The prominent US Republican politician Sarah Palin has defended her reference to "blood libel" that aroused controversy last week when she used the term to condemn links between her fiery rhetoric and the deadly Arizona shootings. "Blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands. In this case, that's exactly what was going on," Palin told the channel ‘Fox News’ in her first interview since the controversy erupted over her remarks. "Just two days before, an op-ed in the ‘Wall Street Journal’ had that term in its title. And that term has been used for eons," said the Alaska politician, a leader of the Republican Party and a potential presidential candidate for 2012.
Palin's reference last week to "blood libel," the false, centuries-old allegation that Jews were killing children to use their blood in religious rituals, launched a new round of criticism of Palin's rhetoric. She used the term in a video posted on her Facebook page in which she accused her critics of being irresponsible in rushing to blame shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, by 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner on vitriolic campaign speech. Loughner killed six people and wounded 13, including US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, had been a focus of criticism since the shootings for urging her followers to "reload, not retreat" after last year's healthcare debate and publishing an electoral map identifying vulnerable Democratic congressional districts, including Giffords', with crosshairs. Some Jewish groups strongly protested her use of the term "blood libel". Palin responded by saying: “I think the critics again were using anything that they could gather out of that statement. You can spin up anything out of anybody’s statements that are released and use them against the person who is making the statement.”
In the interview on ‘Fox News’, where she is a paid contributor, Palin said the Arizona tragedy should not be allowed to quell vigorous political debate that made America "exceptional". She declared: "I am not ready to make an announcement about what my political future is going to be, but I will tell you ... I am not going to sit down. I am not going to shut up."
However, fellow Republican leader Newt Gingrich called on her "to slow down and be more careful and think through what she's saying and how's she's saying it." A Gallup poll commissioned by the newspaper 'USA Today' after the Tucson controversy found that Palin's rating is at its lowest level since September 2008. She is seen in a favourable light by 38 percent of respondents while 53 percent have an unfavourable view. In another poll nearly one in two voters disapproved of the remarks Palin made after the shootings.
