Michael Kinsley raises doubts in his Feb. 11, 1992 column about the depth of Patrick Buchanan's anti-Semitism on grounds Buchanan is "friendly and gracious" with individual Jews.
I submit that this means nothing one way or the other. Many of the professional anti-Semites I have interviewed over the years have spoken warmly about Jewish acquaintances and friends; for instance, the neo-Nazi Roy Frankhouser (who is in fact quite affable with anti-Zionist Jews as individuals) and the pamphleteer Eustace Mullins.
Talk show host Barry Farber, who is Jewish, has described to me how Lyndon LaRouche invited him to dinner and turned out to be a gracious and witty host. (This graciousness has never stopped LaRouche from railing against the alleged Zionist conspiracy in America.)
Rev. Al Sharpton whipped up crowds against the Jewish "diamond merchants" during the recent Crown Heights riots, yet remains the close crony and business partner of Dr. Fred Newman, the Jewish leader of the New Alliance Party
This Jekyll and Hyde syndrome is not unique to the contemporary American rightwing and leftwing fringe: Adolf Eichmann was supposedly quite polite in his dealings with Jewish leaders prior to the Holocaust (he even spoke a smattering of Hebrew) and maintained until his death that he never had anything personal against the Jews.
Kinsley clearly needs to distinguish between political anti-Semitism on the one hand and visceral Jew hatred on the other. He also needs to distinguish between smart Jew-haters who learn to dissimulate their hatred and the stupid ones who just rant and rave and hence never develop any political influence. Under most circumstances, it is the smart Jew haters and, indeed, those who keep it all on a political level, who are the most dangerous.