Semites are peoples who speak Semitic languages; the group includes Arabs, Aramaeans, Jews, and many Ethiopians. In a Biblical sense, Semites are peoples whose ancestry can be traced back to Shem, Noah's eldest son. The ancient Semitic populations were pastoral Nomads who several centuries before the Christian Era were migrating in large numbers from Arabia to Mesopotamia, the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, and the Nile River delta. Jews and other Semites settled in villages in Judea, southern Palestine.
Present day speakers of Semitic languages are as diverse in physical, psychological, cultural, and sociological characteristics as are speakers of Indo European languages. The most prominent Semites today are Arabs and Jews. They are different in many ways, and they have absorbed a variety of European traits through centuries of migration and trade. The origin of Semitic languages, however, and many similarities in the stories of Islam and Judaism reflect a common ancient history.
Robert A Fernea
Bibliography: B Lewis, Semites and Anti Semites (1987); J Morgenstern, Rites of Birth, Marriage, Death, and Kindred Occasions among the Semites (1966); S Moscati, Ancient Semitic Civilizations (1957); W R Smith, The Religion of the Semites (1890).
But using that etymology in a dissembled attack on the use of the modern term anti-Semitism is a tactic I have only seen from neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, Islamofascists, and their apologists.
I am not in this post at all referring to you, since you mention it to facilitate this discussion.