Palin says she is victim of 'blood libel'

What is 'blood libel'?
Carrie Dann writes: Within minutes of the release of Sarah Palin’s video response to the Tucson shootings, the Web ignited with furious debate about the former Alaska Governor’s use of the phrase “blood Libel” to describe connections drawn between Arizona shooter Jared Loughner and Conservatives who have used guns and violence as metaphors for political Activism. In a nearly eight-minute long message, Palin said that “Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a...

Palin's use of 'blood libel' invokes ancient myth about Jews
When Sarah Palin said that efforts to connect statements by her or others to last weekend's Arizona shootings amount to a "blood Libel," the Controversial political figure set off yet another firestorm, invoking a powerful term with deep and terrifying reverberations in Jewish history. There are many variations on blood Libel, but the myth almost always involves accusing Jews of murdering non-Jews and then drinking their blood for ritual purposes, according to Boston University ...

Palin's blood libel comment gets Dems' blood boiling
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...

Palins choice of words raises new questions
It didn’t take long for Sarah Palin to go from an uncompromising response to critics of her campaign Rhetoric to new questions about her choice of words. Not the gun-toting choice of words that had already landed the former Alaska Governor in hot water with political opponents who tried to blame her Rhetoric for last weekend’s melee in Tucson, where a gunman tried to assassinate congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords while killing six and wounding 13 others. This time the qu...

What's the Problem With Sarah Palin Using the Term Blood Libel?
Man some people are just looking for something to pick at. As reported earlier today, Sarah Palin released a heartfelt video this morning expressing her grief over the tragedy, relaying her prayers for the wounded and families of all the Victims, and throwing The Progressive nonsense suggesting that Palin, the Tea Party, and/or right leaning media had anything to do with inciting the violence. Her Speech spoke just the right tone and was delivered with dignity as opposed to bravado. But as the...

Palin Angers Jews with Blood Libel Comment
Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood Libel” to decry blaming Conservatives for the Arizona shooting has raised the ire of the Jewish community. In a video statement released Wednesday, Palin said that “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them. Especially 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 t

Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' blunder | Peter Beaumont
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 rh...

Sarah Palin's charge of 'blood libel' spurs outcry from Jewish leaders
Sarah Palin's remarks Wednesday in which she accused critics who would tie her political tone to the Arizona shootings of committing a "blood Libel" against her have prompted an instant and pronounced backlash from some in America's Jewish community. The term dates to the Middle Ages and refers to a prejudice that Jewish people used Christian blood in religious rituals. "Instead of dialing down the Rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the mean...

Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' error sets the stage for unifying Barack Obama speech in Tucson
There is much to agree with in Sarah Palin’s statement on the Tucson tragedy. She’s right to say that “our exceptional nation, so vibrant with ideas and the passionate exchange and debate of ideas, is a light to the rest of the world”. She’s right to laud “the tenacity of those clinging to life, the compassion of those who kept the Victims alive, and the heroism of those who overpowered a deranged gunman”. The notion that criminal acts “begin and...

Pat Buchanan: Sarah Palin's Use Of Blood Libel Was 'Excellent' (VIDEO)
Pat Buchanan said Wednesday that Sarah Palin has been a Victim of the media in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), and she was right to use the phrase "blood Libel" in defending herself from charges that her language had anything to do with the Mass Shooting. "Frankly I thought it was an excellent statement with regard to the phrase 'blood libel'," Buchanan said. "That of course refers to the libel that was used in the Middle Ages, charges against Jews that were utterly...

Jewish groups respond to Palins use of blood libel (The Ticket)
Several Jewish groups are criticizing Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood Libel" in her video statement on the Arizona shootings. The phrase traditionally refers to false anti-Semitic myths about Jews using the blood of Christians, often Children, in their rituals. Abraham Foxman, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement: "It is unfortunate that the tragedy in Tucson continues to stimulate a political blame game.  Rather than step back and reflect on the lessons to be learne...

Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem
Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem With today's memorial service in Arizona, Wednesday is a day for all Americans to mourn the Victims of Saturday's deadly Shooting Spree in Tucson. Sadly, with her aggressive defense of her past incendiary Rhetoric, Sarah Palin has made it all about herself. Worse still, Palin has marked the attempted Assassination of the first Jewish Congresswoman from Arizona by reintroducing the historically anti-semitic "blood Libel" slur back into the political lexicon. As it t...

