The Ritual Flaying of Jimmy Carter
Nobody with a functioning memory should be too quick to condemn Jimmy Carter for daring to speak with the leadership of Hamas, as nearly everyone along the American political spectrum suddenly has felt obliged to do. From Condoleezza Rice and John McCain to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with every Congressional backbencher in both parties, expressions of disapproval have rained down upon the former president, who is old enough and tough enough to pursue his own beliefs to their logical conclusion.
“The United States is not going to deal with Hamas,” said the secretary of state, “and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help.” The justification for that policy was explained helpfully by Obama, whose willingness to meet with foreign adversaries does not extend to Hamas, at least not during the primary season. The Illinois senator “does not support negotiations with Hamas until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements,” according to a spokesman for his presidential campaign.
As for McCain, he reacted reflexively and demagogically, which should come as no surprise. He denounced any engagement with Hamas as a “grave and dangerous mistake” and scorched Carter for meeting with “a terrorist group that has also killed innocent Americans.” A moronic congresswoman from North Carolina-who will have to live a very long time before she achieves a tiny fraction of what Carter has-proposed to revoke his passport.
Certainly Carter understands the nature of Hamas, an Islamist group not so different in its orientation from the radical students whose takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran ultimately ended his presidency. What he also understands these many years later is that those once shunned as terrorists and criminals, forever beyond redemption, may eventually be recognized as the only possible partners in negotiation. For that, of course, is the very transformation he has observed in the Palestine Liberation Organization during the past three decades.
When Carter hosted the historic Camp David meetings that established peace between Israel and Egypt, the Jewish state’s prime minister was the late Menachem Begin, a former terrorist who firmly declared that he would never talk with Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Even as the Palestinians quietly began to consider the notion of a two-state peace settlement, American and Israeli policymakers could hardly contemplate any engagement with Arafat, whose responsibility for atrocious attacks on civilians was as clear as his commitment to driving the Jews into the sea. Indeed, Israel’s leaders regularly proclaimed that they would never talk with Arafat under any circumstances because of the Jewish blood on his hands.
Then things changed, slowly but irrevocably. Today the PLO leadership, legatee of the unmourned Arafat, is not only welcomed but also financially supported by the United States, with its shaky authority on the West Bank bolstered by the Israel Defense Forces. The government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority remain far from the final agreement that would achieve a just peace, but each acknowledges the legitimacy of the other.
This short history lesson is not meant to minimize the obstacles to a real peace. Most prominent among those obstacles is Hamas, which will continue to undermine and embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas so long as it is excluded from any and all diplomacy. Despite the repugnant ideology and brutality of the Hamas leaders, there is no doubt that the Islamist organization enjoys substantial popular support, even among Palestinians who do not share its religious worldview.
So there can be no sustainable deal between Israel and the Palestinians that is not accepted by Hamas.
Yet our current policy not only rejects any direct discussion with the Islamist party, but condemns any effort to learn what might bring them into the diplomatic process-or induce them to accept a negotiated settlement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Instead, we would require them to effectively surrender every point before we will even talk to them. It is the same mindless policy once directed by the White House toward our adversaries in Iran and North Korea until its uselessness became too obvious to ignore.
With ongoing violence in Gaza, Carter’s critics have already pronounced his mission a failure. But he elicited an official pledge that Hamas would honor a semi-permanent truce under certain conditions and accept a Palestinian referendum to ratify a peace settlement. That hint of moderation, halting and reversible, suggests that he may yet be vindicated.
Joe Conason’s most recent book, Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth (St. Martin’s Press, 2003).
© 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
How can Jimmy Carter be criticized for making an attempt to bring about peace? If the Bush Administration was doing the kind of job they should be doing, it would not be necessary. But, the Bush Administration is not about “peace”. They are war-mongers, as evidenced in what we did to Iraq.
If they want to bash Jimmy Carter, then they might as well bash Jesus Christ. He was a Peace-maker, and would have done the same thing.
