By far most people who are anti-Semitic have nothing tangible to gain from their viewpoint except maybe fitting in and the base psychological comfort of feeling unearned superiority to fellow human beings. However, there is a small but powerful group that provides an exception to this rule, politicians. Certainly, anti-Semitism gave Hitler a very useful tool with which to build his totalitarian society. In a perceptive column Paul Greenberg reminds us that this vile instrument is still available and being widely employed today. He begins by writing that “it was the always observant Mary McCarthy who observed that anti-Semitism is the one form of intellectuality that appealed to stupid people. But she may have overlooked its appeal to ambitious politicians, too. They're always on the lookout for some mania they can use for their own purposes. Whether to seize power at the beginning of their rise or to hold onto it at the end. Or anytime in between.”

One modern use of anti-Semitism is to raise funds for National Public Radio (NPR). Much in the news today is a meeting between conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe and two NPR executives Ron Schiller and Betsy Liley. The NPR people mistakenly thought they were sitting down with two representatives of the Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC) a group fronting for the Muslim Brotherhood about to donate five million dollars. A video of this encounter is drawing attention for remarks by Schiller and Liley disparaging Tea Party members and Republicans as well as a statement of belief that in the long run NPR would be better off without federal funding. Less talked about is the fact that these NPR leaders were willing to make a deal that could not help but influence their content in an anti-Semitic direction. They sought funding from what they believed was a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization with strong historic ties to Nazism. Seldom has the media bias against the Jewish people in Israel been so clearly explained and blatantly put on display.

Cross posted on The Trebach Report.