Posted on 12/05/2006 5:19:10 AM PST by SJackson
Jimmy Carter: “I oppose a Palestinian State”
By Jeff Ballabon (bio)
This was Carter, THEN:
… I am opposed to an independent Palestinian state, because in my own judgement and in the judgement of many leaders in the Middle East, including Arab leaders, this would be a destabilizing factor in the Middle East and would certainly not serve the United States interests. (Jimmy Carter at the United Jewish Appeal National Young Leadership Conference, February 25, 1980).
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…we oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The United States, as all of you know, has a warm and unique relationship of friendship with Israel that is morally right. It is compatible with our deepest religious convictions, and it is right in terms of America’s own strategic interests. We are committed to Israel’s security, prosperity, and future as a land that has so much to offer to the world. A strong Israel and a strong Egypt serve our own security interests.We are committed to Israel’s right to live in peace with all its neighbors, within secure and recognized borders, free from terrorism. We are committed to a Jerusalem that will forever remain undivided with free access to all faiths to the holy places. Nothing will deflect us from these fundamental principles and committments. (Source: First anniversary of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty / White House joint conference, March 23, 1980).
What has changed in the last 25 years? Not Israel’s 1948 independence. Not the 1967 war. Not the cynical, ignominous treatment of Arab refugees by the Arab world.
So why, 25 years later, is Israel’s right to exist a matter of debate, while Palestine’s right to exist is presumed by everyone from the United Nations to Jimmy Carter to George Bush to Ehud Olmert?
Why, when the Palestinian leaderships - PA and Hamas - the first imposed and the second popularly elected, demonstrate that their chief characteristics are, respectively, corrupt thuggery and bloody holy war, why then is endless-concession-making, negotiating, retreating, disengaging, humanitarian-aid-giving, appeasing Israel viewed as the “destabilizing factor?”
Did a massive land-grab by Israel precede Carter’s new book? On the contrary: a massive land-surrender preceded the book. And, in fact, when it retreats, morally, intellectually, politically, physically, Israel does become the destabilizing factor - or at least surrenders its role as the stabilizer of the world’s most volatile region.
What has changed is Israel’s own resolve. Why should anyone else fight to support a nation whose political elite takes every opportunity and advantage we give it and squanders it? Why should anyone else fight for a nation which sacrifices its soldiers rather than vanquishes its enemy? Why should anyone else fight for a nation which has ceased believing in itself? Which cravenly begs forgiveness on the rare occasions it actually defends its citizens? Why should anyone fight for a Jewish homeland which seems bent on denying its Jewishness? Why should anyone care about a state which retreats from its victories? Which sheds its democratic veneer to brutalize and displace its most patriotic and committed citizens, its idealists, its pioneers? Why should anyone care for an Israel that is willing, even eager, in its quest for a “secular revolution” to declare that the Jewish heritage is an albatross, that Judea and Samaria are a burden, and that Jerusalem is negotiable? That the State of Israel is, in fact, seeking to disengage from the Holy Land?
The turning point, perhaps the catalyst, was Oslo; the Bill Clinton/Ehud Barak plan to (in Clinton negotiator Dennis Ross’ terminology) dispense with the “mythologies” in order to negotiate. How very modern and enlightened and liberal and civilized. And how very destructive and foolish and deadly. The ideas, the principles, the vision, the morals, the truths which they disdain as mythologies were and are the very heart of Israel’s national aspiration. It was the vision that kept Jews alive through millenia of diaspora and dispersion, crusade, expulsion, forced conversion, blood libel and pogrom, and, finally, Holocaust And the heart may be romanticized as the seat of emotion, but only the hopelessly deluded excises it and thinks the body will survive. Only the deluded excises the heart. Or the suicidal.
What has changed, in consequence, is the resolve of Israel’s enemies as well. And, because they are not burdened by the selfish inanity of modern liberalism, they have not lost their willingness to suffer and to sacrifice. The suicides they are committing are anything but deluded; their terror is a winning strategy. Rather than eliciting disgust and fury, rather than being condemned as unutterably barbaric, the use of civilians as targets, children as bombs and grandmothers as bunkers has even brought them the sympathies of the deluded West. Not only in the corridors of the UN or the salons of Europe - but even in those enlightened liberal precincts in Israel where the stubborn, unruly Jewish “mythologies” have long since been relegated, surrendered, sublimated to an oh-so-superior modern Israeli multicultural consciousness.
It often has been said that the Jews are the canary in the coalmine.
Pay close attention, for what is playing out in Israel today is the future of the West.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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But in seriousness, if W ever discussed this topic back then, I would imagine we'd find a similar volte-face.
I thought he was opposed to an American state.
US President Ronald Reagan launched his peace plan on the Palestine Question on September 1, 1982 following Israel’s war against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. The specific proposals made in the Reagan Peace Plan may be summarized as follows:
-Full autonomy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza during a transitional period of five years, which would begin to run after an election of a self-governing authority.
-A freeze on Israeli settlements during the transitional period, because further settlement activity is in no way necessary for the security of Israel and only diminishes the confidence of the Arabs that a final outcome can be freely and fairly negotiated.
-The US will not support the establishment of an independent Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza, nor their annexation or permanent control over them by Israel.
-The final status of the West Bank and Gaza must be decided through negotiations, but it is the firm view of the US that self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan offers the best chance for a durable, just and lasting peace.
-In return for peace, Israel would withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, except from such part as would be required to assure its security. The plan specifies that the extent to which Israel should be asked to give up territory will be heavily affected by the extent of true peace and normalization and the security arrangements offered in return.
-Jerusalem must remain undivided, but its final status should be decided through negotiations.
It makes even more sense now, with Jordan and Israel being on good terms.
-Eric
Jimmie is just another liberal caught in his duel thinking. He just can't have it both ways.
Jimmy 'I fought the killer rabbit and survived' Carter - an ex-President still in search of a legacy.
This is the perfect example of the kind of lies this man told back then to deceive people and get elected.
If it weren't for Jimmy, the Ayatollah Khomeini wouldn't have come to power in Iran. Even if Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, it would be under the shah's son, a rational leader, rather than under a nutjob who wants to use his nukes against Israel, once he has them.
It's delusional to think that if the Palestinians have their own state, they'll stop blowing up innocent Jewish men, women and children.
"Pay close attention, for what is playing out in Israel today is the future of the West."
As others have said Israel is the canery in the coal mine.
Israel is the size of a small postage stamp with 6 million people surrounded by 200+million mooselimbs. Whatever happens in Israel might be an indication of mooselimb's desire for the west, but it's a far cry from a predictor of the future.
If tehran nuked Israel out of existance, it would indicate that they want to do the same to the US, but certainly wouldn't mean that they could do it.
Somebody might want to tell him he's not the President anymore.
What has changed...?
Fellow traveller$ go with the $trong hor$e.
I support a Palestinian state: how else can Israel declare war and put an end to this crap. Give 'em a country then annihilate it the first time one of their state supported murderers cuts loose in Israel.
Some statesman.
Heh heh heh . . .
It's delusional to think that they are civilized enough to build a state that is anything but a sinkhole.
didn't Israel just hand over all of Gaza and without missing a beat the P's were firing missiles from it into Sderot. seems like that's an act ofwar by a sovereign state to me. but as usual the P's got away with it and continue to do so. when are we and Israel going to say we have had enough? "land for peace" is a dead letter: the Israelis get no peace for land.
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