Jewish Groups: We Are Deeply Disturbed By Palins Use Of Anti-Semitic Term Blood Libel,
Source: Think Progress Jewish Groups: ‘We Are Deeply Disturbed’ By Palin’s Use Of Anti-Semitic Term ‘Blood Libel,’ She Should Apologize » On a day when the president and the nation are mourning the Victims of the tragic shooting in Tucson, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is trying to seize the spotlight to mourn her tarnished reputation. Palin apparently views herself among the real Victims of the tragic shooting this weekend that killed six and wounded 14. This morning, Pal

Jewish groups condemn Palin's use of term 'blood libel'
Condemnations by Jewish organization, over Sarah Palin's self-serving use of the term "blood Libel" to defend herself after the criticism she has received in the wake of the Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, are mounting: Jewish Funds for Justice: We are deeply disturbed by Fox News commentator Sarah Palin’s decision to characterize as a “blood libel” the criticism directed at her following the Terrorist Attack in Tucson. The term “blood libel” is...

Alan Dershowitz Defends Palin on 'Blood Libel'
The term “blood Libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People, its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations against the State of Israel by the Goldstone Report. There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false...

Sarah Palin presidential hopes sink under 'blood libel' remarks?
The Sarah Palin Controversy over the Arizona shootings may leave a scar on Palin's political machine that the former Alaska Governor may not recover from. On January 8, 2011, Jared Loughner, 22, opened fired in a Safeway Parking Lot in Tucson, Arizona. He killed six people and wounded 14, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a democrat. Sarah Palin has been criticized for having a map of Democratic Candidates on her website with a gun targets on specific states. Individual Candidates wer...

Palin criticized for using 'blood libel'
(CNN) - The Anti-Defamation League, the organization that combats Anti-Semitism, says Sarah Palin should have used a different phrase than "blood Libel" to characterize attempts to link her discourse to the Arizona shootings, the latest in a series of criticisms leveled at the former Alaska Governor Monday over her use of the Controversial term. "We wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase "blood-libel" in reference to the actions of Journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shoot...

Dershowitz weighs in
A last perspective on "blood Libel," from Alan Dershowitz at Big Government: The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations against...

Sarah Palin speaks of 'blood libel.' Really?
Sarah Palin, former GOP vice-presidential Candidate, charged Journalists and pundits with 'blood Libel' for linking political Rhetoric with the shooting of US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others....

Exclusive: Alan Dershowitz Defends Sarah Palins Use of Term Blood Libel
In an exclusive statement, famed attorney and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz defended Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood Libel” from multiple detractors. As the Media Matters/MSM/Democrat narrative on the Tucson tragedy unravels, they are getting a lot more desperate in their attacks on Palin. Fortunately, there are still plenty of honest liberals around: The term “blood Libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its hi...

Poll: Conservatives not to blame for Ariz. shooting
WASHINGTON — Most Americans reject the idea that inflammatory political language by Conservatives should be part of the debate about the forces behind the Arizona shooting that left six people dead and a congresswoman in critical condition, a USA Today/Gallup Poll finds. A 53% majority of those surveyed call that analysis mostly an attempt to use the tragedy to make Conservatives look bad. About a third, 35%, say it is a legitimate point about how dangerous language can be. And there is lit...

Palin Claims 'Blood Libel' by Critics After Shootings
(Adds history of "blood Libel" in ninth paragraph.) Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Calling it a "blood libel," Sarah Palin condemned people who have criticized her for heated political Rhetoric and the role it may have played in the shootings in Tucson, Arizona. Palin, 46, the former Republican Governor of Alaska, her party's 2008 nominee for vice president and a potential 2012 Presidential Candidate, made her statement in an Internet video. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own," she said...

Giffords, Loughner, and Palin
Gabrielle Giffords’s office released a photo, from her Hospital room, of her husband, Captain Mark Kelly, holding her hand. (Doing so, as I wrote earlier this week, is often the crucial thing.) One of her doctors, Peter Rhee, told reporters that he’s now certain she will survive, in the short run, though “I can’t tell whether she’s going to be in a vegetative state.” It’s her left hand you see in the picture, the one that wore the Wedding Ring that Kelly...

'Blood libel'
'BLOOD Libel'.... If the goal of Sarah Palin's Speechwriters was to get lots of attention, it worked. Her use of the phrase "blood libel" this morning has sparked quite a bit of discussion. In context, the half-term Governor, speaking by way of a pre-recorded video because she can't handle interviews, argued that "Journalists and pundits" had manufactured "a blood libel," which in turn may "incite ... hatred and violence." Palin was a little vague as to what, exactly, constituted "blood libel,...

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: The term blood libel has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discou
Alan Dershowitz: “The term ‘blood Libel’ has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse.” You don’t say. He continues: “Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusation...