Sometimes the naiveté of Jimmy Carter is breathtaking, indeed, beyond breathtaking.
First, I was delighted (and somewhat surprised to read) that when the failed former president met with leaders of the Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, he “proposed Hamas unilaterally stop rocket fire on Israel and release [kidnapped Israeli solider Gilad] Shalit in exchange for no more targeted assassinations of its leaders and the release of 400 prisoners.”
Yet, did it ever dawn on this Democrat that the activities he was asking Hamas to stop doing defined the organization? That they would cross sovereign territory and kidnap one soldier, that its forces fire rockets indiscriminately on sovereign Israeli territory? And that they demand the release 400 prisoners, many who have attempted to kill Israeli soldiers and civilians in exchange for just one Israeli soldier.
Can’t he see the distinction between a nation that would release 400 individuals, many of whom when freed, would take up arms against it for just one, just one of its soldiers?
No, such distinctions seem beyond this bitter old man.
Read carefully what he said about Hamas that they “would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, if approved by Palestinians.” Hamas also told Carter they were “willing to accept the Jewish state as a ‘neighbor next door’.”
Yet, despite these promises, before that Democrat had even left the Middle East, Hamas continued its past practics, carrying out “twin suicide bombings on the Gaza border” and firing “seven rockets were fired on Israel.”
Note the clause I bolded and italicized. Given how the Palestinian government (and its subservient media) educates its people, that’s a pretty big condition. The media regularly attacks Israel, denies its right to exist while its schools (and children’s programs) indoctrinate its children to hate Jews and tells them of the future when they will return to all lands which they claim Israel seized, rewriting, in the process, not only the history of the past hundred years, but also of the past three thousand years.
Doesn’t Jimmy see it as a problem that Hamas “would never outright recognize the Jewish State.” Can a nation live in peace next to another whose existence it does not recognize?
Did Jimmy Carter ask the top Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal if he would stop teaching Palestinian children to hate Jews, stop teaching them that all of what is now Israel will one day be theirs? Did he ask him to stop running television programs to the same effect?
Jimmy Carter is breathtakingly naive because he doesn’t recognize that as long as the Palestinian schools teach hatred and the Palestinian media calls for the destruction of Israel, the Palestinian people will never approve a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. Meshal’s words were just empty rhetoric designed to appease an unhappy and naive old man.
This isn’t the first time Jimmy’s been duped. The rockets started flying within days of his pleas.
And he didn’t even get to the real issue, the enmity which Hamas (and other Palestinian groups) stirs up every day. If Jimmy Carter is really concerned with peace, why didn’t he demand that Hamas stop preaching hatred?
UPDATE:Â Addressing the same subject, Ann Althouse is more succinct:Â “What a tool.”
I’m betting Senator Obama will want to think a lot about the timing of Carter’s expected endorsement of the junior Illinois senator.
Surely Carter has the sense not to announce it too close to the time he returns to the United States. On second thought, let’s forget that. The former president has no sense of right and wrong.
Well sure they’ll accept Israel as a “neighbor next door” as long as they’re next door at the bottom of The Med.
BTW, the 67 borders would give Gaza and the West Bank to Israel, right? I think the Golan Heights as well, wouldn’t it?
There are critical things missing from your article.
First amoung them is the concept of hudna.
Here is a good description:
Arabic word often translated as “cease-fire.- Historically used as a tactic aimed at allowing the party declaring the hudna to regroup while tricking an enemy into lowering its guard. When the hudna expires, the party that declared it is stronger and the enemy weaker. The term comes from the story of the Muslim conquest of Mecca. Instead of a rapid victory, Muhammad made a ten-year treaty with the Kuraysh tribe. In 628 AD, after only two years of the ten-year treaty, Muhammad and his forces concluded that the Kuraysh were too weak to resist. The Muslims broke the treaty and took over all of Mecca without opposition.
According to Sharia law, a hudna cannot exceed ten years, and you’ll notice in the news that HAMAS’s “truce” is precisely that long.
The part that frustates me.. is that I know this and aparently the idiots in charge of Israel do not know it. The idiots at the State Deptartment do not know it. Nor the Media, nor the Defense Department , nor the White House. (Especially not Congress)
It’s like everyone in charge is completely ignorant.
BTW, the 67 borders would give Gaza and the West Bank to Israel, right? I think the Golan Heights as well, wouldn’t it?
The 67 borders would mean Israel gives up Judea/Samaria and the Gaza strip.
The Golan Heights were taken from Syria and so unless they were part of an agreement (which they wont be) Israel will be keeping it.
I don’t think he’s been duped, I think he has reached a point of actually believing this stuff. It troubles me that a former President of the United States has become a complete antisemite.
He’s gone beyond the finesse of cloaking his beliefs, it now all out hatred of Israel and the Jews. And his hatred of America doesn’t seem much less either. Sad times indeed.
