Blood libel: Palin agrees with her detractors that words can inspire violence
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Sarah Palin describes those who have blamed her for Jared Lee Loughner's Tucson shooting spree as guilty of spreading a blood libel. Ms. Palin said that "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn."
Palin is certainly right that comments and analysis which serve "only to incite" are inappropriate. She is not correct about the power of the words we use and how they impact others.
As Jesus teaches (Matthew 15:11), what comes out of a person's mouth renders them impure i.e. there is impact both upon them and upon those around them, as there is in all cases of impurity. While I don't usually prove things with reference to the New Testament, in this case it seems entirely appropriate to do so.
And although it's pretty strange, her choice of analogies may have more merit than one might think. Of course, for that to be the case, one must also appreciate that in this case at least, Ms. Palin seems to think that she is Jewish!
First, let's be clear about what a blood libel is. In the briefest terms, it is the charge that Jews use the blood of non-Jews, typically that of children, for ritual purposes, especially the making of Passover matzah.
The charge, which originated among medieval Catholics, has also been used by Protestants and more recently by Muslims too, to provoke rage at Jews - rage which on many occasions resulted in violence against Jews, and even their murders. That's what makes Palin's use of the term so interesting - for the analogy to work, she must be the Jew!
I have no particular problem with people, including gentiles, analogizing their own woes to that of Jews, but does Ms. Palin actually believe that her life is in danger because of the journalists and political talking heads who accuse her of complicity in the tragedy in Tucson?
If she does, then not only does she seem eager to play the Jew, she seems to agree with her detractors about the power of words to inspire violence. It's amazing how the two sides, each so eager to cast blame upon the other, are so very much alike. Because her analogy, however unintentionally, drives home that point, I think it may be quite apt.
Ms. Palin's choice of analogies is also a good one because it points to a situation in which people need to cast blame upon others to deflect from their own sins. In the case of the blood libel, it was used not only to create anti-Jewish sentiment, but to justify it.
Jews, it was charged, deserved to be tortured and killed because of their evil deeds. So Jew-haters created a reason for the hate, one which not only inspired increased hate but justified, in their own minds, the hate they already had for Jews.
That is exactly how the charges and counter-charges by Sarah Palin and her detractors are being used. So, while I share the view that the words and images we use do contribute to the culture in which we all live, there is a lesson for all of us in Ms. Palin's words: stop libeling each other!
As people are burying their dead, and visiting loved ones in the hospital, that seems to be something on which we should all agree, at least for right now.
By
Brad Hirschfield
|
January 12, 2011; 11:10 AM ET
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Posted by: areyousaying | January 17, 2011 9:26 AM
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correction,
"... Out of the (Delusional) Forests of Their Minds ..."
Posted by: letitbe | January 16, 2011 3:48 PM
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ooopppsaa; ONE-1 more Note: As a JUette
IF Mrs. Gabi Gifford Stayed Home On SHABIZ (Sabbath; Sat-8th.2011), THEN this incident would've NOt happened (Destinlee Speaking); or the 'Stalker' (would be) would've done an alternate thing, ELSE Nothing. So,
In The Modern-World; the Word "LIBEL" has something to do with Human "TORT"s//Wrong"s against Hu{mate Rights/Violations via Malice in The "Court Of Law" or 'proper Jurisdiction' thereof forthwith!
Posted by: letitbe | January 16, 2011 3:42 PM
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Mr. HIRSHFiELD et al:
"BLOOD LIBEL" (What Ever That Means PreApocalyptically) is, i guess, a Part of the JEWISH-HISTORY, same as the "SHOA' aka HOLOCAUST" was in recent Semi-Modern History. Yet
All PREApocalyptic Faiths, Are "LIBEL" and (includes) Have, (from Historicist) BLOOD ON Their HANDS! NOt only JU's. Buddhists, Hindu's, Sikhs, Jains, Mormons, Ishlami's, Esaui's, Voodooists, Shamanists lalala...
Note: There Are "7-Seven [MAJOR] HOLOCAUST"S that i [WE] Eklaht-iON(s) know About, Not only The 'Shoah'. But
Then there are Holocausts (Mass Killing) that Ye Yo don't know about which is recorded in All Ye HUMAN(s) & Us "HU{MATE(s)' on S.S. GEOiD, aka 'Blue-Dot' {pbu "Carl SaganMEME"s, (Apocalyptically Defined as "HEURiSTIC-a/o" or Soul) which is the Stuff made-from-HISTORY [PeaceBeUpon All our Ancestors]. So,
Forget the Preapocalyptic Story's singing, "Sin/Curses travels from Father to Sons from Generations to ... lalala." Event though, with a twist & shout, it makes some "Say-chel" (Sence), but not What Ye or "Cuchuum" (Guru) 'MOiSHE' (pip-ick) the-Lawyer et al "FREUEDIANLY" slipp'th'd and wrote, in Their (NOt Our) "iNFIXUS-BOOKS" (Chumash, Bible, Quran, BkMormon, Geeta, Kangyur, Tangyurs etc..
