Palin is Still the Israel of American Politics

I watched and listened to Sarah Palin's Facebook video concerning the Tucson shootings.

Now the liberal media is up in arms over Palin's use of the term "blood libel." Or more precisely the liberal media is upset that Palin accused them of manufacturing one.

Yet this is exactly what the Krugmans, the Fondas, the Olbermanns and others have done. They took a horrific situation and cast the blame for it at her door in an effort (in Olbermann's words) to dismiss her from politics and public life. All Palin has done is call them to account and has done so in her usual candid and vivid manner.

But for those who reservations about Palin's use of the term "blood libel" then please consider the following. Shortly after the 2008 presidential election, I wrote an article titled, "Sarah Palin is the Israel of American Politics." By that I meant to say, "If Sarah Palin were a member state of the UN she would be condemned daily by the General Assembly for transgressions both real and imagined." Allow me to elaborate:

Those who hate Israel are prepared to believe any unkind word said about it. If Israel-haters are told that Israelis use the blood of Palestinian children to make Purim pastries they accept it as the gospel truth. Those who hate Sarah Palin are prepared to believe any unkind word said about her. When unamed sources from the McCain campaign were alleged to have said Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, the Palin haters accepted it as an article of faith. Never mind that Palin led an effort to have Alaska divest its holdings in the Darfur region of Sudan. Those who hate Palin are not interested in the truth. They are interested only in seeing grievous harm come to her.

Well, more than two years have passed and as the events over the past several days have demonstrated Sarah Palin is still the Israel of American politics. There is a strong segment of the American electorate prepared to believe any negative word about Palin at face value. And as we have seen that includes everything up to and including being responsible for mass murder.

But then again being the Israel of American politics isn't entirely a bad thing. Given that a majority of Americans support the State of Israel and that a majority of Americans don't think Palin (or for that matter Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh) bear any responsibility for what happened in Tucson there is every reason to believe that Palin will come away from this only stronger.