Many have posted this before me, but there is a great synopsis of the history of Anti-Semitism here written by Natan Sharansky. Mr Sharansky, as many of you know was the best known Russian Jew (refusenik) who eventually emigrated to Israel and became a member of the Knesset.

You have to read the whole thing, but it's interesting that he notes is that virulent anti-Semitism existed with or without Israel, in lands with or without Jewish inhabitants, and in societies both free and repressed.