ISRAEL: The Carter question, part 2

The Jimmy Carter Middle East Goodwill Tour continues to generate pretty much the opposite of goodwill among supporters of Israel.

Carter arrived in Israel today for several days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Carter acknowledged that he plans to meet with senior leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas this week in Syria.

That prospect has the blog-o-sphere at a full-boil, with perspectives running from supportive to outraged to surrealist.

Some are rallying to Carter's side. An editorial in the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star said the current U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations are pointless as long as Israel and the U.S. insist on isolating Hamas.

"Any peace deal that might be concluded in the absence of Hamas would hold little value, since it would deny the Israelis the security that hard compromises ought to bring," the article stated. "Perhaps it is time to at least begin exploring other options."

Israeli leaders are unwilling to publicly criticize a former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize winner. President Shimon Peres sat down privately with him today. But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cited scheduling difficulties.

—Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Caption: Carter with Anwar Sadat and Menachim Begin at Camp David in 1978. Credit: Public domain

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Comments

[Robert Vogel]

The arguments about who is responsible for the impasse in the peace process are irrelevant !

In this increasingly dangerous world, anyone who cares about his children needs to be clear with one "foreign policy" message.

If you practice terror - If you support terror - If you threaten to wipe your neighbors off the map with nuclear weapons - then you threaten us. We will stand against you and against your "cause". We don't care what your reasons are. We will not listen to your "demands" while you threaten our children.

If this is what Carter wants to tell Hamas, then by all means I support his visit.

[kathleen]

abused children grow up to be abusers. israelis, having suffered the holocaust, now are among the world's systematic violators of human rights.
as a u.s. citizen i am tired of supporting their wars and expansion. we should spend our foreign aid on peace-making, and force israel to get along with its neighbors by cutting off the subsidies.
blessed are the peacemakers.

[michele]

I support Carter's efforts for peace. Who benefits from continued war and violence? We pay $1000/ per Israeli annually in foreign and military aide. Why? This money subsidizes continued war. Our tax money should be used to benefit Americans, not to build Israel's separation (apartheid in Afrikaans) wall, settlements & sieges. Our subsidizing the cycle of violence, with money that could help us at home, prevents any possibility of a change in the status quo, which is violence, land grabs, and sieges. 30 billion of our tax money is being given to Israel over the next 10 years. That money can be used for tuition and healthcare at home.

[John Carter]

Maybe while Carter the moron is in Palestine, he could shake the hand of one of the Hamas bombers that killed so many young US Marines.

[Jesus of Nazareth]

I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.

[v racer]

Carter is only the current appeasement. Just wait for a demo president. It's a down hill slide.

[Andy Gill]

The Carter Centre is funded by Saudi money, and Carter is Saudi Arabia's bitch.

[wakeUp]

As an Arab, I fully support Carter's vision and his willingness to stand up to the pro-Israeli lobby in the US that has become a liability. How many more Americans will have to die because of a small colonialist and fundamentalist state like Israel

Israel is a country that was esbalished by force, terror, and the systematic violation of the rights of non-Jewish natives.

Israel is a fundamentalist project, a project that takes its legitimicacy from religious dogma and from the alleged promise prounced by God in favor of a certain group of people some 5000 years ago.

How can any rational being, Arab or non-Arab, muslim or non-mulsim, accept that the idea that the house they lived in for centuries now belongs to a group of foreign-born people who subscribe to a certain pre-defined religion?

Do people know that by simply being Jewish, you get the right to settle in Israel on the top of some Palestinian village while their owners are fenced off few miles away in refugee camps??

This is the injustice that Carter fights again.

Israel for all its acheivements at its core thrives on injustice and has no time to deal with the sufferings of others....you know unless your people suffered a holocaust, Israel gets to do ANYTHING to you and you have no right to complain.

In 1948, on the very day of Israel's establishment, close to 70% of its citizens were foreign-born.

Mr Carter is one of the few who knows deep in his heart who the victims are and will be remembered by all of us Arabs and others in the world as a man of principles.

It is an honor for all us to have an America president like Mr Carter.

[PatrickNYC]

Bless you Jimmy Carter. Through you and others like you, the truth is slowly emerging. And from truth eventually will come peace.

