In The Crosshairs Of A Blood Libel

The calculated manipulation and expoiltation of language is the hallmark of saints, sinners, demagogues and despots. That said, Gov. Sarah Palin's unseemly use of the emotionally-tainted term "blood libel" with reference to the heinous murders in Tucson begs for clarification and explication.

At its very core, the infamous blood libel myth originated in twelfth century Europe. It was then that Jews were -with dastardly and willful premeditation- falsely and brazenly accused of kidnapping Christian children to re-enact the martyrdom of Jesus Christ. That egregious calumny was, thereafter, periodically resurrected by those who sought and seek to justify violence against Jews. In fact, the "blood libel" lie has served to undergird Europe's multiple pogroms and massacres as well as the unspeakable events of the Hitlerian Holocaust. (Not incidentally, I recently overheard a young German mother visiting Jerusalem's Yad V'Shem Memorial delicately describe the Holocaust to her son as "unglaublich"---unbelievable!)

Now, for reasons apparently beclouded and befogged by political expediency and/or by a ponderous psycho-social insensitivity, Saint Sarah Palin has seemingly opted to compare herself to one of those wrongfully libeled and woefully-labeled Jewish martyrs.

But let it be abundantly clear, nothing herein suggests or may be used to imply that the good ex-Alaska Governor is anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish or anti-Israel. Quite the contrary seems to be true. In actual fact, Sarah Palin has publicly been a staunch supporter of Israel. Indeed, even Gov. Palin's harshest critics would -in all probability- shrink from suggesting that anti-Semitism lurks behind the Governor's fertile faux pas evident in her plagued choice of a fatally poisoned phrase.


In truth, Gov. Palin may be legitimately aggrieved by those critics who -with unseemly, but predictable righteous indignation- rushed to associate the Tucson tragedy with the Govenor's pugilistic politics. But by willfully using a term that assuredly does not - in any reasonable, coherent or cogent fashion - apply to the circumstances in Tucson, Sarah Palin has now invited scalpel-like scrutiny of why she said what she said. Regrettably, "blood libel" was not simply a poor choice of words, it was an impoverished piece of political punditry unworthy of and wholly unacceptable from a national luminary with presidential aspirations.

At the very best, in the words of Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker, "Sarah Palin, a woman of unquestionable charm and personal appeal, is unfortunately deeply ignorant -- certainly not stupid, but shallow and unreflective." At worst, the Governor's choice of the bloodl libel phraseology suggests not only an abysmal absence of historical perspective, but it also confirms her egregious inability to distance herself from controversy without exacerbating the self-same circumstance from which she seeks to extricate herself. And these are sobering realities that sadly afflict Governor Palin and infect her political persona.

It was sufficiently unfortunate and -giving the Governor the benefit of every conceivable doubt- unwitting that the brain-injured Arizona Congresswoman was previously conspicuously and contumaciously painted in the "crosshairs" of Governor Palin's political hit list. But since Gov. Palin woefully -and with conscious premeditation- willfully appended "blood libel" to her wanton and knowing utilization of "crosshairs," one must be substantially disabused by the grievous ineptitude pregnant in Sarah Palin's psycho-social skills and by the unseemly and flagrant incompetence (or is it a calculated counterintuitive arrogance?) demonstrated by her distressing verbal indelicacies.

Now then, all the foregoing presupposes the absence of some other unspoken and/or
darker agenda hidden beneath, secreted between and/or camoflauged beside Governor Palin's less-than-felicitous choice of words. Perhaps she meant and always means precisely what she chose and chooses to say. And that, my friends, opens pandora's box to quite another set of inauspicious considerations. Caveat loquitor!