He’s been a Jew hater for a long time. Even while he was President
You are a naive idiot yourself, if I do say so myself. Obviously you haven’t examined the other side of the arguments. 1. There should have been equal outrage at the “creation” of Israel as there is about the “elimination” of Israel. The creation of Israel brought about massive human rights violations, forced evictions, loss of life, and displacement of the hundreds of thousands of people. When the Serbs attempted to push the Albanians from Kosovo, we bombed the Serbs! Creating Israel and giving them them the freedom and weapons to wage war against the Arabs only gave rise to modern day radical Islam – because terrorism becomes the poor man’s weapon for war. 2. Obviously, NOT meeting with so-called terrorists has not brought about peace in the past 50 years. So I think it worth a shot to include all parties. 3 When you talk about Palestinians teaching hatred, you should consider that Orthodox Jews believe that they are the “Son’s of God” – gentiles are subservient. 4. As a conservative and patriot and backer of democracy, you surely must find that Israel is NOT a democracy, it is a religious state with religious laws woven into the fabric not unlike Muslim States. Non-Jews are not equal and even are forbidden to buy property. I thought America supported democracy in the world. Hmmmmmmm.
wow, John, wanna add some facts to your vitriol?
1. There should have been equal outrage at the “creation†of Israel as there is about the “elimination†of Israel.
Israel was “created” 3,000 years ago or more.
Israel has every right to exist as Pakistan does. Do you object to the creation of Pakistan? Pak used to be a part of India but it was decided that Muslims needed their own Muslim-only state, so they carved out from India a Muslim state.
Should Pakistan be destroyed?
The Jews have every legitimate right to be in their land.
The Arabs have lost war after war, and if it weren’t for the United Nations to jump in and save the Arabs from real defeat, this conflict would have been over a long time ago.
The creation of Israel brought about massive human rights violations, forced evictions, loss of life, and displacement of the hundreds of thousands of people.
Yes, you’re right. Isn’t it horrible what happened to the Jewish people who lived in the Arab countries this happened in?
When the Serbs attempted to push the Albanians from Kosovo, we bombed the Serbs!
And it was a horrible decision. We bombed the wrong side.
And i’m stopping there.. the rest of your comments are historically distorted.
Tell us, what University did you go to?
One thing that I haven’t heard people mention often enough is that the situation in the middle east is a direct result of electing a peanut farmer to president here in the U.S.
Had Carter dealt with the Iran hostage situation as a leader instead of as a sniveling moron, the terrorists would never have decided we were an easy mark.
As a conservative and patriot and backer of democracy, you surely must find that Israel is NOT a democracy, it is a religious state with religious laws woven into the fabric not unlike Muslim States. Non-Jews are not equal and even are forbidden to buy property.
You might want to explain that to the literal THOUSANDS of Muslim homeowners and business owners in Israel, who not only own property, but have full citizenship and can vote. Or to the twelve Arab members of the current Knesset, including Majalli Wahabi, the Druze politician who is the current Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Speaker.
Ten to one says John’s an Obama supporter.
John, you must really hate Jordan as well. (Hint: 1948, locked out Palestinians, played diplomatic footsie with Israel, pro-West, cracks down hard on radical Islam.)
Glad to see that facts do not interfere with your mission. Have you thought of being a Democrat politician?
The little Andover cheerleader and ‘always wrong’, Condi Rice shrieked for elections. They got their elections and the Palestinians told them to get bent and supported Hamas. Once again, ‘always wrong’ told Carter what to do and he told her to get bent too.
Wonder why it is that gays like you, Condi, etc. end up being Republicans. You’d think you’d be Dems, since they don’t officially despise you; however it is estimated by gay congressional aides that they outnumber Dems by an approximate 5-1 ratio in the halls of congress.
Wolf: I complain about Condi Rice all the time. She’s awfull.
I guess that’s too complex for simpleton idelogues like you to understand.
#14 – “Wonder why it is that gays like you, Condi, etc. end up being Republicans.”
Condi’s gay? Cite your sources.
Regards,
Peter H.
#16 – “Wonder why it is that gays like you, Condi, etc. end up being Republicans.”
Answer: Because we’re too smart and patriotic to be Dhimmicrats.
Checkmate.
Regards,
Peter H.
John, I just googled ‘buying property in Israel’.
Guess what? As a non-Israeli and non-Jew, I’m apparently totally entitled to buy property in Israel as long as I have the cash.
You might try this ‘google’ thing yourself one day, before deciding to angrily bash your keyboard in order to tell the world how discriminatory and prejudiced Israel is. Just sayin’.
bushco and rice refuse to talk directly with the DEMOCRATICALLY elected Hamas. Yea, they push democracy, but then refuse to deal with the elected winners? It’s just another prime example of the ineffective and impotent bush administration.
long live Jimmy Carter – a real American
#19 – And Israel isn’t a democracy?
And please – bushco is so 2005. Get with the program. He’s out of office next January. Here’s hoping you find a life sometime between now and then.
Regards,
Peter H.