13 Responses

1. when is carter gonna drop dead??

   why would obama want this moron around anyways? he was the worst president the us has ever had, he destroyed the economy. and at a time like this when obama stands on fixing the economy, the last person u want aroud is this jackass

2. I hope the DNC keeps Carter on the program. This way voters can see who the Democrats really are. It’s a shame that so many of our fellow Jews (a majority) will support the Democrat no what what. Keeping Carter on the program may influence a few voters to come to their senses and vote McCain.

3. As the saying goes ‘Birds of a feather, flock together’

4. On August 21, 2006, Ari Fleischer, President Bushs’ former press sec. penned the following letter to Carter:

   The Honorable Jimmy Carter
   The Carter Center
   453 Freedom Parkway
   Atlanta, Georgia 30307

   Dear Mr. President:

   I just read the transcript of your interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, in which you accuse Israel of launching an “unjustified attack on Lebanon.”

   Even after the interviewer reminded you that Israel was the first to get attacked, you charged Israel with lacking “any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.”

   As someone who served in the White House as a spokesman for a President, I am reluctant to criticize another President, but in this instance my conscience compels me to do so.

   Mr. President, your words are music to Hezbollah’s ears and your message is a blow to long-term peace.

   Just as you underestimated the threat of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, you underestimate the threat of radical Islam today. Your condemnation of Israel, the victim, only encourages Hezbollah, the attacker, to bide its time and attack again.

   Ahmed Barakat, a member of Hezbollah’s central council, last week told the Qatari newspaper as-Watan that “Today Arab and Muslim society is reasonably certain that the defeat of Israel is possible and that the countdown to the disappearance of the Zionist entity in the region has begun. The triumph of the resistance is the beginning of the death of the Israeli enemy.”

   I was raised a Democrat but I changed parties in 1982 because I believed your policies and the nuclear freeze movement invited increased Soviet militarism and adventurism. President Reagan’s military build-up and credible threat of the use of force helped bring about the demise of Communism and brought freedom and a better life to hundreds of millions in Central and Eastern Europe. It also secured a lasting peace.

   I’m sorry to see you articulate about Hezbollah and its aggression the same weak world-view that encouraged Soviet aggression. As Ronald Reagan showed us, peace through strength is the only formulation understood by those bent on destruction.

   I understand your longing for peace and your fond hope that Hezbollah can be reasoned with. However, when you call Israel’s defense “an attack”, when you call what is justified “unjustified”, and when you call morality immoral, I conclude that the pro-defense, strong foreign policy lessons of the 70s and 80s remain unacceptable to you. Also, when you criticize Israel for targeting so-called “civilian” areas in Beirut and other areas where Hezbollah hides its operations, the result would be – if Israel listened to you – the creation of safe havens from which more violence and rocket attacks would be planned and launched.

   Sadly, Hezbollah today is planning its next war. For the sake of peace, Israel deserves your praise, not your condemnation.

   Sincerely,

   L. Ari Fleischer

   Well said Ari. Maybe the RJC should remind the DNC of this letter too.

5. JIMMY CARTER INTERVIEW THAT PROMPTED THE LETTER FROM ARI FLEISCHER IN THE PREVIOUS COMMENT

   SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH JIMMY CARTER

   “The US and Israel Stand Alone”

   Former US president Jimmy Carter speaks with DER SPIEGEL about the danger posed to American values by George W. Bush, the difficult situation in the Middle East and Cuba’s ailing Fidel Castro.

   SPIEGEL: Mr. Carter, in your new book you write that only the American people can ensure that the US government returns to the country’s old moral principles. Are you suggesting that the current US administration of George W. Bush of acting immorally?

   Carter: There’s no doubt that this administration has made a radical and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all previous administrations including those of both Republican and Democratic presidents.

   SPIEGEL: For example?

   Carter: Under all of its predecessors there was a commitment to peace instead of preemptive war. Our country always had a policy of not going to war unless our own security was directly threatened and now we have a new policy of going to war on a preemptive basis. Another very serious departure from past policies is the separation of church and state, which I describe in the book. This has been a policy since the time of Thomas Jefferson and my own religious beliefs are compatible with this. The other principle that I described in the book is basic justice. We’ve never had an administration before that so overtly and clearly and consistently passed tax reform bills that were uniquely targeted to benefit the richest people in our country at the expense or the detriment of the working families of America.

   SPIEGEL: You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Given this circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington’s call for democracy in the Middle East has been discredited?

   Carter: No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon.

   SPIEGEL: But wasn’t Israel the first to get attacked?

   Carter: I don’t think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that’s justified, no.

   SPIEGEL: Do you think the United States is still an important factor in securing a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis?

   Carter: Yes, as a matter of fact as you know ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton. This administration has not attempted at all in the last six years to negotiate or attempt to negotiate a settlement between Israel and any of its neighbors or the Palestinians.