Did the Brits refuse to talk to the IRA until they gave up terrorism? No, they talked to them anyhow. Not talking leads to more violence, not less. The policy of the bush admin is to kill as many people as possible, that is their way of dealing with global warming as well as any economic issues…
Carter had the least missteps as president of any president since him. I wish that I was older during his presidency so I had a better idea of what tone the MSM set for him then, because “The Ritual Flaying” is most accurate title I’ve heard for Carter’s situation. Deeply sad.
Contrast Jimmy Carter as ex-president with Bill Clinton as ex-president. ’nuff said.
Carter may not have been the best President, but he was then, and is now, a decent and intelligent man. The unintended consequence of rudeness and slander to former President Carter is that it taints the accusers as shallow, close-minded, self-centered, and vindictive. It begs a review of the relationship.
http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/4/19/3648934.html
“From Condoleezza Rice and John McCain to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with every Congressional backbencher in both parties, expressions of disapproval have rained down upon the former president.”
If Ehud Olmert stopped walking suddenly, the entire Congress of the United States and the Bush Administration would be picking shit out of their noses for a week.
Hamas is the legally and fairly elected government of the Palestinian people. So why does almost every country in the world refuse to recognize that fact? Because of the power of the Israel Lobby in almost every country of the world.
That power is money. Not until the United States is utterly bankrupt will anything change. Then our dearest bosom buddy Israel will cut us loose and abandon us in the blink of an eye.
mammon
Hear! Hear!
Absolutely - Carter is wise, courageous, insightful, and smart enough to deal with the complexities of the ME. Kind of America’s Mandela. I wish him all success.
Jimmy Carter is a wise and courageous man who sincerely wants real peace in the mideast. The inevitable results of his efforts are that the long knives of the Bush Administration, the Israeli Lobby and their media and congressional allies, now carve him up unmercifully.
Joe Conason is also a courageous man in publicly defending Carter’s efforts. He carefully dances around any mention of the pro-Israeli juggernaut and their Neocon allies who savage Carter, as he must do to protect his livelihood, but we know whom he indicts. And in Conason’s profession, that takes courage.
The religiosity and politicos certainly would never recognize an intelligent, genuine, courageous act for it well does deprive them of their meager and empty positions as pompous overlords of their kingdoms of ignorance. What else to do to one who actually realizes the mission of his faith……flay him, perhaps slay him, put him on a cross. Jimmy Carter, the only public Christian worthy of his salt and he has the nuts to prove it. All the rest diminish themselves and piss on the general plurality by ritual demonstrations of piety, righteousness and lip-service to the Divine while in reality creating hell on earth by betraying any understanding of the Real Idea in favor of religious preference and acquisition.
Go Jimmy, you justifiably put them all to shame.
The “Christians” , in the USA may profess to read their bibles, but one wonders if they merely mouth the words contained therein…
They demand (it seems to me) that “God Bless America”, as they waged an illegal invasion and occupation of an other sovereign country.
The Bibles of all the Christian religions clearly state “Blessed are the PEACE MAKERS” no where does it say except the USA..
Jim
Canada jim_murray@jdz.ca
You have to divide “Christians” into camps: true Christians hold the Sermon on the Mount as the greatest of teachings and apply New Testament sentiment to all.
Winger Political Christians apply the Sermon and New Testament to only themselves. Everyone else gets the angry Old Testament tribal war god routine.
Jimmy Carter has risen on the oligarchy enemy’s list by personifying the threat of a good example.
Ok… A couple of things:
1) Hamas ISN’T a terrorist organization. They are a resistance organization. The most responsible of the Palestinian resistance groups in my opinion.
2) “recognize Israel’s right to exist”… Why the hell would they ever do that? Does Israel have a *right* to exist? Good question. Picture this. You have a house and you’ve lived in that house for a very long time. One day, the cops come to your house and tell you that the people who lived here once upon a time want the house back, but you can still live in part of it. So in come the former residents who haven’t been there for a very long time… and they take over your bedroom, and your bathroom, and your kitchen, and your living room… but at least you still have the basement suite… But then, they start letting their relatives move in and they start taking over the basement too… eventually, you’re left with the dirty, dark utility room and the rest of your house is taken over… Now, when you start trying to fight to get your house back, you keep getting your ass kicked but every so often you manage to bloody someone’s nose. So they lock you in. Now, you want to negotiate to find a way out of the dark basement where you’re starving… but before you can do that, you have to recognize the “right” of the “squatters” to live in your house. Why would you do that?
