Anti-Israel Figure to address Democratic Convention
Organizers of the Democratic National Convention announced on Tuesday that former Georgia Governor James Earl Carter, Jr., also known “Jimmy,” with a long anti-Israel record since his forced retirement twenty-eight years ago, will address the gathering next Monday, August 25.
Carter, who served one term as president from 1977-1981 before being defeated in landslide in the 1980 election, carrying only six states, has, since that defeat, blamed Israel for most of the problems in the conflict the Jewish State faces with the Palestinian Arabs. Earlier this year, despite objections by his own nation’s State Department, the disgraced former president met with Khaled Meshal, a leader of the Hamas organization, in Syria.
The State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.
He called Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, ”one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth,” yet did not offer any such hyperbolic language to condemn the Palestinian authority which tacitly condones suicide bombings. Indeed, the governing party of that authority, Fatah, is linked to a terrorist organization, the Al Asqa brigades.
Carter even ignored Israel’s right to defend its borders when it, in 2006, responded to attacks from the terrorist organization, Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border.
If presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama wishes to assure voters of his commitment to the Jewish State, he will remove this anti-Israel speaker from the program of its party’s convention.
UPDATE: Here’s a reason why Carter’s presence should trouble Obama: Obama’s Numbers With Jewish Voters Drop Below McGovern’s.
UP-UPDATE: In a must-read piece on Pajamas, Phyllis Chesler has more on the Democrats’ choice of this anti-Israel politician to speak on the opening night of their convention.
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He is one of the few democrats to be elected president in the past fifty years, they need the one that supported Obama to be there. I think being a former president pretty much ensures convention attendance for life. And if Carter doesn’t come, then you have the only other Democratic president there…and he doesn’t seem to care much for Obama.
Comment by Darkeyedresolve — August 20, 2008 @ 8:13 pm - August 20, 2008
In point of fact: Carter is the one and only Democrat to make it past 49% in a Presidential election since 1964. (Carter got just over 50% I believe. Clinton never reached 50%; not in ‘92 or in ‘96.)
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 20, 2008 @ 8:49 pm - August 20, 2008
The Democrat Party is the gift that keeps on giving. When people look back on Reagan and Bush-41, they mostly have warm and fuzzy feelings. When they look back at Clinton, many people are ambivalent (at best). I don’t know anyone who remembers Carter fondly.
Obama’s people must be thrilled - most of the Messiah’s detractors fear another Carter administration and, lo and behold, Jimmy will appear - lecturing us, no doubt.
The election could be McCain’s to lose.
Comment by Robert — August 20, 2008 @ 9:40 pm - August 20, 2008
And yet Obama is trying to court Jewish voters. How will having Jimmy Carter help with that issue?
(Shaking head)
Dhimmicrats - the gift that keeps on giving. To Republicans.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — August 20, 2008 @ 10:47 pm - August 20, 2008
we saw how reagan cut and ran in lebanon.
Comment by michael — August 20, 2008 @ 11:39 pm - August 20, 2008
Demented.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 21, 2008 @ 12:03 am - August 21, 2008
Some liberal columnist (don’t remember who) wrote recently that high gas prices were proof that Jimmy Carter was right about energy policy and Ronald Reagan wrong. “Look at the gas prices the free market has brought you” is a fairly close paraphrase of what he said. Yes, he did, pick your jaw up off the floor…
I am beginning to suspect that the left, Obama included, really believe this. And I wonder if, please God let it be so, Jimmy Carter isn’t being brought on to speak about the energy crisis?!
Obama really is the second coming… of Carter.
Comment by American Elephant — August 21, 2008 @ 6:43 am - August 21, 2008
Isn’t Barack Obama every bad Democrat candidate rolled into one? He’s got Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy ineptitude. He’s got Michael Dukakis’s lack of patriotism. He’s got John Kerry’s insufferable elitism and sense of privilege. He’s got Walter Mondale’s passion for massive redistributionist tax increases. He’s got Eugene McCarthy’s passion for American defeat. And maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Mad Men, but doesn’t he have Adlai Stevenson’s prissy pseudo-intellectualism, too?
