In one of the more shameless displays of media exploitation I’ve seen in a while, Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv last Friday published the prayer note that Barack Obama left at the Western Wall (also known as the Kotel or the Wailing Wall) on his recent trip to Jerusalem. Reportedly, the prayer note was stolen by a yeshiva student who was at the Wall at the same time as Obama. The Kotel rabbi, Schmuel Rabinovitz, condemned the theft and the publication of the note.
It’s only a matter of time, I suppose, before neocon pundits seize upon the contents of Obama’s prayer (in which he wisely– and preemptively– asked his God for “guard against pride and despair”), but let’s hope and pray that we have not yet devolved into that kind of dystopia.
Hope and pray that… but don’t write it down!