I have long said that Jimmy Carter is the only living US president I would welcome into my home. He is not perfect, but compared to the rest of them, he is a saint.
I put this question to my evangelical Christian father-in-law: for as long as I can remember, Christmas was all about “Peace on Earth” and “Good Will Towards Men.” Yet you do not want peace on Earth or even a two-state solution. You want war; you welcome Armageddon. How do you square that?
He said that this has all been prophesied: that the Jews had their chance to destroy the Philistines (a/k/a Muslims) thousands of years ago as God commanded, but they defied God, and now look at the mess Israel is in. He said that Jesus will return, Israel will rise again, and the Philistines will be destroyed, and all will be right with the world. So much for Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Men, as far as Christians like him are concerned.
Does George Bush subscribe to this same form of Christianity? If so, then obviously he doesn’t believe in a two-state solution. Jimmy Carter is also a Christian, yet he truly wants peace between the Jews and the Muslims. It’s too bad that Jimmy Carter’s brand of Christianity is not the norm.
elmysterio is absolutely right.
I wish I could join the discussion but I’m not allowed I say things that progessives can’t handle.
Good luck to Jimmy Carter and may his enemies live to see his efforts in the ME attain a lasting peace.
However, what are the chances of that? I lived and traveled in the ME and the question most asked of me was “Why do you Americans love the Jews so much?”. Of course the answer is complicated but the bottom line is the bottom line (money=power to be heard in Congress”). Two political scabs the U.S. keeps picking at are a)Christian (U.S.) influence and presence in the ME and b) the unjust treatment of Palestinians by Israel while the U.S. approves or is a cheerleader. The Arab world is going to hate us until these two items are addressed to their satisfaction.
Saudi Arabia has put on the mask of “a friend” but they ignored Bush when he went begging of course Bush is SO stupid he didnt get the point “We Arabs have you where the hair is short and will squeeze when and if you piss us off-don’t you feel it?”
While I agree entirely with the sentiment of this article, I’ve can’t let this passage go by without comment:
“This short history lesson is not meant to minimize the obstacles to a real peace. Most prominent among those obstacles is Hamas, which will continue to undermine and embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas so long as it is excluded from any and all diplomacy.”
Anyone with eyes that see knows that the most prominent (and perhaps only) obstacle to peace is Israel. Israel doesn’t want peace–and why should it. Israel is allowed to have its way with the Palestinian territories. By now, Israel surely realizes that,if they just maintain the status quo (with U.S. help), they will eventually steal all the land and cleanse it of Palestinians.
The israeli people want peace. The palestinian people want peace. There are factions on both sides that will forever keep that from happening.
They both believe, you see, they are each the chosen of god.
No good ever comes of such thinking.
Hey wait… We have a faction like that too! (See John Hagee.)
Many many fine comments above.
Jimmy Carter is the Finest of the Fine, for all the reasons delineated above.
To Bismarck: Re: your comment about Olmert — there would indeed be quite a shit-picking if he should suddenly stop walking. A WONDERFUL image, thank you very much. lol.
In a warmongering world, the peace-maker is never welcome. Comparing Carter to Mandela is a good parallel, but never forget that Mandela spent 27 years in a white prison. And never forget what peace-making got Jesus. Don’t be surprised if Carter is assassinated. It happened to Martin Luther King, Jr. One man is easy to cut down, and Carter makes many in the white power structures of America and Israel look bad, evil, and stupid.
Israel has no right to exist. The Jews had no right to take the land of Palestine and crush it to make a Jewish state. Modern Israel was born out of post-WWII European guilt, made possible by European weapons. Europe armed the Zionists and turned them loose on an unsuspecting Palestine in 1948. And look what happened. There will be no two-state solution to anything. Israel wants it all, will take it all eventually. They studied their own oppressors, learned their lessons, and are applying them zealously. The remaining Palestinians don’t stand a chance. They never did, not from the first moment the Zionists arrived.
elmysterio,
Let us not forget the parallels between the Israeli situation and that of the US, with the Palestinians standing in the same position as the Native American Indians in the US. That has to play a role in allowing US leaders to convince themselves, at some level, that the Israelis are purely justified in their actions.