He is skinnier and less wooden than Al Gore, so at least he has that going for him.
Comment by V the K — August 21, 2008 @ 7:27 am - August 21, 2008
Jimmuh Cahtah will speak! He will pick up where he left off in 2004 at the Dem convention. He will call Bush a liar, an extremist, a manipulator, a man who squandered America’s standing in the world and a danger to the peace process. He will also blame Bush for causing radical Islam.
Then he will lard Obama with messianic jelly and cream cheese.
When it is over, he will sit alone watching the floor show.
His place in the convention and history will be marked by the tepid applause and the loud murmuring that will drift through the audio while he is speaking.
Cancel the Olympics, create a misery index, fumble the loss of an embassy, lecture the world, let inflation eat you alive. Those are the actions of a real president.
Comment by heliotrope — August 21, 2008 @ 9:53 am - August 21, 2008
testing
Comment by heliotrope — August 21, 2008 @ 10:21 am - August 21, 2008
Speaking of the Democratic Convention, I love this beautifully Orwellian explanation (from Team Clinton, but could be from any Democrat) of a delegate Whip’s job:
Learn the lingo, peasants. In our brave new world of progress and unity, the whip doesn’t keep you it line, it makes sure you have everything you need. And the government censor will be making sure you have everything you need. And the tax man doesn’t take your money, he makes sure you have everything you need. And that man herding you into a boxcar isn’t sending you to a gas chamber, he’s making sure you have everything you need.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 21, 2008 @ 10:24 am - August 21, 2008
The spam filter is getting tiresome.
———————————————-
Speaking of the Democratic Convention, I love this beautifully Orwellian explanation (from Team Clinton, but could be from any Democrat) of a delegate Whip’s job:
Learn the lingo, peasants. In our brave new world of progress and unity, the whip doesn’t keep you it line, it makes sure you have everything you need. And the government censor will be making sure you have everything you need. And the tax man doesn’t take your money, he makes sure you have everything you need. And that man herding you into a boxcar isn’t sending you to a gas chamber, he’s making sure you have everything you need.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 21, 2008 @ 10:26 am - August 21, 2008
#5 - Does your mommy know that you are playing on her computer again? Bad, BAD michael. Go to your room under the stairs and don’t come out until after the election.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — August 21, 2008 @ 10:37 am - August 21, 2008
V the K, you hit the nail on the head.
I am glad Carter will be there, not only will a few more Jews stay away. (I’m beyond trying to save my people- and to think we are considered so bright and intelligent - here’s proof we’re not)
This will also alienate many of the evangelicals that Obama is trying to court. Once again, those lefty Jews hate the fact that they love Israel. Yet many evangelicals truly love Israel more than lefty Jews.
I love meeting and talking to these people on flights to Israel - if only the Jews were so supportive of Israel!
Comment by Leah — August 21, 2008 @ 1:26 pm - August 21, 2008
In a very, very related story Democratic Talking Points Against Eric Cantor: Heavy on the “Did I Mention he’s a J-o-o?
Comment by V the K — August 21, 2008 @ 1:58 pm - August 21, 2008
#11 - Leah, would they be considered “self-loathing” by libtard standards?
With my European parentage, one of whom survived World War II in Greece, I feel closer to Israel and her people than most Americans my age. I have personally talked to Holocaust survivors and friends of my mother who also survived the war in order to better understand life and its challenges. That to me is “the greatest generation.”
So yes, this is one meshugana goy who is not ashamed to be pro-Israel and anti-Islamofascist. I have no tolerance for others who wish to try to pick up where the Nazis left off.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — August 21, 2008 @ 3:32 pm - August 21, 2008
I even heard a comment to that effect on Law & Order last night.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — August 21, 2008 @ 11:43 pm - August 21, 2008
No of course not! Here’s the thing about Jews, it’s in our blood to believe in religion. We can’t be non believers - just doesn’t work. I guess it has something to do with being the chosen people.
So when a Jew abandons the traditions of the Jewish religion, he does not become a non believer - he finds a new faith - and for 100 years now that faith has been left leaning philosophies, from Communism (Trotsky, Marx anyone?) Socialism and now good old American lefty politics.
