Some of the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist rhetoric in the San Francisco Bay Area is simple anti-Semitism, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Sunday.

Newsom, in the country for four days as part of a large San Francisco Jewish Community Federation delegation, said he expected to see some people protesting against his trip here when he gives a commencement address next week at San Francisco State University.

The university was the site of some of the ugliest anti-Israel protests in the US during the second intifada, with some pro-Palestinian protesters chanting "Hitler didn't finish the job" and "Die, racist pigs" at a pro-Israel rally in 2002...

...Sitting on a stone ledge at the entrance to Yad Vashem, which he was about to enter for the first time, Newsom said he "absolutely" believed some of the anti-Israel speech emanating from his city was anti-Semitic, and that Israel faced a "generational challenge" in the US.

"I see a new generation of younger people who don't have a connection to this country that they should," he said, adding that he has seen an increase in the phenomenon on college campuses over the last five to 10 years.

As to how to combat this, Newsom said, "That's one of the reasons I came here - I think it sends a message."

This was not one all his constituents would like, he said...