On a related note, Israeli journalist Uri Avnery recently wrote a fascinating article on Jewish history and its relation to the justification for the state of Israel, to be found at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery04212008.html
Liberal Democrats are so gullible. They seem to fall for the theatrics every single time.
Jimmy is nothing more than ex-President Carrot Top, and the song and dance routine from people like Condi Rice, who is now performing with Jimmy, is more show than substance.
Don’t you Democrats ever get tired of this flip flop nonsense? Carter, like Gore and Slick Willie, is a kinder, gentler public relations photo-op imperialist, and not much more than that. Stop acting like donkeys, Liberals, and get the Hell out of the Democratic Party Now!
elmysterio & kival,
right on re your comments.
president carter is my precious few heros. read his books, “Palestine, Peace Not Aparteid” and also “Beyond the White House, Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope” and give generously to the Carter Foundation. This man could have ridden off into the sunset but, no. . . and for that we should all be grateful.
that should have read: “president carter is ONE OF my precious few heros”
From Promethus chained to a rock to Christ on the cross, prophets and holy men are often killed for bringing gifts to their communities. Is this what man calls ‘civilization?’
safiyyah, YIKES, maybe you should post elsewhere. don’t think anyone shares your views in this forum.
The National Media will further castrate Jimmy Carter and continue the U.S. Government´s propaganda.
Again,the Government of Israel condemned Carter and refused to meet with him when he was there.
Who supports Terrorists? Right now, the U.S. is paying Sunni Tribal leaders in an attmept to bribe them to stop the Insurgency…..Sunnis were the Insurgents linked, by U.S Officials, to Al Qaeda. Sunnis have killed more Americans than any group……You have a “Civil War” and the United States keeps changing sides and is the “Occupying Force” that most, 85% of Iraqis, want gone……….
Jimmy Carter knows the “Evil” that has risen from his decision to finance “Terrorist” attacks in Afghanistan in order to remove Soviet influence…..The United States has always financed “Terrorist Groups” to destabilize governments that leaned to the left and were seeking Soviet Economic Aid…….and, things have not changed.
You learn a lot about people when the pressure is on. So, on this issue we learn a bit more about who Obama is behind the marketing blitz and chanting of ‘hope’ and ‘change’.
When the pressure is on in the primaries, and the heat is on from the Israeli lobby, Obama bows to the pressure. All the faux-progressive talk about talking to ones enemies goes out the friggin window.
Follow the money. That’s what rules in America. Obama won’t make the AIPAC money mad. This is what the Obama presidency will look like. When there’s a conflict between money and ideals, he’ll follow the money.
If you read my comments about Obama out here, you’ll know that’s no surprise to me. But maybe it might wake up a few Obama-maniacs. Although I’d imagine the Obama-party-line will be more of this strange fiction that somehow we should expect him to be a secret revolutionary who will sacrifice his 2012 re-election campaign (and the money he’ll need for it) and he’ll be this mythical super-progressive instead.
Actually, if you pay much attention to Jimmy Carter, you’ll find he’s rather critical of the ‘modern Democrats’ most of the time. He’s more of the old-school Dem before the DLC took over the party in the late 80’s.
Maybe as an example, go read about some of the conflicts he had with President Clinton over Haiti in the 90’s. Jimmy Carter basically stepped in and stopped a US invasion that Pres Clinton was pushing. Pres Clinton had the 82 Airborne loading onto planes when Jimmy Carter went over there, actually talked to real people, and reached a peaceful solution.
Anyone who’s seen me write out here knows I’m devastatingly critical of most modern Dems. But I would never put Jimmy Carter in that category.
devil1 said on April 24th, 2008 1:44 pm: “I wish I could join the discussion but I’m not allowed I say things that progessives can’t handle.”
