Rabbi: By 'blood libel' claim Palin admits 'words can be deadly'

[sabra]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/01/sarah-palin-blood-libel-jews-giffords-killing/1

<snip>

But Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, has a surprising (well it was to me) spin on Palin's comment. If she thinks she's turning the guns, so to speak, back on her critics for attempting to endanger her (her what? her political future?) by claiming she contributed to a climate of violence, she's gone about it totally backwards. He told me today:

It's not just inappropriate, it's profoundly ironic. By making this comparison and playing Jew in the picture, the person endangered by a blood libel, she admits that the words people use can have deadly impact.

By claiming that others' words are a blood libel that endangers her, she's at least admitting the prospect that claims her words endangered others could be true.

I'm not giving her a free pass. It was a poor and hurtful analogy. But clearly, she's affirming exactly what her critics charge.

[bettyellen]

1. "she admits that the words people use can have deadly impact."

Yep!

[jillan]

2. I was just going to post this - you beat me to it :)

[sabra]

3. :-)

:hug:

[Initech]

4. RIP - Sarah Palin presidential campaign October 12th 2008 - January 12th 2011.

It was fun while it lasted!!!

[RainDog]

5. yes. thank you. k&r.

[jpak]

6. Ouch!

and Touche

[tabatha]

7. Perspicacious commentary.

Hope this is picked up by media.

[pinboy3niner]

8. K&R

[Mrs. Overall]

9. K&R

[JenniferJuniper]

10. Yes, but only words said by lefty meanies about Sarah count

Anything else is a-okay.

Really, Sarah, dear, you should just change your name to Narcissa....

[pacalo]

11. Her own turdblossom taught her that term & she used it backwards.

It's Ms. Giffords, who's Jewish, that Palin is victimizing by using that term. It's appalling for Palin to use that term when Ms. Giffords is Jewish & was the victim of hatred.

[ljm2002]

12. Now that is some table-turning right there!

And the point is very well taken.

Not that I expect Sarah or her followers to follow the reasoning. After all, they specialize in refudiating logical arguments.

[Demoiselle]

13. The Rabbi is right. Excellent point, I, too hope the MSM picks it up.

[CoffinEd]

14. Exactly!

Whether she initially knew what the term meant, she sanctioned its use in her video. Plus, I read in another thread on DU that other rightwing nut jobs used the term yesterday in their columns/op-ed pieces.

Even extending Missy Sarah the benefit of the doubt -- that she was truly ignorant of the term and the pain its caused a lot of people, she (or one of her handlers) had time to look up the meaning of "blood libel" and judge its appropriateness before recording the video. Sadly, we now know the rest of the story (RIP Paul Harvey).

By the way, some people say that the video was only seven minutes long because OBL was waiting to use the cave and it would have to be redecorated to look more menacing. I guess quality caves are hard to come by these days. ;-)

[cilla4progress]

15. Wow - very well pointed out.

Hope this rises to the surface in the MSM.

[AspenRose]

16. Truth.

And funny thing is, she and her duped followers are too stupid to realize it.

[slipslidingaway]

17. knr nt

[malaise]

18. And that is the biggest problem with the defensive posture

of the RWs. They know and they are tying themselves up in knots.

[tavalon]

19. She'll never make that connection

as she has the intellectual capacity of a 10 year old. But it is quite thought provoking to me.

[lunatica]

20. Keith put it this way

Her words don't have consequences, but words about her words do have consequences.