5 ‘Blood Libels’ Billionaire Charles Koch Should Already Know
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Ed Koch (“Kotch”), the former mayor of New York, was Jewish. The billionaire Koch (pronounced “coke”) brothers are not.
So when Charles Koch told a crowd of about 400 donors in Colorado that a media rumor he might support Hillary Clinton was a “blood libel” it was an odd moment, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While he wanted to make his strong intentions clear, it was a particularly surprising for the politically active right-wing billionare to use a term that refers to the discredited anti-Semitic slur that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make matzo, the ritually unleavened bread observant Jews eat during Passover.
In a campaign already fraught with multiple allegations of racism about the Republican nominee and his supporters, this seems like a faux pas without intent or benefit. But, though Koch is clear on his lack of support for Donald Trump, it’s an embarrassment for a major Republican donor to go beyond Sarah Palin in ignorant misuse of the term.
Five ‘Blood Libels’ Charles Koch Should Already Know
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Sarah Palin said that when people accused her of complicity in Gaby Gifford’s shooting, they were committing a blood libel.
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Mendel Beilis was arrested in Kiev and accused by the czarist secret police of making matzo with blood. Despite massive political pressure, he was tried and acquitted by an all-Christian court in 1913.
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Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of spreading a blood libel in a June address to the European Parliament.
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Massena, N.Y., is the location of the only blood libel accusation against American Jews.
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William of Norwich was killed in 1144 and the Jews of England were blamed.
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