Go, Jimmy!

Kudos to Jimmy Carter for mentioning the need for an Arab-Israeli peace process in his speech
at the Democratic Convention last night. In all the general US political rhetoric about “what needs to be done to combat the threat from Islamic extremism”, this item is all too frequently completely ignored.
And that’s been happening inside the Democratic Party as much as elsewhere, with Kerry’s platform and rhetoric apparently even trying to outbid Bush in lauding Ariel Sharon and all his schemes.
But there was dear Jimmy Carter last night, saying this:

    The United States has alienated its allies, dismayed its friends, and inadvertently gratified its enemies by proclaiming a confused and disturbing strategy of ‘pre-emptive’ war. With our allies disunited, the world resenting us, and the Middle East ablaze, we need John Kerry to restore life to the global war against terrorism.
    In the meantime, the Middle East peace process has come to a screeching halt for the first time since Israel became a nation. All former presidents, Democratic and Republican, have attempted to secure a comprehensive peace for Israel with hope and justice for the Palestinians. The achievements of Camp David a quarter century ago and the more recent progress made by President Bill Clinton are now in peril.
    Instead, violence has gripped the Holy Land, with the region increasingly swept by anti-American passions. Elsewhere, North Korea’s nuclear menace – a threat more real and immediate than any posed by Saddam Hussein – has been allowed to advance unheeded…

What was really interesting to see, on the televised version of the speech last night, was the high degree of support that Carter got from the audience–for this portion of the speech as for all his utterances.
I really do believe that there are many people in the Democratic Party and elsewhere throughout the country who realize that something is terribly out-of-whack in the US’s current radical tilt toward Sharon and his policies– and also, that this pro-Sharon tilt is linked to the strong antipathy expressed to toward US policies in Muslim societies throughout the world.
The American people are not stupid. It’s often the case, though, that they don’t quite know how to start talking about these issues without sounding anti-Semitic… And of course, the extremist Likud supporters who have positioned themselves in various “watchdog” roles around the country are always ready to leap onto someone expressing, say, criticism of this Israeli government’s policies and denounce her or him as “anti-Semitic”….


In the book that our Quaker Working Party wrote on the Israel-Palestine issue, we tried to find ways to describe and present what we saw in ways that were calm and fair to everyone–and also, to give readers the kinds of arguments and language they could really use to raise the level of public discussion of all these questions in ways which are not anti-Semitic and not Islamophobic.
(Click here to get more info about the book.)
Well, we know we’re far from being the only people to try to do this… But it sure was good to hear Jimmy Carter trying to mention this concern in the heart of the Democratic Convention.

13 thoughts on “Go, Jimmy!”

  1. Not just Likud supporters, but even such ostensible liberals as Harvard’s L. Summers and NYT’s T. Friedman
    see currents of anti-semitism behind criticism of Israel or opposition to the “liberation” of Iraq. Besides, don’t forget the weight of the Christian Right in shaping US postures. Quaint how the “WWJD?” elements think so highly of the nonobservant Reagan and so sour of Carter.

  2. Yep, when some European circles start echoing the Arab dogma that the creation of a Jewish State in the Middle East was a historical mistake, some people get defensive. Italians would react the same way if the subject were Italy, and so would any other nation.
    But more enlightening than Carter’s observations I find the 9/11 comission’s report when it stresses that we suffered a “failure of imagination”. When the enemy was the Soviet Union we had entire think tanks developing game theory around predicting what the interactions and outcomes between us and the enemy would be.
    I read “Failure of Imagination” as the realization that we have not developed the corresponding game theory centered around a culturally different enemy, and for the most part our leaders have not had the courage to clearly articulate who the new enemy is. “Failure of imagination” is both the failure to consider how the enemy’s mind works in preparing its terrorists attacks, as well as the total fiasco in our attempt to win Arab hearts and minds even when resorting to the most prestigious publicity firms, Hollywood gurus, and then some.
    Personally I think that unless we fix the “Failure of Imgination” angle, all other details, including Jimmy Carter’s nits are just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic’s deck.
    David

  3. I agree with the slogan “Go, Jimmy”. The reason may be got from the following quote and the URL which follows it:
    “The Carter State Department knew exactly what sort of reactionary fanatics they were unleashing back in 1979

  4. Perhaps the key “failure of imagination” is to recognize that ‘terror’,ie. terrorizing/terrifying
    people is usually a tactic,a means towards some end, not an end in itself.

  5. Maybe it’s something about the older generation. Even my 87 year old father, longtime Republican, if you mention Israel, responds firmly: “Israel is a terrorist state!”
    Carter’s calm denunciation of the bush policies (or lack thereof) was very convincing. The man is unimpeachable in my book!

  6. Carter instigated terrorism against the Taraki government in Afghanistan, precipitating the Soviet intervention and opening the Pandora’s box of Taliban, Al Qaeda, and all the rest.
    Allawi conducted terrorism in Iraq in co-operation with the CIA in the 1990s.
    Now the USA is busy starting another round of terrorism by the outrageous device of invoking the Geneva Convention (of which it is the principal violator) to shelter the MKO group of terrorists against Iran.
    See the Christian Science Monitor at http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0729/p07s01-wome.html .
    What comes to mind concerning US citizens’ relationship with their government is the phrase “willing suspension of disbelief”. The facts are in full view, but you all prefer to believe your government’s lies.

  7. Mary Ann, your father is entitled to his opinions regardless of age and affiliation, but I wonder where he pulls this one off. The Palestinians have about 13 terrorist organizations operating for decades, perfected the hijacking, civilian attacks, and now the suicide bombing, and somehow Israel fighting with its conventional army is a terrorist state.
    I know it is kind of late for me to change his opinions, but maybe he’d like to consider how many Americans were victimized by his terrorist state vs. by the multiple incarnations of Palestinian terrorism.
    David

  8. David, I can’t speak for my father, but I assure you he doesn’t excuse the Palestinians either.
    There is plenty of blame to go around.
    Dom, blame Carter all you want, but what about the ways in which Republican officials have done worse in the same part of the world?
    I’m tired of people putting out only half the facts!
    And I still respect Carter overall! My dad too, even if I disagree with some of his views.

  9. Mary Ann, the way you put it, it sounds as if one half of your world is Democrat and the other half Republican.
    But I am from South Africa where neither of these parties hold sway. I know Carter as a person who makes it his business to come around here posing as what? A judge? An angel? Meanwhile we know that he is part of the movement against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. We approve of Chavez.
    So we start to look around and we find that Carter has a record, that the record goes right to the origin of the present US-versus-Muslim situation in the world. Whatever any others may have done, Carter was in there first.
    Carter is a whited sepulchre.

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