Palin's sudden reappearance has led to suggestions that she was seeking to upstage the president by releasing the video hours before Barack Obama was to address a memorial service in Tucson and meet families of the dead and wounded. She had been directly accused by Giffords of "firing people up" with a campaign poster that put the Democratic party congresswoman and others in the crosshairs of a rifle. Palin kept an unusually low profile after the Tucson shootings. She is a national figure with a huge following and so she should use her words carefully," she wrote in a Politico blog. Whether she was aware of its historical context is irrelevant. She added: "The term 'blood libel,' however, is a term so loaded with bigotry and historic persecution that it should be consigned to the ash heap of history where the darkest days of antisemitism dwell. Julie Roginsky, a Democratic party strategist, said that she does not blame Palin "for the actions of one deranged gunman". while the term has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history," it said. "We wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase 'blood-libel' in reference to the actions of journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shooting in Tucson on others.
The Anti-Defamation League, a group in New York that campaigns against antisemitism, said that while it "was inappropriate at the outset to blame Sarah Palin and others for causing this tragedy", it objected to her language.
"We hope that governor Palin will recognise, 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," the group said. Others questioned whether she spoke through ignorance of the meaning of the term, just as when President George Bush apparently failed to appreciate the impact in the Muslim world of calling the US invasion of Iraq a "crusade".Ī pro-Israel lobby group, J Street, called on Palin to apologise for the reference because her use of it "pains and offends" many Jews. Some critics accused Palin of insensitivity. Giffords, who remains in critical condition after being shot in the head, is the first Jewish congresswoman from Arizona. Her use of the phrase "blood libel" was immediately questioned because, historically, it refers to the false accusation that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals. But when was it less heated? Back in those calm days when political figures literally settled their difference with duelling pistols?" And they claim political debate has somehow got more heated just recently.
"There are those who claim that political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. "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 they purport to condemn. Palin showed that she has no intention of toning down the confrontational language in a video released three days after the shootings by Jared Lee Loughner that killed six people and wounded 14 others, including the target for assassination, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
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