[Bar Fly]

I have a feeling that peace is inpossible as long a Israel has that dream of expanding the country and keep the occupid parts. This dream is so deep within Israel that they cannot get rid of it nor admit it.
The US should not support that dream.
As I think, for some odd reason, that the people of Israel are more educated than their neighbours are I also expect more from them.

[William]

Jimmy Carter is not an Idiot, only simple minds revert to labels and name calling. There are alot of opinions on both sides some very heated many mis-informed.Dialog and communication has proven beyond any doubt, to be the most effective manner in resolving conflict. That being said a full and complete reporting on the day to day lives of the citizens and their problems or aspirations have never been presented. We are only getting the most narrow of views and too much of it is negative.These Human beings are living lives which are basically the same as ours only under conditions of extreme conflct,misery and poverty.Only when we get a true understanding of the full story can we sit here and honestly judge. That being said it's a terrible shame with whats occuring to the print media institutions.

[James]

here is the message of peace from the Koran

[2.190] And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.
[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.

[Tom M]

Without reading about the history of the Middle East and its connection with the present day policies of the United States and Israel, one cannot truly understand the positions of the opposing sides. My recommendation would be to start by reading three books - (1) "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong, (2) "Holy War - The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World" by Karen Armstrong, and (3) "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

Inflexible fundamentalist religious mythologies, exascerbated by basic human bigotry, greed, and tribalism, has created, possibly, the final chapter of the United States Empire.

[Patrick Henry]

Jimmy Carter wants to to extend his good work from 1978. He brought the Ayatollahs to power and created the legacy of Islamic extremism we face today. He is an incompetent and shameless self-promoter.

[gb]

Note to individuals stating Hamas is the legitimate elected government: they were part of an elected coalition government which included Fatah. Unable to participate in the coalition, they attacked and killed Fatah members in Gaza and overthrew the legitimate coalition government, and rule now as result of coup, not election. Part of their reason for overthrow was because Fatah was restricting their ability to lob Katyushas into Israel.

There can be no benefit from this visit unless Jimmy first renounces the Hamas use of violence (to which Israel must respond). Renunciation is unlikely to happen as Jimmy has given big wet sloppy kisses to people like Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega, no reason to expect anything different here.

[Mandaue Mactan]

Now might be a good time for Israel to do a surgical strike against Hamas, during Carter's visit.

[Fred]

I have always wondered why a preponderence of Jews votw for democommies. They are anti-semitic almost to a man ( and woman ) L'il Jimmah Cahtah was a lousy president and he is a lousy citizen too, undercutting the elected government of his country.

I give carter credit for participation in Habitat for Humanity but not much before or after that.

[Karl]

WRL056 says - "Surely not that the Israelis are deliberately targeting Palestinian women and children"

They most assuredly are. Just like the Israelis made it a point to target civilian targets in Lebanon during the 2006 war. 1119 Lebanese civilians & 250 Hezbolla died in that war, vs. 120 IDF forces & 43 Israeli civilians died.

That is a 5-to-1 civilian to antagonist ratio on the Lebanese side, vs. almost 3 IDF soldiers died for every Israeli citizen. Overwhelmingly, civilians are the 'casualty of choice' in every single conflict Israel has ever had, non-withstanding their greater technology and ability to knowledgeably target the supposed 'bad guy'.

[Josh]

No surprise that the racist supporters of Israel's crimes against humanity should feel put out by Carter -- the only American leader in fifty years to call Israel what it is -- an apartheid state.

Carter actually states things too kindly -- Israel is a far worse violator of human rights than China. There is not one Israeli leader since 1967 who is not guilty of crimes against humanity.

[ApostasyUSA]

Carter sees hope that these foolish people will one day give up fighting for the same 50 square miles. I'm glad Carter tries......I'm also glad that he could give a damn....about the opinions of some Israeli tools that don't care for peace.

I'm going to let this issue go. These fools who live in the Israeli-Palestinian state aren't looking for peace so why should I care. F the Israel, and F Palestine.

oh and Carter.........good luck..........you might be the only one serious about peace in the world...........