Vice-President Biden’s use of the term “shylock” is but the latest in a long line of verbal gaffes he has made over the years. But at least he knows he was wrong to have said that and has owned up to it.

All things considered, Biden is probably the least anti-Semitic member of the Obama Administration. Let us remember that John Kerry said Israel risked becomng “an apartheid state”, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who while still serving in the Senate, referred to the State Department “the adjunct to the Israeli foreign minister’s office”. Or how about when Hagel said, “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.”  Of course, there is UN Ambassador Samantha Power, back in 2002, calling for U.S. troops to invade Israel. Or lest we forget President Obama palling around with anti-Semites like Rashid Khalidi. To this day, The Los Angeles Times refuses to release the video of Obama speaking at a tribute for Khalidi in 2003. What is it that The Los Angeles Times has to hide?

While Biden’s use of the term “shylock”  is daft, offensive, unbecoming and historically loaded, compared with his colleagues his remark is almost quaint by comparison.