   SPIEGEL: What makes you personally so optimistic about the effectiveness of diplomacy? You are, so to speak, the father of Camp David negotiations.

   Carter: When I became president we had had four terrible wars between the Arabs and Israelis (behind us). And I under great difficulty, particularly because Menachim Begin was elected, decided to try negotiation and it worked and we have a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt for 27 years that has never been violated. You never can be certain in advance that negotiations on difficult circumstances will be successful, but you can be certain in advance if you don’t negotiate that your problem is going to continue and maybe even get worse.

   SPIEGEL: But negotiations failed to prevent the burning of Beirut and bombardment of Haifa.

   Carter: I’m distressed. But I think that the proposals that have been made in the last few days by the (Lebanese) Prime Minister (Fuoad) Siniora are quite reasonable. And I think they should declare an immediate cease-fire on both sides, Hezbollah said they would comply, I hope Israel will comply, and then do the long, slow, tedious negotiation that is necessary to stabilize the northern border of Israel completely. There has to be some exchange of prisoners. There have been successful exchanges of prisoners between Israel and the Palestinians in the past and that’s something that can be done right now.

   SPIEGEL: Should there be an international peacekeeping force along the Lebanese-Israeli border?

   Carter: Yes.

   SPIEGEL: And can you imagine Germans soldiers taking part?

   Carter: Yes, I can imagine Germans taking part.

   SPIEGEL: … even with their history?

   Carter: Yes. That would be certainly satisfactory to me personally, and I think most people believe that enough time has passed so that historical facts can be ignored.

   SPIEGEL: One main points of your book is the rather strange coalition between Christian fundamentalists and the Republican Party. How can such a coalition of the pious lead to moral catastrophes like the Iraqi prison scandal in Abu Ghraib and torture in Guantanamo?

   Carter: The fundamentalists believe they have a unique relationship with God, and that they and their ideas are God’s ideas and God’s premises on the particular issue. Therefore, by definition since they are speaking for God anyone who disagrees with them is inherently wrong. And the next step is: Those who disagree with them are inherently inferior, and in extreme cases — as is the case with some fundamentalists around the world — it makes your opponents sub-humans, so that their lives are not significant. Another thing is that a fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality. And so this administration, for instance, has a policy of just refusing to talk to someone who is in strong disagreement with them — which is also a radical departure from past history. So these are the kinds of things that cause me concern. And, of course, fundamentalists don’t believe they can make mistakes, so when we permit the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, it’s just impossible for a fundamentalist to admit that a mistake was made.

   SPIEGEL: So how does this proximity to Christian fundamentalism manifest itself politically?

   Carter: Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous. For three years, I’d say, the major news media in our country were complicit in this subservience to the Bush administration out of fear that they would be accused of being disloyal. I think in the last six months or so some of the media have now begun to be critical. But it’s a long time coming.

   SPIEGEL: Take your fellow Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton. These days she is demanding the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But she, like many others, allowed President Bush to invade Iraq under a false pretext.

   Carter: That’s correct.

   SPIEGEL: Was the whole country in danger of losing its core values?

   Carter: For a while, yes. As you possibly know, historically, our country has had the capability of self-correcting our own mistakes. This applied to slavery in 1865, it applied to legal racial segregation a hundred years later or so. It applied to the Joe McCarthy era when anti-communism was in a fearsome phase in the country like terrorism now. So we have an ability to correct ourselves and I believe that nowadays there is a self-correction taking place. In my opinion the election results in Connecticut (Eds: The primary loss of war supporter Senator Joseph Lieberman) were an indication that Americans realized very clearly that we made a mistake in going into Iraq and staying there too long.

   SPIEGEL: Now even President Bush appears to have learned something from the catastrophe in Iraq. During his second term he has taken a more multilateral approach and has seemed to return to international cooperation.

   Carter: I think the administration learned a lesson, but I don’t see any indication that the administration would ever admit that it did make a mistake and needed to learn a lesson. I haven’t seen much indication, by the way, of your premise that this administration is now reconciling itself to other countries. I think that at this moment the United States and Israel probably stand more alone than our country has in generations.

   SPIEGEL: You’ve written about your meeting with Fidel Castro. He appears seriously ill now and Cuban exiles are partying already in the streets of Miami. You are probably not in the mood to join them.

   Carter: No, that’s true. Just because someone is ill I don’t think there should be a celebration of potential death. And my own belief is that Fidel Castro will recover. He is two years younger than I am, so he’s not beyond hope.

   SPIEGEL: You sought to normalize relations with Castro, but that never happened. Has anything been achieved through Cuba’s isolation?

   Carter: In my opinion, the embargo strengthens Castro and perpetuates communism in Cuba. A maximum degree of trade, tourism, commerce, visitation between our country and Cuba would bring an earlier end to Castro’s regime.

   SPIEGEL: You’ve been called the moral conscience of your country. How do you look at it yourself? Are you an outsider in American politics these days or do you represent a political demographic that could maybe elect the next US president?

