Apart from being Barack Obama\’s competition for worst President of my lifetime, jimmy carter is notable for his chronic hatred of Israel and unconditional sympathy for Palestinian Arabs – very much including terrorist hamas.
Here is carter\’s latest foray into hate-land, excerpted from an op-ed he co-wrote with the notorious, equally hate-filled mary robinson of Ireland – in rust, with my comments in blue:
Twofactors are necessary to make Palestinian unity possible. First,there must be at least a partial lifting of the seven-year-oldsanctions and blockade that isolate the 1.8 million people in Gaza. You mean the blockade which was put in placeonly after hamas started indiscriminately bombing Israel? Stop thebombing and the blockade ends. There must also be an opportunityfor the teachers, police and welfare and health workers on the Hamaspayroll to be paid. Gaza is handed billions ofdollars from around the world every year, including from the the USA. If it is not used to pay these people, where does the money go? Certainly not to infrastructure. Do you demand an accounting fromyour terrorist pals? How many millions were diverted from paying those people and instead used to build theterror tunnels into Israel that the IDF are destroying? I guess you don\’t care about that.
Thereis no humane or legal justification for the way the Israeli DefenseForces are conducting this war. Israeli bombs, missiles and artilleryhave pulverized large parts of Gaza, including thousands of homes,schools and hospitals. Israel attacks the sites where themissiles and other artillery are launched from. hamas makes a pointof launching them from civilian-heavy locations. But nyou don\’t blame hamas, do you? More than 250,000people have been displaced from their homes in Gaza. Hundreds ofPalestinian noncombatants have been killed. Much of Gaza has lostaccess to water and electricity completely. This is a humanitariancatastrophe. That\’s right. And one that is100% induced by hamas, not Israel. Stop bombing and there\’s noreturn fire.
Thereis never an excuse for deliberate attacks on civilians in conflict.These are war crimes. This is true for both sides. Hamas\’indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians is equallyunacceptable. Notice the one sentence referenceto hamas\’s actions…followed immediately by continuation of the attack on Israel; the real purpose of this op-ed. However, three Israeli civilians havebeen killed by Palestinian rockets, while an overwhelming majority ofthe 1,600 Palestinians killed have been civilians, including morethan 330 children. The need for international judicial proceedings toinvestigate and end these violations of international law should betaken very seriously. Israel has provided its people warningsirens, bomb shelters and the Iron Dome defense system. hamas has provided its people no warning sirens or bomb shelters, and demands its civilians stayright where Israel will bomb. But you blame Israel? You have tohate Jews an awful lot to do that. And it shows.
Theinternational community\’s initial goal should be the full restorationof the free movement of people and goods to and from Gaza throughIsrael, Egypt and the sea. Must be your bad memory: you keep forgetting that if hamas stops bombing it gets just that. But how niceof you to finally notice that Egypt – Arab and vastly Muslim -blockades Gaza just like Israel does. Gee, could there be a reasonthat is related to hamas? Funny, you don\’t say. Concurrently, the United States andEuropean Union should recognize that Hamas is not just a military butalso a political force. Hamas cannot be wished away, nor will itcooperate in its own demise. Only by recognizing its legitimacy as apolitical actor – one that represents a substantial portion of thePalestinian people – can the West begin to provide the rightincentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons. Ahhhh,there you go. There\’s the carter payoff. Unconditional recognition of a terrorist organization as”a legitimate actor” and the problem is on its way to resolution. Do you want the west do supply hamas with missiles too, or just shoot them off as a hamas proxy? Ever since theinternationally monitored 2006 elections that brought Hamas to powerin Palestine, the West\’s approach has manifestly contributed to theopposite result. See? It\’s all the west\’s fault – hamas is blameless. Bythe way, what about the fact that hamas violently overthrew allnon-hamas elected officials in 2007, and what about the fact that theelections which were supposed to take place four years after the ones you reference havenever been held. Are you trying to suggest that there currently is alegitimately elected government in Gaza? Don\’t even think about it.
Ultimately,however, lasting peace depends on the creation of a Palestinian statenext to Israel. You mean the one that thehamas charter specifically, in so many words, rejects? READ THEHAMAS CHARTER, and maybe you won\’t sound like an Israel-hating, Jew-hating sack of manure. Maybe.
The most embarrassing part? We elected this Israel-hating, Jew-hating sack of manure to be our President.
What were we thinking? Were we thinking at all?