Today, in The "POST PISCES-AGE" Phase; {Going Into The AQUARiUS-Age or What-Ever Post Semi-Modern (NOt HUUMATE) Epochs} That
"RELiGIOUS JEALOUSY PSYCHOSIS" and "Pre-Apocalyptic Sindrome" and via "Double/Triple Standards Psychology/Psychosis" That
[This] Holyi Nebula-Built Momma?/Poppa? S.pace S.hip Is Going A-P-O-C-A-L-Y-P-T-i-C, out of the-Forest-Of-Their-MINDs, but w/out the Terrible "REVELATION"S (of JOHN whom Perished in Prison; et al), but rather going via the right-way as the Apocalyptarian's REVEALATION or Prophecy, as Promised US, but Mis Translated and Never-SEEN by any Human; Only Now Seen by US APOCALYPTARIAN(s) AMERICAN's, aka "AUTOMATIC BORN CITiZENZ/DENiZENZ OF SPACE-SHIP EARTH (of manymanymany). WHEREFORE:
VOTE: "APOCALYPTiC GOVERNMENT" (Never PreApocalyptic again) AND "GRiDARIAN DEMOCRACY!" SO, Sing
"Good bye All, Every & Any ABRAHAMIC(systems) + VEDiC(systems) et al!"
Haila-Ye-Yo-Ya! Sing, 'IN "IT" WE{i} TRUST!"
Happy Every-Day (like A Birth-Day).
___
PS: ALL, EVERY and ANY REligion Systems or Most of Them, are in Fact iMPORTED-Religions here, from 'The-Abroad'! Nothing about Them Is MADE-IN-AMERICA: Except For the inevitable "APOCALYPTIC-FAiTH/Belief/Religion..." aka the HOlyi COsmic FEelers FAith" [HO-CO-FE-FA] Genuine System via the "RELIGION OF EVERYTHING Before, The SCIENCE Of Everything" [Similar].
Note: And the 'Reality' + the 'Truth' (opposite MYTH) is THAT
All Of Them (Even The Native-America Systems) are in Fact ALL (NO Exception) POLY-THEO Faiths/Religions/Beliefs and ZERO(0) 'MONO-THEO' Right? or Wrong?
OYE...!
Posted by: letitbe | January 16, 2011 3:32 PM
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"Doggerel might trigger the unhinged."
If doggerel might trigger the unhinged, then how much more will unalloyed hatred trigger it?
This is one of the most hateful blogs short of the neoNazis and other crazies, and you can help tone to it down my friend.
Posted by: pseudo1 | January 15, 2011 4:13 PM
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A blood libel is used to trigger the slaughter of innocents in the name of protecting children from ritual sacrafice. It also says there is a huge conspiracy to kill white children. This is in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," endorsed Hitler and Henry Ford.
Sarah Palin is the one who used a "blood libel" when she cooked up the "death panel" story and claimed that "they" were going to kill litte Trig. It's understood that "they" are the usual suspects named by Hitler: liberals, eggheads, Marxists, mulattoes (Obama), and of course his Jewish puppetmasters Soros and Alinsky.
Sarah Palin is the one using blood libels, the traditional conspiracy theory used to justify acts of genocide. And sure enough, here's an act of public terror.
Sarah is not directly responsible (Pat Buchannan has famously made similar excuses for Hitler), but maybe she feels that way.
"The guilty flee where none pursueth."
Posted by: BurfordHolly | January 15, 2011 3:22 PM
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Doggerel might trigger the unhinged.
Posted by: edbyronadams | January 15, 2011 1:41 PM
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Storms are brewin' in your eyes
Not your fault that Christina is dead!
Nor that Gabby was shot in the head
Your free speech it just can't be infringed
Though you know it inflames the unhinged
You can claim it was nothing *you* said!
Not *my* gun talk that went to his head!
Dedicated to: Glen, Rush, Kieth, and last but not least Sarah.
"Our words fall on the unhinged and the hinged alike."
