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The Schmooze

Roseanne Retweets Claim: Valerie Jarrett ‘Wants Jews Chased Into The Sea’

Just five minutes after claiming on Twitter “I’m making restitution for the pain I have caused,” Roseanne Barr endorsed a statement from another user that alleged that former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett has genocidal aspirations towards Israelis and Jews everywhere.

That Barr retweeted this inflammatory accusation is ironic, since the “pain” she caused was an outrageous racist and Islamaphobic tweet about Jarrett, which resulted in the cancelation by ABC of the “Roseanne” TV reboot. Barr showed little contrition, claiming that her hateful comments about Jarrett’s appearance were a result of taking the insomnia medication Ambien (the company that makes Ambien has refuted this).

Unlike that earlier tweet, Barr’s retweet goes after Jarrett for being anti-Jewish and Israeli, even genocidal. But like the original tweet about Jarrett’s looks, it contains dogwhistles of anti-Arab sentiment — the idea of “throwing Jews into the sea” references threats against Jews by Arab leaders in Israeli history.

Jenny Singer is the deputy Lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

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