   Carter: I think I represent the vast majority of Democrats in this country. I think there is a substantial portion of American people that completely agree with me. I can’t say a majority because we have fragmented portions in our country and divisions concerning gun control and the death penalty and abortion and gay marriage.

   SPIEGEL: As president, your performance was often criticized. But the work you did after leaving office to promote human rights has been widely praised. Has life been unfair to you?

   Carter: I’ve been lucky in my life. Everything that I’ve done has brought great pleasure and gratification to me and my wife. I had four years in the White House — it was not a failure. For someone to serve as president of the United States you can’t say it is a political failure. And we have had the best years of our lives since we left the White House. We’ve had a very full life.

   SPIEGEL: Do you feel you achieved even more out of office than you did as president?

   Carter: Well, I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

   SPIEGEL: Does America need a regime change?

   Carter: As I’ve said before, there is a self-corrective aspect to our country. And I think that the first step is going to be in the November election this year. This year, the Democrats have good chance of capturing one of the houses of Congress. I think the Senate is going to be a very close decision. My oldest son is running for the US Senate in the state of Nevada. And if just he and a few others can be successful then you have the US Senate in Democratic hands and that will make a profound and immediate difference.

   SPIEGEL: Mr. Carter, thank you for the interview.

   Can you believe that this man was once the president of our great country.

   H-shem Yishmor. Such outright sinaah. Unbelievable.

6. How any Jew could vote for Obama after this is beyond my understanding.

7. Do not assume the Republicans are our friends, either. According to Arutz-Sheva, the current Republican administration has been calling Yad L’Achim — the Ehrliche Yidden who rescue Yidden from missionaries in Eretz Yisrael — a terrorist organization, obviously to please their evangelical supporters:

   http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127116

   When this appeared, I e-mailed Sen. McCain, asking him to denounce these reprehensible actions. So far I have not gotten a response.

8. Why should the Liberal Democrats not have him speak at the convention after all he has the same opinion of Israel as the nominee???

9. #2. well said!

   I have one question: Do you think that Jimmy the peanut farmer will still be as supportive of Barrak Hussein Obama when he finds out that he not a muslim?

10. Great letter. Too bad Jimmy will not get it.

    This is a tough call. If Barack Obama gets word of this, he may try to comply. His voting record on Israel, in reality, is probably greater than McCain. McCain abstained from many senate votes, perhaps he was serving on committees or something.

    Speculative reactions aside, Obama has a strong record on Israel and Jewish concerns, especially dealing with the topic of Carter’s delusion.

    http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/SenRes534.html

    http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/IsraelFactSheet.pdf

    I dont like Obama on the “palestinian” issue but McCain, too, talks about “two states” living “side by side” (inside Israel).

    Anyway, before I digress, asking the Democratic party to ban a former president who is a Democrat from their convention, is a tall order, to say the least, and I am not sure if it is Obama’s call, anyway.

    Look, Bush is going to speak at the GOP convention and why not demand he release Pollard? Why not ask him to support Israel now, as Iran is clearly building military muscle that it will use on Israel, especially in light of the evidence of Iranian support to terrorists. Why does Bush recognize Abbas, who to me, is an arafat in a suit?

    What we want both parties to be and what they truly are, are different things.

11. Avraham, from a goyishe perspective Yad Le’achim is a violent fanatical group that should be put down. If you were a goy you’d think so too. The fact is that in some cases violence and fanaticism is called for, when it comes to avoda zara we sometimes have to leave behind our western “civilised” values and fight tum’ah, but we can’t expect our goyishe friends to understand and accept it. From their point of view they’re not doing anything wrong, and here we come and burn their literature and beat them up; it has to be done, and I’m 100% for Yad Le’achim doing it, but the price we have to pay is to listen to criticism from our goyishe friends. At the end of the day, though, we have to tell our friends that we understand their concerns, but this is a line we can’t cross; we can’t allow our people to be drawn away to avoda zara, regardless of the cost.

12. Very Interesting AKA VERY INCORRECT,

    May I remind you that Obamanation has no record when it comes to Israel since he is a newbie, a FIRST TERM Senator. For goodness sakes, he was only 145 days or so into his term before campagning for President. He is NOT the messiah as Pelosi dubbed him. He has no experience not to mention he cant speak a simple sentence without sounding like a moron.

    Sen McCain has been a “friend” of EY all along. He understands the need for security having has life experience – something Obamanation doesnt have.

    As for who speaks at the conventions, it is really up to the leader of the party which in this case is Obamanation. He caved in to the Clintons already because he is a wuss and he could cave again. All he has to say is NO but he will probably change his mind a few minutes later and say yes before he changes again and says maybe.

13. Too funny, #11.
    Not one case the missionary reshaim have brought against Yad L’Achim has stood up in court – it’s all been frivolous lawsuits. In contrast, missionaries have been caught on video violently assaulting members of Yad L’Achim. And, btw, don’t imagine your use of Hebrew terms deceives anybody.