When I told people on my summer Arabic program at the American University of Beirut that I was German Irish and Unitarian, I didn’t do so out of a general mistrust of the Lebanese. I hid my Judaism on the premise that it would take only one fanatic, Hezbollah operative or disgruntled Syrian soldier at a local checkpoint to harm me.

I thought I was protecting myself from the extremes. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that I was in fact protecting myself from the very elites I was surrounded by - degree holding individuals who represent the most educated people in the Arab world.

It wasn’t just the bumper sticker hanging in the newsroom of the Lebanon Daily Star - Beirut’s daily English newspaper proclaiming, “Boycott Supporters of Israel.” It wasn’t just the prevalence of Hamas signs all over the streets just outside the campus gates, including posters from the Muslim Students Association advertising a vigil in memory of assassinated Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. It wasn’t even just the teaching assistant on my program - a graduate student at the University of Michigan during the academic year - who was known for not patronizing Starbucks because “it’s owned by Jews,” or, as she tried to euphemize it when I inquired, “it funds Zionist propaganda.”

Indeed, it was the entire intellectual atmosphere of Lebanon that was decidedly anti-Semitic. It was the retail bookshelves lined with copies of “How the Jews Made the Holocaust,” “Uncle Sam’s Talmud: The Hebrew Myths Upon Which America Was Founded,” and “Lies of the Wicked: The Jewish People, The Secret Organizations, and the Drive for World Dominance,” among others. It was the An-Nahar editorials that referred to Israel as “the Zionist enemy.” It was the multi-lingual lawyer in the barbershop who, upon my telling him that I was German Irish, informed me, “I love Hitler. Everyone here loves Hitler. We only wish he’d finished the job.” It was the student in my Arabic media class who, after proclaiming, “I only hope we live to see the day that Israel is destroyed,” offered that “Hebrew is a dumbed down Arabic” to the giddy nods of his peers.

Lebanese anti-Semitism stems from the greatest intellectual challenge facing the Arab world today: a complete inability to envision - let alone begin planning for - a better tomorrow in terms of its relationship with Israel, the strongest and most developed nation in the region. In this vein, you won’t find a single map in Lebanon containing the word “Israel”; you won’t find any courses in Modern Hebrew at the American University of Beirut; and you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call or send a letter to Israel.

During the Oslo process, Israel began restructuring its curricula to be “less Zionist” in its understanding that two societies can only live at peace when its people understand each other’s histories and sufferings. But Lebanon has made it clear that it has no intention of coexisting with Israel, even on an intellectual level.

In large part, Lebanon’s dire diplomatic situation vis-a-vis Israel is a result of over 20 years of Syrian occupation, and Syria’s continued stranglehold on Lebanon’s internal politics. But Syria’s impact on Lebanon’s culture and social atmosphere - particularly in Beirut - is much less apparent, and in fact seems negligible. Beirut, unlike Damascus, is a western, cosmopolitan city teeming with American food chains. Resembling Tel Aviv, it is a free society with a relatively low level of censorship, home to a vibrant academic community in which its elite intellectuals are able to play a vital role in shaping popular discourse.

What is so striking, and disheartening, is that the anti-Semitism in Lebanon is not the product of a dearth of information - as I witnessed in Internet free Damascus - nor the result of a state run media, as I saw in Cairo. Anti-Semitism exists in Lebanon through public choice and consent, serving as an ignorant means to rationalize a dire political situation rather than working to ameliorate it.

A conversation on my last day in Beirut with a business student confirmed this point for me. Sitting on the beach along the Mediterranean, the student offered the usual litany: America is trying to conquer the Middle East, Israel is trying to kill off the Palestinians, and both policies can be directly linked to the vast power of the American Jewish lobby. After doing my best to debunk his first two contentions, I asked him why there was no effective American Arab lobby. Why are Hamas and Hezbollah the Arab world’s only response to AIPAC? The student had no answer to why the Arab community doesn’t try to work in the same productive ways as the Jewish community apparently does to improve its lot.

Very simply, the Arab world is not interested in advancing its stature, let alone in building a better relationship with Israel. The ideologues who call for Jewish destruction are perceived, sadly, as preferable to creating Hebrew courses, communicating with Israelis, and making balanced bookshelves available. As a Jewish  American and vocally pro-Israel college student, I traveled to Beirut to see the “other side.” I await the day when the Arab world approaches Israel with equal open mindedness, and tries to forge the mutual understanding that peace treaties and stable international systems are made of.

But I won’t hold my breath.