When The Term “Blood Libel” Just Isn’t Enough
What the hell is wrong with these people? After alienating African Americans and Hispanics they’ve decided to alienate Jews?
Josh Marshall says it best…
I thought Sarah Palin’s “blood libel” comment was crude and stupid. And I understand that many found it offensive, though I can’t say I was really offended in any personal way. The truth is very few things actually offend me. But this actually did. The Washington Times says that the reaction to Palin is part of an “ongoing pogrom” against conservatives in America.
That strikes me as offensive and even disgusting.
I really don’t know what’s with this people.
Neither do I, Josh. Neither do I.
The purging and the rhetoric continue. Pretty soon the GOP will consist of only one, Christian, white male.
Tags: Bigotry, Conservative
Wow. I wasn’t bothered all that much by the “blood libel” comment, because it’s obvious to me that Sarah Palin doesn’t know what that term means and was just using whatever words popped into her head. But NO ONE uses the word Pogrom without knowing its meaning. I actually defined it for one of the attorneys I work with the other day. As the Great-Great Granddaughter of a woman murdered in a Pogrom, I take serious offense to that. My Great-Grandfather came home from school as a child to discover his house burned down and his mother dead inside the wreckage. That’s a Pogrom. No one is burning down the homes of conservatives. No one is forcing them out of their homes or running them out of their towns (like they did to the Jewish families of the Indian River school district).
G-d forbid we ever get back to a point where Real Pogroms are occurring.
So the Washington Times response to “maybe we should all tone it down a little” is to double down on the offensiveness.
MrsX,
I think you’re letting Palin off too lightly. Giving her the benefit of the doubt that she didn’t know what blood libel meant, why didn’t she just apologize once she found out?
Sarah Palin’s Jewish problem.
Mrs X – don’t give them any ideas.
Holy Snikies, Batman! MJ, you not only link to HuffPost, but to an article written by a kid (Jordan Zakarin) less than a few years out of college who also happens to be a newly hired Entertainment writer for HuffPost.
He goes from loose association of the ‘Blood Libel’ exhibit and counters with this:
“But it starts earlier than that. Palin is a member of a spiritual network maintained by Mary Glazier, a member of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders. A council of 500 “apostles,” with each leader heading up its own network – like the one Palin is in – they seek to use “spiritual warfare” to retake the nation – and world – from the sinners they claim are currently running it.”
“In large part, they’re referring to American Jews.”
Again, Palin’s use of the BL word was wholly ridiculous, especially in the wake of the moment. But to come up with some kind of political calculus that Palin and her ‘Elders’ want to engage in ‘spiritual warfare’ is a whole other thing. Creepy post. Especially the second quote noted above.
Here’s what I want to know… I’m sensing a deliberate theme. Blood Libel? Pogrom? What the hell is going on?
Is there a strategy I’m missing? I’m thinking that Palin, etc. sees some sort advantage in using these terms, but, for the life of me, I don’t see it.
Newshound – nothing in the HuffPost piece surprises me.
Here’s another view.
I read the Malkin post. I also read her post about the tee shirts at the Memorial in Tucson – in which she was wrong, btw.
Here’s the thing. This is a post about the word pogrom being used. I’d like to discuss that. I’m feeling there’s something at play here; something that I’m missing. These (blood libel and pogrom) are hardly commonly used words, and their sudden appearance baffles me.
Any ideas?
I have to agree with Mrs. X. The reason my great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers came over here was to escape the pogroms. I know all about blood libels, as my family was accused of them by Czar Alexander III. You see, my ancestors were advisors to his father on Jewish affairs, being granted land which was rare for Jews in Imperial Russia. After Alexander II’s assassination, they not only were dispossessed, a great-great-great uncle was accused of murdering a child to make matzo with his blood. And pogroms were a weekly occurrence.
So when some shiksa uses the term “blood libel” to defend her indefensible statements and some Moonie-owned newspaper compares the criticism of her to a pogrom, they both deserve to be called out as being disgusting human beings.
Oops: http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/257057/team-sarah-points-even-more-recent-uses-blood-libel
More oops: http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/256955/term-blood-libel-more-common-you-might-think