I don't really like "Persecuting jews and denying them the right to exist collectively with the same rights as everyone else" as a definition. I see this as the inevitable outcome of antisemitism. The antisemitism is the blood libel, the stab in the back myth, the general insinuation that bad things happen not because the world is difficult but because the Jews are evil. And then yes, once you accept this, you have to persecute jews and deny them the right to exist in order to make bad things stop happening. I also don't like "most conspicuous non-muslim country in the Middle East". This gives no explanation of why antisemitism exists in North America, or really anywhere outside the muslim world. My best theory is that it's the easiest way to make a common enemy and build a wide coalition around the common enemy, while alienating as few people as possible.