Sarah Palin got it right

The True Meaning of Blood Libel
Amid the fierce and often partisan debate sparked by Sarah Palin’s use of the words “blood Libel,” one thing is clear: The phrase has become increasingly detached from its historical context. For centuries, the phrase “the blood libel” — with the definite article — has been used to signify a unique false accusation against a specific group: the spurious and heinous charge that Jews kill Christian Children to use their blood to make matzo for Passover. But now, as

Rabbi In Wall Street Journal: Pali Is Right About Blood Libel
Wall Street Journal: The term “blood Libel”—which Sarah Palin invoked this week to describe the suggestions by Journalists and politicians that conservative figures like herself are responsible for last weekend’s shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz.—is fraught with perilous meaning in Jewish history. The term connotes the earliest accusations that Jews killed Jesus and enthusiastically embraced responsibility for his Murder, telling Pontius Pilate, “His blood be upon u...

alicublog
THE PERSECUTION AND Assassination OF Sarah Palin AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES AT THE Cato Institute UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON. Lawyers, Guns & Money informs me that the Washington Times has gone Sarah Palin's blood Libel malarkey one better, declaring that recent criticism of La Palin is "simply the latest round of an ongoing Pogrom against conservative thinkers." A pogrom, yet! Their persecution mania was already so far beyond parody that I hardly know what to call this ...

You think youre so clever, dont you?
From an editorial at the Washington Times: Mrs. Palin is well within her rights to feel persecuted. Since the Saturday bloodbath, members of the liberal commentariat have spoken in a unified voice, charging her and other Conservatives with being indirectly or somehow directly responsible for the lunatic actions of accused gunman Jared Loughner. Typical of blood Libel, the attack against Mrs. Palin is a false charge intended to generate anger made by people with a political agenda. They have made...

They Broke Begin, but Wont Break Palin
Menachem Begin is today widely regarded as one of the most effective and far-sighted statesmen in Israeli history. At one end of the political spectrum, he is fondly remembered for surrendering the entire Sinai peninsula to Egypt and uprooting Israeli communities there. At the other end of the spectrum, he is hailed for taking strong action against PLO Terrorists and Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor. But when he was first elected Prime Minister in 1977, Begin was the object of an unprecedent...

About Blood Libel
Although few in numbers, Jews have been my classmates and good friends since grade school and even though I knew very little about their religious beliefs, I respected those differences and went about my business, just as they did.  I know for a fact that at least a few of my FaceBook friends are Jewish and, undoubtedly, a few Jews are reading this post at this very moment.  That’s great, but I honestly don’t think you’re reading because your Jewish and I’m Cath...

Palin doesnt threaten pogroms
Last night on Chris Matthews David Corn said that Sarah Palin’s blood Libel comment was the kind of thing that had brought forth Pogroms against Jews once. He offered a similar fearful idea at Mother Jones: Yet for her to equate the criticism she's received with the genocidal persecution of an entire people demonstrates either ignorance or narcissism. Or both. "Blood libel" is a term that refers to Jews using the blood of Children (mainly Christians) for religious practices, and this false a...

Mayhem in Tucson VI: Sarah Palin and Bloody Libel
As Dan Friedman ominously wrote, They are sick people who are using blood Libel to have her killed. The whole blood Libel Controversy may be nothing more than a subterfuge. It's not inconceivable that demonizing virtually everything Palin does and says is a calculated, despicable effort by the left to inspire and instigate an Assassination attempt. How's that for tolerance and healing, Mr. Obama?...

Top 10 Most Ridiculous Attacks on Conservatives Following the AZ Shootings
This has been a hugely shameful week for sections of the American Left, who have exploited a horrific tragedy that claimed six lives, in order to advance political attacks upon some leading conservative politicians and media commentators, as well as an entire political movement in the form of the Tea Party. The vitriolic and hate-filled attacks have marked a low point for liberal media elites in America in the 21st century, even to the extent that President Obama himself, probably the most liber...

Israel widens access to Jerusalem Muslim Quarter
Israel has widened access to a revered Jewish site in the heart of the Jerusalem Old City’s Muslim quarter, a move that threatens to inflame tensions at one of the world’s most contested religious sites. Municipal officials recently ordered the removal of scaffolding -- which propped up an arch underneath Palestinian homes -- to enlarge the courtyard in front of a small section of the ancient wall, a remnant of the Second Temple destroyed in 70 AD, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper r...

Israel clears out disputed site in Muslim quarter
Israel has widened access to a revered Jewish site in the heart of the Jerusalem Old City’s Muslim quarter, a move that threatens to inflame tensions at one of the world’s most contested religious sites. Municipal officials recently ordered the removal of scaffolding -- which propped up an arch underneath Palestinian homes -- to enlarge the courtyard in front of a small section of the ancient wall, a remnant of the Second Temple destroyed in 70 AD, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper r...

No More Mister Nice Blog
WILL STARSTRUCK RABBI MAKE SARAH HIS NEW Michael Jackson? I didn't want to write about Palin again, but Memeorandum's lead story right now is a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach entitled "Sarah Palin Is Right About 'Blood Libel.'" At the end of the op-ed, Boteach is described as follows: Rabbi Boteach is the author of "Honoring the Child Spirit: Inspira...