-- William Jefferson Clinton, January 2011
Posted by: pseudo1 | January 15, 2011 10:57 AM
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So far, no Palin's pal has been able to justify her use of "reload" and her use of the map with targets for a rifle. While most of us just see it as benign, Palin's pals fail to consider the few disturbed minds in our planet and wrongly denying the possibilty of " cartogracide" ( or is it cartographcide ?)
Posted by: ThishowIseeit | January 15, 2011 7:24 AM
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The Palin hate is so strong that it seems to have infected the good rabbi, who normally is very thoughtful. He acknowledges the libel that was smeared on Sarah Palin, then proceeds to nitpick her word choice, claiming Jews have exclusive use of the term "blood libel". I've never heard of the term before and I assure you that most Americans had not previously and the choice, in which political opponents have used the blood of the Tucson victims to smear Palin seems appropriate to the naive.
I urge those whose initial reaction to anything she says to search for means of further attack to try a bit of introspection. For myself, I do not support Mrs. Palin politically. I would not cross the street to see her. I do feel sympathy as a human being for someone who is so relentlessly demonized. It certainly does not do Rabbi Hirschfield any honor to join the slavering pack.
Posted by: edbyronadams | January 14, 2011 10:14 AM
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She should of listen to Gabby speak on the subject on national news from the U.S. capital. Was she reloading?
Posted by: usapdx | January 14, 2011 6:38 AM
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Isn't it about time we put palin, beck, emerson, pipes and king where they belong - right there with McCarthy: as a sore on our collective conscience?
Posted by: Kingofkings1 | January 14, 2011 3:19 AM
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The actual terminology of "blood libel":
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Blood_libel
"...allegations that a particular group kills people as a form of human sacrifice, and uses their blood in various rituals. The alleged victims are often children.
"Many different groups have been accused, including Canaanites, Jews, Christians, Cathars, Knights Templar, Witches, Christian heretics, Roman Catholics, Roma, Wiccans, Druids, neopagans, Satanic cultists, and evangelical Protestant missionaries."
In other words, more than one group has been falsely accused. Thus the reason why progressive liberals and the major mass media have now decided to gripe about this term...only shows their hatred for getting caught "red-handed" in slandering another.
Sarah Palin as well as the Tea Party, Republicans, and Conservatives in general were falsely accused of having a hand in helping the shooter in some way in Tuscan. It didn't matter there was no facts or evidence to support this before the reports were made. They were already being unjustly targeted and blamed by the ones who were much more concerned to use a tragedy to their own advantage.
Jews haven't been the only group in all humanity to have been persecuted by another group for whatever reason. All groups at some time, at some place, have been by another. They have no personal ownership to to the hardships one group of humans place on a second group simply because of differences.
Palin was using a metaphor to describe the unwarranted and uncalled for hatred that has been spewed towards her. Considering all that she has weathered and continues to weather at the hands at liberal progressives and a mass media for being a Christian, Pro-Life, giving birth to a special needs child, Conservative, Republican...(ie. not a Progressive Liberal Feminist) I personally wonder how she muddles through.
Posted by: jennas27 | January 13, 2011 5:54 PM
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OMG, our Telepromter-in-Chief wanna be. It's so abhorrent to the right that our current duly elected president uses a teleprompter that I expected immediate refudiation from Beck, Limbaugh, et al.
Posted by: arancia12 | January 12, 2011 7:52 PM
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«First, let's be clear about what a blood libel is. In the briefest terms, it is the charge that Jews use the blood of non-Jews, typically that of children, for ritual purposes, especially the making of Passover matzah.
The charge, which originated among medieval Catholics, has also been used by Protestants and more recently by Muslims too, to provoke rage at Jews»
O Rabbi, the charge that Jews use the blood of non-Jews, children, to make Passover matzah, this is not a charge that «Muslims too» use, it is not so, even the ridiculous Professorette on the Arabian Peninsula, she did not claim that Jews use Gentile children's blood to make their Passover matzah. She claimed that Jews use Gentile children's blood to make three-cornered pastries for their Feast of Esther, on which they celebrate their massacre of 75,000 Iranian Persian Aryans in the days of Haman, see your Bible.
Biggest blood libel, it is the «Bible Libel», it comes from Christian Bible, Gov. Palin was governor of Alaska, Gov. Pilate was governor of occupied Palestine, Gov. Pilate is talking to a mob of Zionists, here is what Christian Bible «book of Matthew» says:
«Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
«And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.
«When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
«Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.»
Blood libel, this is a libel, libel means «lie», the whole thing is a lie, none of it ever happened, we know it is a lie because Holy Quran says in Surah 4:157-158, That they said (in boast), «We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah», but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.
