So, this past weekend Sarah Palin visited Israel. Obviously this couldn’t pass unmentioned in the hallowed halls of the MSM. All of it dripping with digs on Mrs. Palin, Israel, and right-wing American Jews.
For instance, Dan Ephron, of Newsweek, writing for the Daily Beast starts with this classic:
Wearing a large Star of David around her neck, Palin prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, then spent two hours with guides in the Western Wall tunnel, an archeological site whose excavation in 1996 caused Palestinians to riot.
While that last bit has absolutely nothing to do with the story, it is also provably false. The riots, also called the Second Intifada were well planned in advance. There was a great deal of build up and incitement leading up to the “spontaneous outbreak” of violence, as well as promises from heads of Palestinian security that nothing would happen.
Ephron goes on to mention that the trip is also Palin trying to make amends for her use of the phrase “blood libel” after the shooting of Rep. Giffords, when the entire institutional left lied about her and the entire right’s culpability in the actions of a mad man. Except that Palin is on the record standing by her comments.
And then, in the end, it always comes down to money. The real reason Palin went to Israel was to tap into the deep pockets of a few wealthy Jews. Of course, it’s not enough to mention them by name, but as “casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson or the bingo billionaire Irving Moskowitz.” When George Soros gets identified as war profiteer or Pyramid schemer Norman Hsu I’ll have less of an issue with the such mentions.
All of the articles find it necessary to mention Mrs. Palin’s lack of international relations experience, but we recall that this wasn’t an issue for the current resident of the White House, who took an undergraduate class.
In the end, this was a private visit by Mrs. Palin. She has not declared that she is running and so speculations in that direction are, at best, premature, but that never stopped the Hate Palin First crowd.