Communist anti-Zionism was, from the start, explicitly antisemitic

On March 15, 1960, Connecticut senator Thomas J. Dodd submitted a long, impassioned speech to the Congressional Record on the subject of antisemitism.  It took up over 8 pages in the tightly printed Congressional Record, which is probably about 25 normal book pages. It starts on page 5205.

Dodd knew a great deal about antisemitism. He was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. 

In this speech, Dodd surveyed the entire breadth of antisemitism of the day, from residual antisemitism in West Germany from the Right (there was an epidemic of swastikas on synagogues,) through ex-Nazi officials who were still in positions of power worldwide, to a long, detailed description of antisemitism of the Left from the Soviet Union, which he said was being largely ignored in the West.

Just as it is today.

He says:

There should be no secret about Soviet anti-Semitism. The terrible ordeal of the Jewish people under the Kremlin's rule has been painstakingly set forth and documented in a whole series of studies by scholarly authorities....

But for some strange reason, the terrifying story of persecution of the Jews under communism has not penetrated the public consciousness of the free world. 

...I try to be a reasonably assiduous reader. I was aware before I began preparing this analysis that anti-Semitism existed on a very substantial scale throughout the Soviet sphere. But as I checked through the available documentation. I found myself constantly appalled. 

I was appalled by the totality of Soviet anti-Semitism, by its utter ruthlessness, by its doctrinal and practical similarity to Nazi anti-Semitism. I was even more appalled to discover how little I knew, how little my friends knew, about this terrible crime against humanity which has been going on for more than two decades now. 

Let me set forth here the full record of this crime. 

There follows an exhaustive analysis of socialist antisemitism from Karl Marx' own words through 1960. 

About Marx, he said:

In reality, anti-Semitism is as inherent in Marxist totalitarianism as it was in Nazi totalitarianism. Karl Marx himself was, in many of his statements, as virulently anti-Semitic as Goebbels. Over the decades, the Communists have done their utmost to conceal this fact. Marx's translators into English and the European languages carefully eliminated his anti-Semitic diatribes from editions of his books and writings. But the proof exists.

 I have in hand the first English translation of the unexpurgated papers of Karl Marx on the so-called Jewish question. It was printed only last year. In it, you will find that Marx referred to the distinguished German Social Democratic leader, Ferdinand Lasalle, whom he considered too moderate, as, I quote, "Judei Itzig--Jewish nigger." In another letter, Marx made the statement: "Ramsgate is full of Jews and fleas." In still another statement he said—and I quote again—"emancipation from usury and money, that is, from practical real Judaism, would constitute the emancipation of our time." 

This was not Hitler speaking. It was the recognized ideological father of Soviet communism. This was Karl Marx. 

After proving beyond a doubt the systemic, state-run antisemitism of the Soviet Union, Dodd mentions that the Soviets also have geopolitical reasons to be more vicious towards Jews than other suffering minorities behind the Iron Curtain. 

The USSR was trying to ensure the Arab world would be on its side.

He said:

Let me give you one example of the Kremlin's propaganda to the Arab world. I quote from the publication, -The State of Israel—Its Position and Policies," printed by the Soviet state publishing house in 1958:

 "The Zionist movement represents a form of the nationalistic ideology of the rich Jewish bourgeoisie, intimately tied to imperialism and to colonial oppression of the people of Asia. Zionism has tied itself to American and other Western capitalism and, with Jewish terrorist tactics, attacked its Arab neighbors. The national liberation movement of the people of the Middle East, spearheaded by its native leaders (such as President Nasser, King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, and King Iman Ahmed of Yemen) is constantly threatened by naked Jewish aggression. The clear duty of all Marxists and Communists in this situation is to help the Asian and African people crush the reactionary Jewish forces."

This quote shows that early Leftist anti-Zionism was the same as classic antisemitism.  Ideologically, they started at the same place. 

Then, as now, the world didn't take Leftist antisemitism seriously.

Then, as now, the Leftist leaders took pains to hide their historic - and current - antisemitism.while claiming to be anti-racist.

Then, as now, anti-Zionism was simply a specific manifestation of antisemitism. 

---

---