Blood libel comment by Sarah Palin sparks rebuke from Dems, Sen. Gillibrand: 'This is unhelpful'

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/01/12/2011-01-12_blood_libel_comment_by_sarah_palin_sparkes_rebuke_from_dems_sen_gillibrand_this_.html

Blood libel comment by Sarah Palin sparks rebuke from Dems,
Sen. Gillibrand: 'This is unhelpful'
 

Michael Mcauliff
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Wednesday, January 12th 2011, 1:51 PM

Sarah Palin says in a video that she is not to blame for
the shooting in Tucson.

Far from backing down, Sarah Palin defended
herself today against critics who linked her rhetoric
to the Arizona shootings,  accusing them of the
long-condemned anti-Semitic slur "blood libel."

Palin opponents noted soon after the shooting of  
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) that left six people
dead that Palin had posted a map on her website last
fall with gun sights on 20 districts, including
Giffords'. She announced it with a tweet: "Don't
Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!"

In her defense, Palin argues that she merely used a
map of swing states, just like political operations on
both sides of the aisle. Her spokeswoman earler
said the targets were actually surveyors' marks.

While she absolved herself, she slammed her critics,
linking them to the ancient anti-Semitic charge that
Jews mix the blood of gentiles in matzoh.

"Within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists
and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel
that serves only to incite the very hatred and
violence they purport to condemn. That is
reprehensible," Palin said.

But her evocation of the slur on Jews in connection
with the shooting of Arizona's first Jewish
representative did not sit well with many.

"This is unhelpful," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-
N.Y.) before boarding Air Force 1 with President
Obama on his way to Tucson to call for healing.  "As
leaders, we have to use language that brings people
together, not more vitriol that divides us."

"Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult
moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying
to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow
engaging in a 'blood libel' against her and others,"
said David Harris, president of the National Jewish
Democratic Council. "This is of course a particularly
heinous term for American Jews,  given that the
repeated fiction of blood libels are directly
responsible for the murder of so many Jews across
centuries -- and given that blood libels are so
directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-

 

Semitism around the globe, even today."

The Anti-Defamation League put out a statement
rapping Palin's use of "blood libel," saying "we wish
that Palin had used another phrase - instead of one
so fraught with pain in Jewish history."

Harris was willing to grant Palin might not have
known of the significance of her phrase.

"Perhaps Sarah Palin honestly does not know what a
blood libel is, or does not know of their horrific
history," Harris said. "That is perhaps the most
charitable explanation we can arrive at in explaining
her rhetoric today."

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs