Pro-Israel Group: Palin Must Apologize for 'Blood Libel' Accusation

[deminks]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/pro-israel-group-palin-must-apologize-for-blood-libel-accusation/69400/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#

A liberal pro-Israel lobbying group is calling on Sarah Palin to apologize after she accused the media of "manufactur a blood libel" against her and conservatives after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami in a statement released Wednesday:


J Street is saddened by Governor Palin's use of the term "blood libel."

The country's attention is rightfully focused on the memorial service for the victims of Saturday's shooting. Our prayers continue to be with those who are still fighting to recover and the families of the victims. The last thing the country needs now is for the rhetoric in the wake of this tragedy to return to where it was before.

We hope that Governor Palin will recognize, when it is brought to her attention, that the term "blood libel" brings back painful echoes of a very dark time in our communal history when Jews were falsely accused of committing heinous deeds. When Governor Palin learns that many Jews are pained by and take offense at the use of the term, we are sure that she will choose to retract her comment, apologize and make a less inflammatory choice of words.

(end snip)

[davidinalameda]

1. K&R

[AspenRose]

2. Unfortunately, not likely

"....we are sure that she will choose to retract her comment, apologize and make a less inflammatory choice of words."

We're still waiting for her to accept her share of responsibility for this whole mess.

[mdmc]

3. she won't apologize to liberals

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Next from her: Liberals created a Holocaust & we have

put her in a virtual concentration camp with our pointing out her words.

[mod mom]

5. Silly J Street, she was speaking in code to her fundie zealot followers,

not them!

[otohara]

6. Another Gaffe, Foot In Mouth Moment

from "The Real Housewife of Wasila"

[Warren DeMontague]

7. She's just bringing attention to the actual victims of the Arizona shooting

Namely, herself, Rush, etc.

:eyes:

[spanone]

8. k&r ...not a gaffe....everyone has google. highly intentional

[aquart]

13. Yes. It was.

Particularly since the RW loony shot a Jewish congresswoman.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Her next move is to be outraged at this.

She can say that J Street is painting her as a "horned, money-grubbing devil", or something like that.

[cynatnite]

10. Either her staff are that incompetent to not check her words carefully or...

it was on purpose. I'm inclined to think this was intentional.

[Whisp]

14. Intentional I think.

Their only defence now is to ratchet things up so they can claim even higher victimage. There will be no apologies. Apologies are for weak Liberals.
They outrage people then get pushback they desire and become the poor lil me's to their low information followers.

[deminks]

11. Think Progress has more info and more statements from Jewish groups

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/12/palin-blood-libel/#

(snip)

Meanwhile, Simon Greer, the president of Jewish Funds for Justice, said he was “deeply disturbed” by Palin’s use of the term, arguing that she “failed to live up to her own standards” in a statement about using responsible rhetoric:

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 not a synonym for “false accusation.” It refers to a specific falsehood perpetuated by Christians about Jews for centuries, a falsehood that motivated a good deal of anti-Jewish violence and discrimination. Unless someone has been accusing Ms. Palin of killing Christian babies and making matzoh from their blood, her use of the term is totally out-of-line. <...>



(snip)

It’s worth noting that conservative Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds first injected the term into the post-shooting debate this week in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled, “The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel.” Meanwhile, right-wing media tycoon Andrew Breitbart warned “the gutless GOP establishment” yesterday that those “who watch[] in silence the blood libel against @SarahPalinUSA. We will remember.” But, because Palin is a far more high-profile figure and fashions herself as a national leader, she should choose her words far more carefully than incendiary pundits.

(end snip)

I might have known Breitbart used the term as well. Why does that not surprise me?

[AspenRose]

15. Yep

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x182704

[sabrina 1]

12. She will not apologize. Someone gave her memo and she read it.

She knows nothing about history and will simply accuse them of being another liberal group who are victimizing her.

[kestrel91316]

16. Queens never apologize. I guess they didn't get the memo.

[madrchsod]

17. sarah and her klans do`t like the jews

[Matariki]

18. Ha. Palin doesn't do apologies.

But this should be interesting...

[justiceischeap]

19. Sarah Palin's Anti-Semitic Preacher

September 2008: http://www.commonmistakesblog.com/2008/09/sarah-palins-anti-semitic-preacher.html

This is Sarah Palin's Reverand Wright moment: she sat in church two weeks ago while her preacher, Larry Kroon, invited a guest - David Brickner, the founder of Jews for Jesus - to spew anti-semitic hatred.

Here's what Brickner said:

Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

Will she disown Brickner? And what about Kroon? Read the entire thing here.