Guardian UK: Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' blunder

[marmar]

The sense of victimhood of the Tea Party and its fellow travellers should now be well known. It was Glenn Beck, after all – the man who accused America's first African American president of being "racist" – who last year told a rally of his followers in Washington that they had taken on the mantle of the civil rights movement.

Now Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate, has repeated this same repellent inversion, accusing those who criticised her for her violent political rhetoric against Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman shot in Arizona on Saturday, of perpetrating a "blood libel" against her. In using that expression, Palin has appropriated a phrase with a specific meaning in the long history of hate crime against the Jewish people.

First mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew to refer to the supposed Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus, over the centuries it came to mean something even more pernicious: the fraudulent claim that Jews used the blood of murdered children in their rituals. More awful still, perhaps, is the context in which Palin has adopted the language: to recast herself as the victim in defending herself from claims that her language and behaviour may have helped create the context for the attempted murder of a congresswoman who, in fact, is Jewish.

Now, it is almost irrelevant whether Palin's language contributed to the shootings, or whether even her campaign's drawing of a crosshairs on Giffords' district was even known to the gunman. Because in defending herself Palin has more than compounded the sense that she is unsuitable for high office. It is almost impossible to find an explanation for this use of "blood libel" that casts Palin in anything but the most damning light. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/12/sarahpalin-arizona-shooting-blood-libel

[bluestate10]

1. And some people want Palin to be President.

If the sad day comes when Palin is in the White House as anything other than a visitor, this one american will tell the Brits "I'm sorry, I want to be a colonial citizen, again. Please take us back".

[Lifelong Protester]

2. Boy, you said it. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry here at your

post, but it is spot on. If I go to Canada, I'd be re-patriating.

[jimlup]

3. In such a situation, I do believe it would be time to leave the country.

But honestly, not that different from 2004, when I felt that the US population couldn't possibly be so stupid as to re-elect shrub.

[EFerrari]

4. She's junior with big hair. n/t