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The Delusional World of Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter is at it again.
Under an animated picture of a large benign “parent” bird (read “Obama”) holding what might be a green olive branch above its two greedy children (read “Israelis and Palestinians”) whose yapping mouths are grabbing for the “food”, Carter has penned another op-ed for the New York Times (see the online animated piece here).
You can guess what the 92-year-old self-styled “Elder” has to say.
He demands that President Obama recognize the “state of Palestine.”
Here are the first two paragraphs:
“Atlanta — We do not yet know the policy of the next administration toward Israel and Palestine, but we do know the policy of this administration. It has been President Obama’s aim to support a negotiated end to the conflict based on two states, living side by side in peace.
That prospect is now in grave doubt. I am convinced that the United States can still shape the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the change in presidents, but time is very short. The simple but vital step this administration must take before its term expires on Jan. 20 is to grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine, as 137 countries have already done, and help it achieve full United Nations membership.” (emphasis mine)
Carter continues by giving his own twist on Security Council Resolution 242 which he says was the basis of the Camp David Accords that he helped negotiate between Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat:
“The key words of that resolution were ‘the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every state can live in security’ and the ‘withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.'”
Of course, there is no mention of the utter hypocrisy of members of the Security Council having talked about the inadmissibility of territory acquired through war when every one of those members lived in countries whose territories were acquired through war (most notably the United Kingdom which sponsored the resolution).
Nor is there any mention by Carter over the exhaustive work that went into the formulation of the word “territories.” This word was specifically used instead of the phrase “the territories” in order to indicate that Israel was not expected to withdraw from all of the land captured in the 1967 war.
Instead, as always, Carter devolves into a condemnation of Israel declaring that the Security Council should “reaffirm the illegality of all Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders” while bemoaning the fact that “about 600,000 Israeli settlers in Palestine enjoy the benefits of Israeli citizenship and laws.”
Moreover, Carter does a neat job of cherry-picking — conveniently leaving out what others have seen as one of the two main planks of 242:
“Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force…”
Why would Carter leave this out? Because the Palestinians have never, and will never, recognize the Jewish state of Israel.
In one of his concluding paragraphs, Carter writes:
“The combined weight of United States recognition, United Nations membership and a Security Council resolution solidly grounded in international law would lay the foundation of future diplomacy. The steps would bolster moderate Palestinian leadership, while sending clear assurance to the Israeli public of the worldwide recognition of Israel and its security.”
Could this be any more disingenuous? What Carter fervently wants is to bring down the combined weight of the United States and United Nations on Israel’s head. It would lay the foundation of future diplomacy? The Palestinians have never “negotiated” anything; their well-proven technique is to let Western countries negotiate Israeli concessions for them.
And how many times over the years have we heard the now-bankrupt phrase that Israel “should bolster moderate Palestinian leadership”?
And how many times has Israel succumbed to that ruse only to be rewarded with greater Palestinian terrorism? Remember what happened after the “steps of Oslo”? More than 1000 Israeli men, women, and children were blown to pieces.
And in what delusional world would American recognition of “Palestine” assure the Israeli public of worldwide recognition of Israel and its security?
Unfortunately, Jimmy Carter has long since gone around the bend. But also unfortunately, don’t be surprised if Obama follows his delusional advice.