Israel, with similar speeches expected later this month at their conferences in Denver and Toronto. Started by Palestinian Christians in 1989, Sabeel does not promote peace or a genuine understanding of the Middle East conflict but instead musters support for punishing Israel through divestment campaigns, part of its larger goal of dismantling Israel to make way for a Palestinian-dominated one-state solution.

I attended the two-day Sabeel conference held at Chicago's Lutheran School of Theology, where I witnessed intolerance and prejudice against Jews and the Jewish State. I did not think I would witness this in America's third largest city, especially at the close of yearlong celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Jews in America and only 65 years after the Holocaust.

The Oct. 7-8 gathering in Chicago attracted about 200 people. At the conference, Palestinian activist George Rishmawi actually claimed that Israel uses a poison gas that weakens the muscles of Palestinian demonstrators so they can't run away, and that the IDF quickly retrieves the canisters so that no one can identify the gas. This echoed of the blood libel stories that have caused Jews so much suffering in the past.

I wish people of good faith had been with me to hear the relentless litany of historical distortions and slander. Michael Tarazi, a Harvard-educated attorney and former advisor to Palestinian leaders, accused Israel of starting all the Arab-Israeli wars, saying Israel probably withdrew from Gaza because Israel has, "depleted all the usable drinking water."

Tarazi also warned audience members, "not to be side-tracked from divestment from companies who do business in Israel by those who want to have dialogue about this." Instead, he urged people to, "stick to your convictions because there is no point to having dialogue with people you disagree with."