I was listening to an interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky the writer and his theory was conservatives have a love/hate relationship with sciences (and arts and academia). Paraphrasing from memory - if some thing or someone reinforces their belief system they love it, and they despise it when it contradicts them, this effort against science is to get a reality (scientific results) to agree with their preconceived notions. The bonus is suffocating dissent of any kind against those in power. The context was this was about his book about exobiology and authoritarian governments, Alien Clay.

Anti-semitism is just the convenient cover, likewise pro Palestinian protesters are judged to be interfering with USA international relations (wrt Israel) by the Secretary of State under one clause of Immigration and Nationality Act that they use to justify legal immigrants to be kidnapped and deported.