Nobody is stopping you from joining the discussion, though really my friend, the heart of the matter is that you have some pretty misguided perceptions of the world and how things should be. In fact, from reading your comments, one would gather that you fully support the fascists and their plans for world domination. The sad part of that is that it goes against your best interests. But really, go ahead and comment. You’re not going to hurt anyone by doing so… Really, sometimes I get a good chuckle out of the sheer ridiculousness of what you believe.
msgreco said on April 24th, 2008 2:56 pm: “safiyyah, YIKES, maybe you should post elsewhere. don’t think anyone shares your views in this forum.”
Who said we all have to have the same views in order to post here? That’s hardly encouraging of intelligent debate. In fact, we should be encouraging all these misguided individuals to participate as they might actually learn something. Sooner or later, all these so-called “right-wing” people are going to have an epiphany and realize that they’ve been duped into supporting their own destruction… hopefully sooner rather than later. Though Common Dreams does have somewhat of a reputation for censorship, we the readers and commenters should not discourage people from sharing their ideas and beliefs.
I suspect though, that for most of these ‘right-wing agitators’, it’s more of a sports team mentality of them vs. the liberals. It has nothing really to do with reality. They’ve been indoctrinated with all the lies and it’s more like two groups of school kids throwing rocks at each other on the playground. Don’t let them get under your skin. In fact, I’ve found the same situation with people on the ‘left’ as well.
Once you understand the truth and see that it’s not a battle between right and left, that it’s a battle between uber-rich and everyone else, perhaps we can find some common ground. The issues facing us as a species go far beyond opinions in tax law, or free-market vs socialism… There are issues far greater to the our survival as a species, such as nuclear armageddon, ecological disaster, global fascism and the plans of the ‘elites’ (CFR, Bildaburgers, etc.) for massive depopulation. These are things that effect us all, right and left.
Jimmy Carter has finally gotten to the point where he doesn’t care what the misleaders of this country have to say about him. I have to admire his courage to go out there and say and do what he believes in. It’s certainly risky business.
I am so sick of attacks on Carter, they’ve been going on since his presidency. Nowadays even progressives and liberals preface statements about Carter with disclaimers such as ‘worst president’, ‘ineffectual president’, etc. I would like to remind everyone that he called for energy independance in the 70’s. Where would we be today if he had been backed up by his own party - then in power? Certainly not in the spot we’re in. And he called for withholding foreign aid to governments who abused their citizens. Where would we be now if THAT had become our foreign policy? Certainly there would be less blowback than we’re facing now. Republicans, Democrats, and the press have vilified him for almost 40 years, and I have no doubt that big business has had their greedy little hands pulling the strings.
former president carter can do what he wants to do……didn’t hamas offer israel a 10 -year truce….if i’m mistaken please tell me…..(anyone ?)
“I put this question to my evangelical Christian father-in-law: for as long as I can remember, Christmas was all about “Peace on Earth” and “Good Will Towards Men.” Yet you do not want peace on Earth or even a two-state solution. You want war; you welcome Armageddon. How do you square that?
He said that this has all been prophesied: that the Jews had their chance to destroy the Philistines (a/k/a Muslims) thousands of years ago as God commanded, but they defied God, and now look at the mess Israel is in. He said that Jesus will return, Israel will rise again, and the Philistines will be destroyed, and all will be right with the world. So much for Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Men, as far as Christians like him are concerned.”
anne faith, don’t forget that Jews have not accepted Christ as their savior, therefore, they will become toast come Armageddon. Add the term “users” to fundamentalist Christians.
Carter also set the tone in America to move us toward energy independence. Younger folks may not remember there was a huge national push, including a lot of Federal initiatives, for alternative energy in the late 70’s. That was all squelched when Reagan came in. Americans still believe in Manifest Destiny, that America’s horizons are ever-expanding; and thus we have wars for resources rather than learn how to share the planet.
In a phrase, Jimmy Carter was– is– ahead of his time.
COMarc, I consider myself a Green but I plan to vote for Obama if he is the Dem nominee (and if not, I will vote for McKinney). I don’t know if that qualifies me as an Obamaniac. But I will tell you that I was very disappointed in Obama when he didn’t stand up for Jimmy Carter. I was also very disappointed when Obama said, belatedly, that he would have left his church if Reverend Wright had not retired. (Not many people picked up on that little news tidbit, but it troubled me greatly, as it contradicted his statement that he could not and would not disown Reverend Wright and fed right into Hillary Clinton and Richard Mellon Scaife’s hands.)
