The Blood Libel slip is not the first time Sarah Palin has waded into the waters of anti-Semitism. I don't know if it is intentional or not (I personally believe it is unintentional), but it may, in fact, very well be her signature issue.
I posted a diary some time ago struggling to define something in the conservative world that seems like anti-Semitism to me. My focus of the article was on Glenn Beck but I realized Sarah Palin also was a player in this.
I am a Christian and, on the one hand, this isn't my issue, but as I learn more about anti-Semitism the more I realize that this is a big deal for everyone.
Here is my theory: every time a conservative talks about "elites" controlling things and defines those elites are professors, bureaucrats, Hollywood producers, NYC residents, etc they are triggering anti-Semitism. They are trying to divert attention from the real elites by blaming a middle group (that is the same mechanical structure of anti-Semitism) just name that middle group "Jew" and there you go! in her mind, you could be a Christian but if you are a journalist or lawyer, you are in this corrupt "elite."
Here is a Wikipedia definition of anti-Semitism:
In its extreme form, it "attributes to the Jews an exceptional position among all other civilizations, defames them as an inferior group and denies their being part of the nation[s]" in which they reside.
Here is an example of how it goes for Sarah Palin:
"Most of those who write for the mainstream media and teach at universities and law schools don't share the religious faith of their fellow Americans. They seem to regard people who believe in God and regularly attend their church or synagogue as alien beings, people who are ‘largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command,’ as The Washington Post once famously put it.
I don't know whether Sarah Palin is intentional about this. Some of her best friends may, in fact, be Jewish. In the quote above she even says the folks who attend synagogue's are victim's of this elite.
I think a major place of confusion in our society is that we think individuals choose to be "racist" or "anti-Semetic." I will give Sarah Palin the benefit of the doubt that she does not intend it was such. This also applies to the people who love Palin and agree with her 100%. Many of them may have lots of great Jewish friends and their favorite TV show could be Seinfeld.
However the fact is that the quote I mentioned above functions like anti-Semitism.
My belief is that we have all received conditioning (even unintentional) about racism, sexism and anti-Semitism. Therefore, when a Willie Horton ad pops up, it triggers racism in us even if we don't know it. For example, on the sci-fi show Buck Rodgers, I realized years later that all the good guys were white and bad guys were colored (purple or green but still not white). As a white guy myself, I realized that I got some racist conditioning there when I watched that show.
What the Blood Libel comment shows is that Sarah Palin was exposed to pretty clear anti-Semitic ideas. She hung around people who used that phrase enough. In fact, she probably thinks it is a normal phrase. She also probably thinks that a ruling elite of middle class city dwellers is really destroying our nation. She probably thinks that idea of blaming this middle group rather than the real elits is normal too, without realizing its dark and dangerous history.
We all need to become more aware of how anti-Semitism divides us and works against progressive movements. We all need to be aware that we all have it in us, just waiting for the right phrase that can trigger a feeling that "they" are victimizing us.
Apologies for the rant but I thought this was important.