I would hesitate to jump to conclusions about Sarah Palin’s pastor and what it says about her. For one, we don’t really have any way of knowing what views of his she echoes. For two, I don’t know enough about the evangelical community to know if there is any contextualization of what happened in her church that dissipates the more inflammatory statements (such as the implications that Jewish deaths in Israel represent God’s judgment against us).
But since she is a newcomer on the political scene, with very little experience with the national Jewish community (or Jews in general — something that sharply distinguishes her from Senator Obama), I don’t find it surprising that she might make us a bit nervous, and don’t think it’s unreasonable to request her to engage in some heartfelt gestures to us that extends beyond the “pro-Israel” hyper-belligerence that too often passes for “outreach” from the evangelical community.