As you point out, Obama has criticized Carter for doing precisely what he said he will do if elected President. So I see the hypocrisy. I don’t think he’s looking for AIPAC money; I doubt any members of AIPAC are giving to his campaign. I think it’s more that he’s trying not to alienate Jews (a Democratic voting bloc) any more than he already has, and he’s trying to fend off the label that he’s a Muslim and/or Muslim sympathizer. He’s walking a tight rope. The purists would like to see him stand up, in all circumstances, for what’s right. But as I’ve said before, if he does that, he will end up like Kucinich. Which leaves us nowhere.
There are degrees of compromising and selling out. But at bottom, I believe that Obama is a thoughtful, decent person of good character who doesn’t stoop to Rovian tactics in order to win the big prize. He has taken the high road for the most part. And I do hope, perhaps in vain, that he will do some good if elected. And so, of the three people who have any chance of reaching the Oval Office, he’s the one I’m backing. As I said above, if he’s not the nominee, I will vote for McKinney, even though she has no chance of winning, and even though it might help McCain win the election. I’m only willing to compromise my principles so much.
ElMysterio, I really enjoy your posts and often agree with what you say. I wish I could be as open-minded as you in inviting all to post here, no matter how offensive their comments might be. I look at CD as a refuge from all the crap I read and hear in the MSM, much of which is extremely hurtful. I wish I could be more thick-skinned, but I’m not. And sometimes it’s very hard to read the posts of people who are probably kindred spirits with readers of Newsmax or FreeRepublic. For example, when I read an article about the killing of baby seals and then have to read the post of someone who publishes a recipe for baby seal “flipper,” it really hurts me. What are they doing on a progressive website anyway?
At times like those, I think about not reading CD anymore, because it seems as if some people here are just right wing trolls who are trying to piss off and incite everyone. But I keep coming back, because of posts like yours, and Kathyodat, and Peaceman, and longingforsanity, and CoMarc, and RSJ, and Ticonderoga, and blessthebeasts, and many, many others. But if I’m being honest, I really wish the hateful, bigoted, right wingers would post somewhere else.
Jimmy Carter has the right of it. One talks to one’s opponents. True discourses are give and takes without necessarily changing the opponents’ opinion, but making an attempt to reach some mutual respect and adaptation in regard each other’s outlook.
The same goes for what Elmysterio says. While we may not agree with Safiyyah or Devil1’s opinions, we can read what they post and try to convince them of our view points just as they have the right to attempt to convince us of theirs. It needs not be nasty, vindictive, nor lowered to name calling. If more people would listen to each other rather than put each other down, there would be less animosity and acrimony all around. Instead people may just agree to disagree while retaining their dignity which is ultimately what people want in their lives; to be treated with human dignity regardless their views.
anne faith: Well thank you for your compliment little sister… I appreciate that. Don’t get me wrong, nothing bugs the shit out of me more than some ignorant right-wing freak coming on here and spitting their bile. But that being said, for all the right-wing trolls that come on here and try to stir up some trouble, if just one of them reads something that causes them to re-evaluate their stance, then it’s all worth it. From my experience, these people are just frightened of what is happening in the world and angry at the hardships they may face.
Sometimes, I have a hard time controlling my anger, and I’m sure that is reflected in some of my more aggressive posts. But what I try to strive for is spreading truth. The posters that bug me the most are the ones that are a one issue poster who keeps pushing the same tired points over and over again, like our friend JakeNewton who is the 9-11 truth debunker. HE really gets on my nerves. lol
I have always held Jimmy Carter in the highest regard, and what he is doing is astounding in my opinion. If only those currently in charge were also capable of learning from history rather than frantically trying to rewrite it to serve their own distorted agendas we might all be in a better place right now.
I have been having trouble with Obama’s response to this Carter-Hamas situation, so I want to thank you, anne faith for your post - your words really made me feel better. I’m still not happy about it, but I appreciate your insights.
