What exactly is this "blood libel" that Sarah Palin spoke of in her response to the Arizona shooting, and what did you think of her speech?

She probably doesn’t know the history of the phrase.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/12/dershowitz-others-defend-palins-use-of-blood-libel/

Also, very insightful:

http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/12/krauthammer-on-debating-palins-use-of-blood-libel-have-we-completely-lost-our-minds/

The use of the words “blood libel” was unfortunate, but people did make the connection between her website with the crosshairs, and the shooting. People were blaming Palin for the shooting. I agree with her outrage. It wasn’t her fault.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Actually I would bet she does and I doubt she wrote the speech.

A blood feud is a feud that is spawned by rumors of killing by one side, leading to revenge killing by the other side, and escalates from there.

One of the more infamous uses of the words in our time is calling for the extermination of Jews because of false allegations that they kill gentile babies and use their blood in rituals.

I’m not sure if you know what blood libel means vis-a-vis a truly awful anti-Semitic canard, but I must say, Ms Palin, (or her speechwriter) had some gall to try to paint themselves as victims with the use of that phrase. And further, to call for the ending of rhetoric she herself has taken part in at every conceivable opportunity until this past Saturday is reprehensible. She should have just given her condolences to the families of the dead, best wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured AND KEPT HER DAMN MOUTH SHUT. And I think that both sides should have kept to this standard. No one had any idea why this had happened, but out they came on TV, the papers and the blogosphere. Yap, yap, yap, blame, blame, my side, my side, my side. I’m so tired of this.

No class whatsoever. So even if I did agree with Palin’s politics, which I don’t, this speech today would still leave a really bad taste in my mouth, as much as has the statements of liberals who blame her directly for this tragedy.

I think 20 people were shot, 6 are dead and Sarah Palin thinks she’s the real victim. Again.

@Rarebear , @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, @aprilsimnel, @YARNLADY

No, I know what blood libel means, but I don’t know what she’s talking about as in, who was saying bad things or pointing fingers?

She’s accusing the media of blaming her for what happened because of her rhetoric, and is saying that by doing that, the media is, in turn, inciting violence against her. So if some loony pops her, she feels it’d be because the media itself set someone off.

@aprilsimnel : I didn’t see anything in the media that was blaming her… but I guess that’s the point, right? Unless they’re blaming Republicans?

By using this term, she is trying to say the ubiquitous they are trying to use rumor and innuendo to turn people against her. As @jaytkay pointed out; making herself out to be the victim.

I know it is popular to dislike Sarah Palin but I think she was using it not just the media against herself but others as well. She was singled out by some but so was Rush, Beck, Fox News…. If you follow her at all, you will know that she has repeatedly stated she doesn’t care what people say about her. I’m sure she feels slighted by the media but who wouldn’t.

@aprilsimnel Has it pretty well on. I think it goes further because the media called out more than her.

Its from that Cross-hairs map that she thinks people are blaming her for the shootings… I really don’t think she wanted anyone dead…so I’m letting it go…for now.

No, @Rarebear, the murders in Tucson weren’t directly her fault—we don’t even know if the shooter knew anything about her—but her puffed-up and sometimes ignorant rhetoric and crosshairs imagery (and don’t tell me she and her people didn’t know it alluded to gunfire) has done much to polarize public discussion on major issues.

You know, most reasonable people aren’t blaming Palin for this, but a lot of people are at least discussing the effects of really amped up rhetoric on the unstable mind. But Palin’s actions since this occurred show she has shitty judgement. First, she took the map down off her site. Then she claimed those crosshairs were never meant to be actually crosshairs (contradicting a tweet from several months earlier). Then she said the crosshairs were surveyor’s markings. Now, after a few more days to think about how to address this situation, she comes up with the ‘blood libel’ thing. A reference to persecuted Jews.

Why didn’t she just come out after it occurred, say that maybe the rhetoric has gone too far, admit she should tone it down while imploring others to do the same, and just move on? Instead she’s prolonging the spectacle that she is by continuing to make obviously lame decisions. And to think she was nearly a leader in this nation.

I haven’t heard anyone seriously saying it was Sarah Palin’s fault. What they were saying was that inflammatory, militaristic imagery and rhetoric like the map with the gun-sights “could” be part of what selected a target for the deranged young man. And despite her lies about “surveyor’s symbols” there was no mistaking what her map meant, or that Congresswoman Giffords was one of those in the cross-hairs. Here’s a Google image search of surveyor’s maps. And here are Facebook posts and Tweets from Plain about her cross-hairs map.

Blood libel refers to a false belief in the Christian community during the Middle Ages that Jews had the blood of Christ on their hands, and that they routinely murdered young gentile children to use in their religious festivals. Congresswoman Giffords is Jewish. I doubt Palin knew what the word means, but her speech writer must have. Whether she knew its meaning or not, its tone is what I find most disturbing. What Palin is suggesting is that this whole thing is about her. There are 6 people dead and 17 wounded, some critically, but it’s all about Palin Persecution. She is as much a victim as the Jews in anti-Semite Europe during the Middle Ages. How narcissistic can someone get?

For Palin to accuse journalists of blood libel against her is adding insult to injury. Those in her Tea Party base who actually knows what the word means and who hinge on ever word from Palin’s mouth may just be motivated to go assassinate a journalist they think has slighted her.

Blood libel was a very poor choice of words. She gave a decent speech, but that term sets her up for criticism. Since there is already talk of the shooter being a Neo Nazi type, and the term blood libel originally was used as an antisemitic term, and the congresswoman who was shot was Jewish, it just looks really bad. Seems like she was talking to the crazy part of her party.

I once read a book regarding how President Bush used a lot of language in his speeches that reached out to Evangelicals that went right over the heads of people like me. It was very interesting.

Meanwhile, I don’t think Palin is antisemitic or violent herself. And, most people I know think she was just ignorant to the background of the word. But, being ignorant also is a problem considering she is accused of not being too bright.

@JLeslie It is funny that a person that believes that she has no responsibility in these shootings so vigorously defends herself against allegations that were not formally made. Her speech writers did a great job in the first half of her speech; the only problem is that they then injected her into the situation. That is her talent and her liability, her ego is overwhelming. Ignorance is repairable, stupidity is permanent. Unfortunately, her condition is permanent.

@Ron_C Do we know who her speech writers are? Would be interesting to know. I doubt she wrote that on her own. Blood libel might be a term used in her circles. Like when I lived in MI a few people used Jew it down instead of bargain, and I don’t think they were antisemitic, and I know at least one person who used it had no idea it might have something to do with Jewish people and stereotypes. I believed him, because so many people at my university had never met a Jewish person, well not that they knew of, said things to me like how can I be Jewish and have fair hair and blue eyes, and thought JAP, was a condescending term used regarding the Japanese (understandable when you think that most Michiganders hate the Japanese, because they built a better car).

@JLeslie in my experience I find that the people that hate Jews, black people, Hispanics, etc. didn’t know any of them. My family and I moved around a good deal in the U,S. and the Phillippines and were often the only white person in the neighborhood. Frankly we enjoyed it. My kids played with everbody, except the bullies (they come in all colors too).

@Austinlad The murders in Arizona weren’t even remotely her fault. It was a senseless act of a deranged man.

@Rarebear What evidence do you have that Jared Loughner was not influenced by Palin or by any other political voice, for that matter. I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to suggest Palin’s map did influence him, but I don’t know that it didn’t either. I do know that whether he routinely watched TV news or not, he was acutely aware of the political debate in America. His rantings on his YouTube.com postings about the evil government make it clear that he was listening to the greater political discourse in America and not just building a fantasy world in his own head, devoid of contact with the world around him.

@Ron_C I find the opposite. When there is only one or two in a community, token Jewish family, everyone usually is just fine, same with one Asian family, one black family. When it seems like the new group is taking over the neighborhood, people get all freaked out. Probably the whitest parts of our country are the least prejudiced. Want to meet a racist, go to the south where black people are in bigger numbers. Iowa, Vermont, all ok with Obama. I guess maybe there is a small subgroup, the neo nazi types, who are full of hate, and maybe never met a Jew?

@ETpro And what evidence do you have that he was? The Unibomber also made simlar rantings—not on youtube but on paper. Correllation is not causation. If Loughner were to say, “Palin was my inspiration” or there were other murders at other crosshair sites, I think people would have a case.

@Rarebear My second sentence above read “I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to suggest Palin’s map did influence him.” I have ZERO evidence it did. You have ZERO evidence it did not. We both simply do not know. But since you press the point, here are some things we do know about the politics of violent imagery and speech, and how it can and does inspire violence.

