By Rabbi Ben Kamin
SAN DIEGO– On this very day of national mourning for the atrocity of Tucson, it is regrettable that we find ourselves having to again be distracted by the indulgent and self-serving—and now appalling—proclamations of Sarah Palin. Again blabbing from her cyber-haven of Facebook and not from anyplace in the real world, Palin now cynically ducks any gracious response to the obvious link between her kind of rhetoric and the mass murder of innocents—as well as the critical wounding of US Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
Palin, who is increasingly difficult to forgive for her utter lack of sensitivity and any genuine acts of healing, is also alarmingly ignorant. Her use of the term “blood libel” is a historically painful and dangerous device, for the love of God. “Blood libel” has generally been used to imply the deceitful indictment that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals, especially in the baking of matzos for Passover. This actual libel was circulated for centuries to incite anti-Semitism and justify violent pogroms against Jews. It even was heard a couple of years ago during an ugly incident in Kentucky.
The fact that Congresswoman Giffords, now fighting for her life, is Jewish, only exacerbates the impossible abuse of common sense that celebrity Palin brings to the American national discourse.
Just as the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 was inspired by the dangerous rhetoric of the Israeli right wing (who created verbal cross hairs by proactively condoning murderous acts against people “who give away Jewish land”), Palin and her acolytes absolutely bear some indirect accountability for the mindset that created the Tucson tragedy. If she had any dignity or gravitas whatsoever, she would take responsibility for at least having fanned the flames of extremism by virtue of her systemic use of “targets” and cross-hair graphics—not to mention her personal infatuation with guns, rifles, and the slaughter of animals.
Or better than taking any responsibility, perhaps Ms. Palin would seriously consider just shutting up.
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Rabbi Kamin is a freelance writer based in San Diego