So many posts have been really enlightening to me. I have my own opinions and thoughts, but the day you think there’s nothing more to learn is the day you … become a republican! AAHHHHHGGHH ahahahaha just kidding. Well not really. Peace, all!
Hamas is a legitimate political party that was elected by a majority of the Palestinians. Live with it America and Israel! I thank Jimmy Carter for being open minded. And just to show that no good deed goes unpunished, some clowns in Congress want the State Department to take his passport away.
Thank You Jimmy Carter for sticking your neck out for peace.
“I wish that I was older during his presidency so I had a better idea of what tone the MSM set for him then, because “The Ritual Flaying” is most accurate title I’ve heard for Carter’s situation.”
Wilhelm- I was a teenager, in Georgia, during that time. The MSM treated him as poorly then as they do now.
Hey all you Obama fans who think of yourself as progressive: This is just ANOTHER issue on which your man is not progressive. If he really were able change—change you could believe in—wouldn’t he be supporting Jimmy Carter’s bold and excellent moves?
And once again, we turn to Ralph Nader for leadership. Nader has posted on his blog, some days ago, massive support for Carter’s peace initiative.
votenader.org
It is absolutely amazing and inspirational, to see what a single principled person can do to the carefully laid plans of despots and criminals —
to the selfish war mongering creators of greed-driven chaos.
The longer I live in this country the more I come to realize that america is in need of, not more military, but therapeutic treatment. To accuse/condemn President Carter for seeking an end to the conflict between the palestinians and the isralis is like accusing Mother Theresa of being anti-american for helping the poor in India. Just today the israli ambassador Dan Gillerman accused President Carter of being a bigot! Can you even imagine that a guy that represents a country that epitomizes bigotry, that builds walls to separate people on the basis of race and religion, that teaches their children that they are somehow special and better than everyone else, can have the “mitzpah” to call anyone a bigot? While the bush administration represented by rice have not done anything positive in that region of the world other than lie the american people about conditions in the middle east with the goal of passing the problem on to the next administration.
“Just today the israli ambassador Dan Gillerman accused President Carter of being a bigot! Can you even imagine that a guy that represents a country that epitomizes bigotry, that builds walls to separate people on the basis of race and religion…”
YES! That is definitely a joke. Not funny, but still a joke.
National debate has become poisonous to an extreme degree. I am turning it off and out of my life for a while, need a breather. Goin out into the street again tomorrow, gonna make the people smile with my clown clothes and signs: “your tax dollars at work: Torture, Lies, More War for Oil ETC ETC ETC…..
Carter, by any measure worth mentioning, may actually have been our best President ever……not without many many mistakes, but who else will anyone stand for? Roosevelt who interned the innocents in their thousands? Lincoln who allowed Sherman’s carnage to proceed? US Presidents have almost always been war criminals, its part of the job.
Mr Carter tried to clean up the mess he was left with by his predecessor . He tried to kill the free trade incentives . He attempted to reduce our dependence on foreign oil . He even had solar panels put on the White House . He is an engineer and was a nuclear submarine captain . The corporation moguls do not like him because of his moves against their programs of out sourcing jobs . He is a man that loves America and peace . EACH one his followers has signed free trade agreements and sent our jobs off shore . The present office holder has set a record of signing free trade agreements . If we get any more like this one we will run out of money to buy the imported goods .
It’s amazing how many people have forgotten Carter’s crimes against humanity. It proves just how well the doctrinal system exposed by Chomsky works.
The Stern Gang of Israel ‘invented’ the car bomb, in their terrorist campaign against the British in Palestine. Israel is a state born and sustained by terrorism. Just another terrorist group in the Middle East.
So why bash Carter’s efforts at mediation between them? Compromise is necessary, unless they all want to fight to the death. If so, their wishes will certainly be realized.
And speaking of ‘bigoted’, Israel itself is so bigoted they fly the symbol of the one-true-religion on their flag. It also has spies and dual-citizens in high positions even now within the government of the United States. It has American politicians deathly afraid of criticising it, or cutting its supply of American taxpayer dollars and American arms and intelligence. It now holds over 200 nuclear weapons, courtesy of the United States via Henry Kissinger and others, with which to threaten its neighbors and the world.
