The Washington Jewish Week is a pathetic little rag that arrives every Thursday. It makes a half-hearted effort to provide some political balance, but mostly it just provides unintentional humor.
Its resident political commentator, "nationally syndicated columnist" Douglas Bloomfield, has never met a tired, shopworn idea go unwritten, and when it comes to Republicans, especially conservatives, everyone's an enemy, including Jewish conservatives. This week's amusing column blames "neocons" for tutoring Palin for her ABC interview, in which, according to Bloomfield, she gave Israel a green light to bomb Iran.
Guest columnist Rabbi Ethan Seidel wants us to feel the Palestinians' pain, because "a precondition to peace -- whether between nations at war or between individuals in conflict -- will be an ability, a willingness to understand the pain of the other." News flash: We already do, but we've given up one-sided compassion. Wake me up when the Palestianians begin showing compassion for their own people, let alone for us.
And Amotz Asa-El, of the Jerusalem Post, writes that Obama and Palin have different world outlooks. (Funny how he picked up the Obama campaign's effort to make it Obama vs. Palin.) He recognizes that Obama leans to appeasement, but he uses Palin's time in Alaska to imply that she's an isolationist. The man needs a crash course in American politics.
And the silliness even infects the choice of letters to the editor. A fellow Rockville resident (second letter) accuses the WJW of being too pro-McCain. I kid you not.
If I want to read positive, sugarcoated articles about Sarah Palin, I will look in The Washington Post. [??? -- ed.] Instead of trying to sway the election with only positive statements about Palin, I would prefer to see balanced, unbiased articles. These articles might have helped McCain gain a few votes, but they just made Washington Jewish Week lose a loyal reader.Plus, a letter about Agriprocessors from a representative of PETA (last letter). Yes, PETA, the organization that compares chicken slaughter to the Holocaust. These people deserve no ink in the Jewish press.
Did I say humor? I take it back.
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