«Collective guilt», based on this blood libel from Christian «book of Matthew», Christians have used this «collective guilt», they said «all Jews are guilty, they killed our god!», they said this in Europe, Crusades (which killed more Muslims than Jews!), Inquisitions, Pogroms, all based on «collective guilt». Americans, pioneers, colonists, settlers, good people, they set up a Free Country where there is no «collective guilt», where «each individual is responsible for his actions», as our President Reagan said.
Conservatives, those (Krugman??) who want to smear conservatives with the blood libel of «collective guilt», they should remember what «collective guilt» was used for in Europe, and whom it was used against (Krugman's people!!).
Posted by: abu_ibrahim | January 12, 2011 4:16 PM
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MIGLEFITZ: The "New World Enclyclopedia" is funded by Rev. Moon.
Posted by: mykindoftown | January 12, 2011 4:08 PM
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I ID'D THE WRONG COMMENTER. SORRY WMARKW. I MEANT MIGLEFITZ, NOT WMARKW. HERE'S THE CORRECTED RE-POST:
MIGLEFITZ (commenting at 1/12, 12:39PM) apparently really (at the least) resents Jews. And, from his post criticizing and challenging both authors' logical inference (that Palin meant that she was the object of the blood libel), it's obvious that he doesn't understand English very well. No small wonder he identifies with Palin. Two peas in a pod.
Posted by: edgewalker | January 12, 2011 3:32 PM
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How incredible the political leader of fundamentalist Christians, who still put signs outside their churches that "The Jews Killed Christ," would use the term "Blood Libel" when their ancestors invented it.
Posted by: areyousaying | January 12, 2011 3:27 PM
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WMARKW (commenting at 1/12, 2:38PM) apparently really (at the least) resents Jews. And, from his post criticizing and challenging both authors' logical inference (that Palin meant that she was the object of the blood libel), it's obvious that he doesn't understand English very well. No small wonder he identifies with Palin. Two peas in a pod.
Posted by: edgewalker | January 12, 2011 3:27 PM
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What about making maps?
Is there such a crime as "cartogracide"?
Posted by: WmarkW | January 12, 2011 2:38 PM
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It is a deliberate and malicious falsehood to say, as both Hirschfield and Tenety eagerly do, that Palin's video uses the term "blood libel" to describe "those who imply she bears some responsibility for the shooting".
Here is what Palin actually said: "“Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. 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 that they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.” Does anyone see any mention here of herself as a target for the blood libel? You won't find it. Hirschfield and Tenety are making mischief in very familiar ways and may find more mischief than they bargained for.
I applaud Palin's use of the loaded term, because it will generate interest in the term's true history and in the characteristic efforts by many Jews to lay exclusive claim to it as a part of their endless special pleading and victimology.[• the possession of an outlook, arising from real or imagined victimization, that seems to glorify and indulge the state of being a victim. Oxford American Dictionary] Holocaust and no end.
Here is a part of an historical account of the blood libel: "Propaganda arguing that the Christians literally drank blood based on their belief in transubstantiation was written and used to persecute Christians. Romans were highly suspicious of Christian adoptions of abandoned Roman babies and this was suggested as a possible source of the blood." http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Blood_libel
This is not a history that many Jews want to share with other people who have been the victims of vicious knowing lies. It's time they were called to account for it, in my opinion, and I applaud Palin for her courage in the face of the certain baseless charges of "anti semitism" that are already being called down upon her head. But at long last "anti semitism" is a charge that is rapidly losing the special anathema so carefully constructed for it by professional Jewish apologists since the end of World War II. For not much longer will it provide skirts to hide behind.
Posted by: miglefitz | January 12, 2011 12:39 PM
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Why don't you have a problem with people comparing their woes to that of the Jews? Unless they're being wiped our en masse it almost always seems inappropriate.
Meanwhile, I have an "early draft" of Palin's statement, you might find amusing.
http://klogtheblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/because-it-rhymes-with-bible/
Posted by: Klog | January 12, 2011 12:30 PM
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Anti-Semitics are still live and well in the Catholic Chruch. This from a prolific Catholic poster who also says Obama is a Muslim:
However, God does exists, and Aristotle proved it from reason alone. Your problem is you incapable of knowing it, even though God became man, stayed on earth for 33 years, raised the dead, fed thousands with a few loaves and a few fish, made the lame walk, the blind see, cured the sick, the dying, and the lepers.
Further, the Jews murdered Him and He rose from the dead.
Posted by: TTWSYFAMDGGAHJMJ1 | January 17, 2011 12:12 AM