Right-wing paranoia most certainly did motivate Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 innocent people. It motivated James Kopp to kill Dr. Barnett Slepian and Scott Roeder to kill Dr. George Tiller. It motivated the many Abortion Clinic bombers. Paranoid political speech motivated Richard Poplawski to kill 3 police officers responding to a domestic disturbance in a Pittsburgh suburb. He had falsely been convinced that Obama was coming to take his guns. Dog-whistle racist speech motivated the Holocaust Museum Shooter, James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist who believed his act would touch off a white rebellion to “take our country back”. There can be no question right-wing hate speech motivated .California highway shooter Byron Williams, We know this because he openly bragged that Glenn Beck and Fox News had been his teacher. He named by episode the Beck rants that helped inspire him to go on his shooting rampage.

We could go on and on listing instances. Words have consequences. To those who insist they do not, one might ask why they bother to broadcast their words. Just how many deaths are acceptable collateral damage to gain partisan advantage? How vital is it to the far right that they be free to demonize, to label patriotic Americans as communists, socialists, Nazis and threats to the American way of life, even if this rhetoric inspires some to open violence? That is the question I think Plain needs to answer in regards to here map with cross-hairs targeting 32 elected officials to “take out” in 2010. I think she should answer that whether the graphic had any influence on Jared Lee Loughner or not.

We may not be able to lik Palin, but that type of talk probably does influence people in that state of mind, as covered by @ETpro. And, so since she is in the public eye, it would be nice if she, and others, toned it down, and they also need to realize their influence.

A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist wrote this the other day:

Individuals who engage in these type of acts have extremely poor sense of selves and often fuse, psychologically, with those of greater perceived importance. Isolation, fueled with near schizophrenic-like obsession, leads to an extremely impressionable mind. John Hinckley, Jr., Mark David Chapman quickly come to mind.

If there was ever a moment for Sarah Palin, just this one time, not to make it all about her, this was it. Unfortunately, she did not arise to the occasion.

“The murders in Arizona weren’t even remotely her fault”

Maybe, maybe not, we don’t know yet. But my argument, which I stand by, is that Palin and others, with their We vs. Them rhetoric, are creating and fostering a polarizing climate that directly or indirectly influences people like Loughner who are on the edge of committing violence in order to express themselves, get attention, act out a fantasy, or whatever the twisted motivation may be.

Etpro wrote this on a different Q:

Right-wing paranoia most certainly did motivate Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 innocent people. It motivated James Kopp to kill Dr. Barnett Slepian and Scott Roeder to kill Dr. George Tiller. It motivated the many Abortion Clinic bombers. Paranoid political speech motivated Richard Poplawski to kill 3 police officers responding to a domestic disturbance in a Pittsburgh suburb. He had falsely been convinced that Obama was coming to take his guns. Dog-whistle racist speech motivated the Holocaust Museum Shooter, James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist who believed his act would touch off a white rebellion to “take our country back”. There can be no question right-wing hate speech motivated .California highway shooter Byron Williams, We know this because he openly bragged that Glenn Beck and Fox News had been his teacher. He named by episode the Beck rants that helped inspire him to go on his shooting rampage.

He had provided links, which do not easily copy paste. Maybe there are people listening to left hate talk that have been violent as well, I have not scene examples, but they probably exist. What we need to think about is the talk matters, the tone, the verbiage. Palin is being singled out because of the timing, her specific “targeted” politicians. It is likely ufair to single her out, I think everyone agrees, but we have to accept that our words matter, not everyone is working with all 8 cylinders, and why not foster a culture and climate of conversation and debate, rather than aggression and violence.

I believe Palin when she says she meant the map to encourage people to use their vote, she could have just simply said that, for people to use their vote.

@Ron_C “It is funny that a person that believes that she has no responsibility in these shootings so vigorously defends herself against allegations that were not formally made.”

Do you really believe that the allegations against her were not formally made? Possibly in a court of law not formally but she and her map were accused within hours of the shooting before we knew anything about the shooter.

Do a quick google search and you will see dozens of examples of leftist “journalists” doing everything they can to put the gun in the hands of Palin, Beck, and Fox News within hours of the shootings.

I would argue the only thing I have seen in response is their examples of the left using the same rhetoric.

Do a quick google search and you will see dozens of examples of leftist “journalists” doing everything they can to put the gun in the hands of Palin, Beck, and Fox News within hours of the shootings.

Name some journalists who blame Palin for the shooting.

“You have ZERO evidence it did not”. Of course I don’t. But that’s the beauty of living in the United States. You’re innocent until proven guilty.