Rabbi Boteach Defends Palin's Use of 'Blood Libel' (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Sarah Palin was right to use the term "blood Libel" in defending herself from accusations that her heated political Rhetoric had something to do with the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach argues in The Wall Street Journal, because the term refers to Jews being falsely accused of Murder--the important part is the innocence, not the Jewishness. Boteach is continuing a debate that has raged since Palin's video discussing the violence in Tuscon was p...

The Tucson Shootings, Blood Libels, and Those Who Perpetrate Them
[ By Barry Rubin , crossposted from The Rubin Report.] The main street of Dolhinov, then in Poland, in 1931 on Polish national day. The 1886 Pogrom took place in the area pictured and against Jewish shops on the left behind the onlookers. Without taking any partisan position, but purely on the issue's historical merits, nothing could have been more appropriate than Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood Libel" to describe what happened to her after the Tucson killings. I know because my direct a...

Lessons from a witch hunt
I shouldn’t even feel the need to write this, but alas I must.  Apart from the lessons from the tragedy in Tucson, there needs to be a retrospective of the reactions and the lessons that we can glean from it. A primary lesson is that of media reaction in and around Washington.  CNN in particular is guilty on this one.  They are emblematic of the wider problem.  Within hours of the shooting, CNN reporters began inserting the fact that Rep. Giffords was one of Sarah Palin...

The effort to drag down Sarah Palin for using the term "blood libel" has backfired.
The criticism had to do with wanting to restrict the term to its specific original context, a longstanding vicious lie about the Jewish people. The result of the criticism is that now when someone searches the term "blood Libel," they see Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin. If the intent of the criticism was to preserve the purity of the reference, it's had the opposite effect. (If the intent of the criticism was to take advantage of a perceived opportunity to take another shot at Sarah Pali...

Palin: Maximum Sarah Saturation Begets the Hillary of the Right
It is time for Sarah Palin to sit quietly for awhile,  at least a few weeks, and let others defend her.   It is time for her to let things “settle” in Tucson, because the shooting had nothing to do with her.This is not turning the other cheek that I speak of, it is to let the opposition find something else by not giving them anything more.   Every single “slight” that is published against her does not require a response from Sarah Palin FacebookCentral...

Religious Right Dream of Privatized Public Education Gets Boost
Republican governors are making aggressive moves toward control of public education. You may find that it's helpful to know something about a subject before you start talking about it. Jewish social justice group delivers 10,000 letters to Rupert Murdoch calling for Beck’s ouster. And with more and more Evangelical chaplains a backslide isn't impossible. “Blood Libel” was not an effort to “align” herself with Jews....

The Arizona Tragedy and the American Reaction
The story dominating American conversation this week is the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. In shock, after a mentally troubled assassin named Jared Lee Loughner shoots a round from his 9mm Glock through the brain of beloved Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and then turns his weapon on the crowd and kills 6 bystanders while wounding 13 others — America mourns. Giffords is alive today and fighting for her life, the extent of the damage caused by her wound still unknown. There are positive signs...

What Americans Need to Do Now, After the Shooting and Tragedy In Arizona
This week President Obama helped the nation mourn in Tucson. Today let's celebrate American Democracy and the freedoms we enjoy and not let a nut with a gun in any way interfere with a full-throated, passionate dialogue that is as American as apple pie. For in order for Democracy to thrive it's imperative that we resist the impulse to tell opinionated people who are exercising Political Speech that its their fault for inciting deranged people from acting out their darkest fantasies. On the contr...

Is the Right Speechless Without Hate?
- Rush Limbaugh show, 1.13.11 (1:30 p.m. EST) It would be one thing if the quote above had simply come from Rush Limbaugh. It’s quite another for his listeners to confirm it, which is what happened yesterday on his show, with Limbaugh wholeheartedly agreeing, amidst a defensive onslaught of Talk Radio babble that had the right-wing leader hailing Sarah Palin, while pronouncing her a Victim. After Palin dropped “blood Libel” into the American dialogue on the Arizona Terrorism tr...

There's a New Sheriff in Politics
The Thread is an in-depth look at how major news and controversies are being debated across the online spectrum. Tags: blogs, Internet, Media, tuscon shooting In his Speech in Tucson Wednesday night, President Obama called on Americans to expand their “moral imaginations” and “remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.” Well, never hurts to aim high. For now, at least, the president seems to have put an end to the...

Rabbi Helps Tearful Rick Sanchez Try To Set Record Straight
Rick Sanchez thinks you've got him all wrong. And on Thursday night at a Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the former CNN anchor engaged in a dialogue with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to set the record straight. Sanchez was fired from CNN in October after saying on a radio show that Daily Show host Jon Stewart is a "bigot" and suggesting that Jews run CNN. Sanchez later apologized for his remarks. His friends recently launched the website Friends of Rick Sanchez to further clear his name. ...

Rabbi Shmuley weighs in
It's not a celebrity Controversy until Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has injected himself: Despite the strong association of the term with collective Jewish guilt and concomitant slaughter, Sarah Palin has every right to use it. The expression may be used whenever an amorphous mass is collectively accused of being murderers or accessories to Murder. The abominable element of the blood Libel is not th...

A House Divided, and Other Presidential Speeches About the Jews
In the video statement she issued this week, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin accused the media of Manufacturing a “blood Libel.” Her choice of words quickly became the story—”blood libel” refers to the cruel and absurd medieval belief that Jews used the blood of Christian Children to bake matzo. Many wonder how the gaffe will affect Palin’s future, with USA Today asking, “Will Sarah Palin’s use of the term ‘blood libel’ hurt her chan...