So of course they aren’t self loathing, they are proud adherents of their new religion.
Whereas your garden variety evangelical reads his Bible. Not having grown up in Europe - where antisemitism is in mothers milk, decides that the Jews are good guys - even if they haven’t accepted Jesus. So they pray for Israel, go visit in hard times and usually are quite thrilled to meet real Jews, not the lefty liberal kind
Comment by Leah — August 21, 2008 @ 11:58 pm - August 21, 2008
Ahem.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 22, 2008 @ 2:40 am - August 22, 2008
P.S. Here’s my armchair theory on Jews and leftism. In the Jewish Bible, God deals with Israel as a collective, much more than he deals with individuals. (Individual salvation is more of a Christian thing.) And over the centuries, Jews have had to rely on the community to keep going after all those pogroms. So, collectivism is sort of ingrained. And in today’s world, collectivism equals leftism.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 22, 2008 @ 2:50 am - August 22, 2008
I would actually be interested in seeing Carter’s speech (if I can stomach it for more than 30 seconds) because I’m curious about something–sure, he has just refused to go away, but hasn’t his political participation been confined to mainly commenting disrespectfully to the press about Bush and engaging in sit-downs with terrorists behind closed doors? My point is, hasn’t it been at least a couple of decades since he’s had this type of gig–magnanimous, respectful elder statesman giving a proper reach-across-the-aisle speech before a large audience (and the TV-viewing public)? Is he going to be able to pull off the kind of speech that is expected of a party elder without blowing it by letting that bitter, angry disgust slip out that has come so naturally to him in the past 7-8 years? I mean, he’s shown no restraint in angrily criticizing the U.S. (particularly the Bush administration) on foreign soil to a sycophantic foreign press–why would he give a classier speech before his own bitter, angry, disgusted party?
If the falsely lionized “Man From Plains” can’t help himself and goes on a bitter, angry rant, won’t that turn off even more people than just the Jews (i.e., the committed, life-long party liberals in their 50s, 60s and 70s who STILL haven’t faced the fact that their party is now controlled by less-than-benign socialists and anti-American Al-Qaeda apologists)?
That might be interesting to see.
Comment by Sean A — August 22, 2008 @ 7:44 am - August 22, 2008
ILC, I think you will admit that Ayn Rand is the exception that proves the point. btw did you ever read: “We the Living’ , which focused on life in Communist Russia. Rand described it as “the most autobiographical of her novels”(quoted from Wikipedia).
Like most people who have escaped communism, regardless of their religion of origin - they know the real thing and they hate it!!
Comment by Leah — August 22, 2008 @ 11:58 am - August 22, 2008
Yeah… I think _We the Living_ may be her best novel-as-literature. (As literature, _Atlas_ is good for the first 400-500 pages, then goes on way too long and ends up stultified and lifeless with all the heavy-handed preaching.)
By the way, I had a comment giving my theory for why Jews go left, but it’s been caught… sigh. (Boy it’s getting old.)
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 22, 2008 @ 12:57 pm - August 22, 2008
ILC, your comment did make it through. I disagree with your theory about Judaism being a collectivist religion. It is very much a community based religion, it is very hard to be a ‘good’ Jew alone. One needs a quorum of ten for prayer. Most Jewish celebrations evolve around food and community.
But, each individual is responsible for their own actions. No person can gain absolution for another. Despite what modern lefties say, women had a lot of rights under Jewish law - specifically in the marriage and sexual arena.
The whole idea of Bar Mitzva is that the 13 year old is now responsible for his own actions. If he sins, the father no longer bears the burden of those sins. At Bar Mitzva the father says: thank God for releasing me from burden of this son’s sins.
I’m sure you noticed that being a lefty means being demanding that some group out there is responsible. It never is an issue of taking personal responsibility. That is sort of the opposite the Jewish tradition, where each individual is first of all responsible for himself, then for his place within the community.
Comment by Leah — August 22, 2008 @ 8:06 pm - August 22, 2008
Leah, good points and thank you.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 24, 2008 @ 1:32 pm - August 24, 2008