@jaytkay I think Palin represented the lefts frustration with hateful, religious, gun carrying red necks. I don’t think Palin is a gun carrying red neck. But, I think some of her followers and a part of the Republicans are. Neo-Nazis, homophobes, are more likely to listen to the right than left. Palin has happily put herself in as one of the leaders of the right. I am not talking about all Republicans, I am not even saying the Republican party seeks out these hateful people, I am only saying those people identify with that party.

Just like the terrorists say they are Muslim, but the average Muslim is not a terrorist.

I thought she sound, as always, as a joke but a dangerous joke which would be funny if she wasn’t actually someone others listened to. I don’t blame her for the shooting but the crosshairs and that map, she’s fucked up and should be punished.

@jaytkay Here you go. If you need more, I will get them for you. Somehow I have a feeling you will dismiss this but here it is anyway.

Somehow I have a feeling you will dismiss this but here it is anyway.

You’re right. Because no journalists at your link blamed Sarah Palin for the shooting.

So out of the dozens you claim, who “formally” blamed Palin, you can’t find one.

The closest thing there is from Olberman, “If Sarah Palin … does not repudiate her own part, however tangential, in amplifying violence and violent imagery in American politics…”

@jaytkay You can’t take part of one post and try to spin the truth.

@Ron_C said “It is funny that a person that believes that she has no responsibility in these shootings so vigorously defends herself against allegations that were not formally made.”

To which I replied, Do you really believe that the allegations against her were not formally made?

You see the accusations that he and I were discussing was her responsibility to which Keith Olberman stated she had. You quoted him above but failed to continue the quote so I will.

Keith Olberman speaking on Sarah Palin’s involvement on this tragic event. _“If they fail to do so, each one of them must be judged to have silently defended this tactic that today proves so awfully foretelling, and they in turn must be dismissed by the responsible members of their own party,”

What he has done is try, like I stated above, to link Sarah Palin’s actions to this event. He failed. Especially since he did not call for all democrats to “repudiate” the same exact map that the democrats used in ‘04.

@jaytkay Please show me where I stated that anyone was trying to “blame” Sarah Palin. What I stated was “journalists” were doing everything they can to put the gun in the hands of Palin, Beck, and Fox News.

@missingbite

??

How is “Putting the gun in the hands of ” different from “blame”?

@jaytkay I said “trying to put…” I didn’t say they put the gun, that would be accusing her or them. What they are doing is linking her to involvement of the crime. They are doing everything they can to disgrace her from politics because they hate and fear her.

Just wanted to point out that blood libel has been used by the media before and they didn’t have a problem with it then.

@missingbite I don’t think anyone fears her. Like anywhere in the world.

@missingbite Others have used it, but the speech writers would have been smart to realize the congresswoman is Jewish, this kid has a Neo Nazi feel to him, and because of the history of the word, it might be criticized. Just a bad choice, because she opened herself up. She should have probably just expressed her sorrow at the incident. Don’t you think? Most of the left was already backstepping and saying we cannot connect her to the shooting. I am sure other politicians had a little bit of “there but for the grace of God go I,” because no one wants to feel their words could cause some lunatic to shoot into a crowd of people.

@missingbite Talk about spin, as @jaytkay correctly pointed out, none of the clips on the link you provided showed any journalist either blaming Palin directly or, in your own words, “doing everything they can to put the gun in the hands of Palin, Beck, and Fox News.”. Seems to me that it is you that’s spinning like a top trying to take the evidence where it simply doesn’t go.

It’s perfectly legitimate for journalists to question whether the regular use of gun play terminology and imagery in political rhetoric might incite actual violence against political leaders in unstable minds. It was just as legitimate when Republicans criticized the far left for burning George W. Bush in effigy and such. But the difference is those were not political leaders or national broadcasters doing that. There were extremist nobodies at a street demonstration. It is a serious concern when we have leaders and personalities with a national stage inflaming passions with militaristic language like, “Let’s target Gabby Giffords”, “Time to take her out”, “Don’t retreat, reload”, “lock and load”, and so on.

To all above, call it reaping what you sow or karma; whatever. The fact is that the right hates Obama, first because he’s not a republican, second because he’s black. When Congress convened in 2008 the republican leadership had one main agenda, “ruin the Obama Presidency”. It didn’t matter who it hurt, people dying for lack of health care, 9-rescue workers, the federal court system, even nuclear arms, the whole point was to regain power and vilify progressives and even blue dog democrats. There sole purpose was to regain power and protect their corporate masters.

Well they have the House and will probably end up with the Senate. They also have a legacy of obstruction, hate, and now murder. Palin isn’t the only one responsible; she is just another political whore that is trying to hop on the corporate gravy train. I am sure that if the left paid better, she’d be a hard left whore. The fact that the right wing psycho talkers are blamed shouldn’t be surprising. What is amazing is that it took the murder of a 9 year old girl for people to wake up to what was happening in public discourse.

What goes around comes around, that’s about all I have to say on the subject.

@Ron_C Wow, and the right have hate? You may need to see a therapist.

@missingbite Yeah, I was going to point that out too. It’s attitudes like that that polarize our country.

@missingbite To be fair to the right, the left said some hateful things about George W. Bush. They even held protests where they hung him in effigy as a war criminal. But those were street protesters, not media personalities or Congressmen. No Democrat yelled out “You lie!” during Bush’s State of the Union addresses, even though we now have solid evidence that he did lie and he almost certainly knew he was lying, and that his invasion of Iraq was a war crime under International Law and treaties which the USA has ratified.

The political rhetoric of the left was rabid and revolutionary during the late 60s and the protests against the Vietnam War. The truly vitriolic rhetoric today comes primarily from the right. Whichever side it comes from, it has no useful place in the policy debate that we need to engage in to move America past its many crushing problems and into a position of continued prominence in this new century.

We either shall find a way to set aside hate speech and petty partisanship, and deal with the real issues threatening American exceptionalism in the 21st century’ or we will slowly sink further and further behind the countries that are progressively pursuing a strategies to succeed in the evolving economic climate of today and tomorrow.

@missingbite I was a republican and even in local office when Reagen was selected at the Republican candidate for president. I went along with party lines until I saw the convention and realized what a terrible choice Reagen would be.

Now we have experienced 30 years of what turned out to be the trickle up economy. Bush Jr. was the epitome of the stupidity that brought Reagen to power and Palin was a female version of Jr. I don’t hate any one particularly, except the Bush’s but never want to go through a government hating, anti-American, empire building, murderous government again.

That is not hate, that is a rational, human, position.

@Ron_C I guess we will have to disagree. Perhaps your choice of words don’t convey what you believe but to make the statement that ”The fact is that the right hates Obama, first because he’s not a republican, second because he’s black.” shows that you either don’t understand people or you have hatred for the right. That is a blanket statement that has no place in debate. You have basically called me a racist because I am “the right” and you don’t know me.

You are accusing the right of murder with the following ”They also have a legacy of obstruction, hate, and now murder. Palin isn’t the only one responsible; she is just another political whore that is trying to hop on the corporate gravy train.” Again, if that is not hate, you and I will disagree.

“What goes around comes around, that’s about all I have to say on the subject.” Not really sure what you meant by this but it sure sounds like, since you believe the right is murderous, you hope it comes around to them.

Hateful any way you look at it IMHO.

@missingbite You are right that @Ron_C‘s statement is not a blanket truth, but it certainly allplies to a large part of the vocal far-right base and the Teahadists who have basically subsumed the former Republican Party. I argue with them on www.sodahead.com. I read stuff like www.WorldNetDaily.com and listen to Glenn Beck and Rush. I subscribe to several very widely distributed right-wing newsletters. I do all this just to keep abreast of their thinking. And for the bulk of that crowd, @Ron_C was not being dishonest, he was being generous. We’re talking about people who show up at political rallies so full of hatered that they actually froth at the mouth and spit what they shout.

The incredible thing about Sarah Palin is that she seems to be incapable of apologizing, even to the extent of saying that putting gun sites over people’s photos just might not have been the optimal way of getting her message across. She continues to lash out against the media and make it all about her. The more she does this, the deeper the grave she digs for her political future.

@missingbite maybe the only mistake I made in previous statements was grouping all of the right in one statement. It would be more appropriate if I referred to them as the new right or tea party conservatives. Those groups along with the “religious” right were first mobilized during the Reagan campaign when the republican party realized that those groups are naturally authoritarian and could be easily lead by strong political figures. Of course international corporations realize their usefulness in persuading some Americans to vote against their own best interests.

The Tea Party was organized with seed money from large oil interests and international corporations. They have done everything from co-opting the Supreme Court, persuading senior citizens that regulating the health insurance industry was a government take over and the death of medicare, and have created this atmosphere of hate and the desire to win control of government by whatever means available.

They hate Obama because is represented change but I suspect that they will go easier on him because he seems to have moved toward the corporatist side.

Please note that almost everything done since Reagen was elected has weakened the middle class, lowered the U.S. standard of living and in now creating a two class system.

I do hate them for what they have done to our country and for the way they have corrupted the thinking of decent people like you.