could I get an opinion?

[Donna Halper]

I've been debating this with several journalist friends of 
mine.  Please note-- this is NOT a politics question.  Whether you 
love or hate Barack Obama isn't the issue, in other words.  This is 
an ethics question.

As many of you know, several days ago, Barack Obama was in Israel, 
where he went to the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites, 
and said a prayer.  He also wrote his prayer, as is the custom, and 
inserted it into a crevice in the wall.  As he left, an 
ultra-Orthodox rabbinical student removed the prayer and brought it 
to a newspaper, which promptly published it.  That is my question. 
Would you have published Obama's private prayer, left at one of 
Israel's holiest sites?

As a Jew, I must say that I am embarrassed by the rabbinical student 
-- I believe he violated Obama's privacy, and what Obama said in 
prayer should have remained  between him and his God, rather than 
being treated as some souvenir.  So... would your radio station or 
newspaper have divulged the contents of the prayer the way the 
Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv did?  I don't think it should have been 
published, and I would say the same thing if it were John McCain's prayer.

Here is the story from MSNBC.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25854654/