I would suggest this as the first paragraph:

Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews. [Semites]] include other than Jews, but the correct use of the term since its inception has involved applicability to Jews only. Thus the term antisemitism is used only to refer to hatred of Jews; it is never used when making reference to other groups of people who might be called "Semitic." The term can be spelled in the hyphenated form both with "Semitism" capitalized or in lower case, but in this article an editorial decision has been made to use the unhyphenated form of the term throughout. 

I have also left off the last sentence:

"In its extreme form, it "attributes to the Jews an exceptional position among all other civilisations, defames them as an inferior group and denies their being part of the nation[s]" in which they reside."

I don't think that last sentence is on the same order of declaratory statements as what precedes it. I think the first paragraph should have a tone to it akin to a "disclaimer."