Published in Washington Jewish Week

Flagrant distortion Flagrant distortion While a continuous assault of rocket attacks from Gaza has occurred all year, targeting more than 100,000 Israeli children in the entire southern part of their country, our local newspaper and the paper on record in the nation's capital, The Washington Post, remained silent until a Palestinian child became a casualty. Then there is a front-page, above-the-fold, sympathy-evoking picture in the Nov. 15 issue taken totally out of context showing the Palestinian casualty rather than all the traumatized, injured and dead Israeli children. There is no mention of the months of rocket attacks on Israel in the caption, and the accompanying article called Israel's response an "offensive" when it really was a defensive maneuver. The death of a child is tragic but tragic as well is the exploitation by the Post for the power that it evokes. For Jewish readers, it brings to mind the painful centuries-old anti-Semitic libel where Jews were labeled child killers. The picture was gratuitous and not representative of the conflict at all. The Post must stop going for the propaganda-driven "money shots" - it flies in the face of journalistic ethics. I implore Washington Jewish Week readers to write the Post to protest this flagrant distortion of the news. It stokes the flames of anti-Semitism affecting all of us. The email address is letters@washpost.com. MICHAEL BERENHAUS Potomac http://washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=31&ArticleID=18383&TM=54861.04