WAS THE GIFFORDS ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AN ANTI-SEMITIC HATE CRIME?

NYTIMES:

They spilled into the aisles and the corridor, past the extra rows of folding chairs and the congregants packed into the synagogues’ corners.

Ms. Giffords was the first Jewish congresswoman from Arizona, a point of pride for many at the congregation.

“Why why why why?” Naomi Present, the daughter of the temple’s rabbi, cried out from the back of the grieving temple.

More than 100 people crowded into a special healing service Sunday morning for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at Congregation Chaverim, where she was married two years ago, for a tearful ceremony where Ms. Giffords’ rabbi, friends, and admirers gathered to pray for a swift recovery, and to honor a woman many described as an inspiration.

If the shooting in Tucson on Saturday of 20 people, including Ms. Giffords, shook the entire nation, it hit this city’s Jewish community especially hard, most of all those who belonged to Ms. Gifford’s small reform temple , hidden among tall cactuses on a quiet suburban street.

Ms. Giffords was the first Jewish congresswoman from Arizona, a point of pride for many at Congregation Chaverim.

I THINK THIS DERANGED GUNMAN FOCUSED HIS INSANE RAGE AT GIFFORDS IN PART BECAUSE SHE IS JEWISH.

THAT MAKES THIS A HATE CRIME.

AND LIKE MOST RELIGIOUSLY BASED HATE CRIMES IN THE USA, ITS TARGET IS A JEW - NOT A MUSLIM.

IT'S NOT THAT GREAT LEAP TO MAKE TO ARGUE THAT SOMEONE WHO LOVED MARX & ENGELS AND HITLER - 3 VIRULENT ANTISEMITES - WAS HIMSELF AN ANTISEMITE.

STAY TUNED...