And yet their UN ambassador has the chutzpah to slam the peace efforts of Carter, because Carter talked with a democratically-elected group that the right-wing ambassador hates.
This is while Israel itself thumbs its nose at the UN, and ignores UN resolutions. And this ambassador goes on to say that Carter’s hands are stained with blood, while at the same time his own nation maintains the biggest concentration camp/prison in the world in the Gaza Strip, and carries out murders and assassinations worldwide. It has killed far more innocents than suffered innocent deaths.
Carter is at least trying to mitigate the pain and end innocent suffering on both sides, the only way it will be ended. Not an eye for an eye. But bless the doers of peace.
Only religious and tribal bigots would criticise trying to reach compromise over issues that could lead to more wars, and lead to the deaths of innocent people, on both sides.
And don’t try to shout down pertinent questions and actions for peace with the red-baiting, AIPAC-propagandistic claim of anti-semitism on Carter’s part, as the Palestinians are also a semitic group. So how does that work?
How is it that America has been turned into an vassal of Israel? How is it that we are waging wars in the Middle East, in some large part as a proxy for Israel? With friends like these…
My hope is that JImmy Carter stays alive and diplomatically active for another 10-15 years if for no other reason to remind the world that once upon a time America and Americans knew better than their present behavior would indicate.
US foreign policy; How to deal with other countries who disagree with you.
Isolate them
Apply sanctions
Demonize them
Threaten them
Invade their country
It amazes me that people really believed this republican administration, with all their well-honed disadain for intellectuals, would really be capable of any kind of diplomacy that would prove to be successful or effective.
The ham-fisted, heavy-handed GOP approach to international and domestic relations would be comical-if it wasn’t for the fact that it has proven itself to be so deadly; for so many people-both at home and abroad.
The bush White house just literally blunders its way through the world, shaking its king-sized fists at eveything that moves. For anyone with any kind of an IQ, it’s just beyond humiliating these people actually represent a major nation. What were the republicans thinking? Were they thinking at all?
Israel does not recognize Hamas’ right to exist, and they’re merely returning the favor.
On Lehrer News Hour last night, Judy Woodruff invited the representative from Fatah to condemn Carter for meeting with Hamas, but he refused to do so. I took that as significant.
According to his book “Palestine - Peace Not Apartheid” in 2005, Carter planned a trip to the MidEast. His trip included a stopover in Syria. The White House informed him that “I would not receive approval for that part of my trip. Because of policy differences over Iraq.” “In a somewhat heated conversation, I also expressed my view that refusing to communicate with leaders with whom we disagreed, was counterproductive.”
Carter was right then. He is right, now, in having made another effort at bringing about peace between Isreal and Palestine.
My suggestion that the Israelis abandon Israel and move to Texas has many advantages and is eminently practical. The move would be good for the Jews and of infinite benefit to Texas. I’m serious, and I think my suggestion should be taken seriously! If they like, the Israelis can bring their damn wailing wall with them too, just as London Bridge was moved to Arizona. It’s not as outlandish an idea as it appears on the surface. I’d like to be able to buy a good bagel or sandwich should I stop, briefly, in Texas on my way through, not just biscuits and gravy that has to be eaten while sitting among a crowd of rednecks.
President Carter is one of the most admired and respected people in the world; he is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. I have had the good fortune to witness him in action at the Carter Center and I was truly impressed with his dignity, forthrightness, respect for others, soft-spokenness and he is a true gentleman in the very real sense of the term.
He has a good heart and his reputation proceeds him wherever he goes. His work on behalf of free fair elections, building homes for the homeless, working to eliminated blindness and ginny worms is inspiring.
The fact that the Bush administration has had one diplomatic failure after another, is no reason or excuse for badmouthing a former President, who actually was able to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. I say keep your mouth shut, watch and learn; President Carter has been know to work wonders and if anyone can, it will be him.
Ghawar — What to then do with their nastiness rooted in killing innocents ?
The border patrol could be a good thing, it could be but it would have to change how it does things.