[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

Old news, but some may have forgotten Carters bigotry.

[Cinnamon Girl]

Moshe Dayan should have kicked Carter's @ss.

[Nonstatist]

Dean is a latter day Carter. He'd f**k the Jews over too, I'm sure.

[risk]

FYI, I haven't read it, but Andrew and Leslie Cockburn's book Dangerous Liasons is probably not very friendly to the U.S./Israel relationship. I think what primes the Left (European and American) to be disposed to anti-zionism is its inability to recognize the Cold War commonality between Israeli and Anglo cultures. That commonality continues today with the war on terror. But since the Left refused to get behind the Cold War, the machinations of the Anglosphere and Israel against its common enemies could appear to be inhumane. With a backdrop of 100 million dead in communist-affected lands, this is unforgivable.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to forgive countries involved with the non-alligned movement, and especially ones that drifted toward Soviet influlence for the pure convenience of it. That goes for Egypt, Syria, Iran, Lybia, and a host of countries in Africa and South America. Anti-zionists were basically pro-Soviet, and now they are pro-Islamist.

I'm not sure Andrew and Leslie Cockburn are a reliable source on this matter. In any case, Cater's lack of resolve is legendary. Any dithering on his part with regard to Israel could simply be ascribed to his weak commitment to fighting communism. I fear it's worse than that, but the Cockburns appear to be so far to the left on the CIA and Israel that I can't trust them.

[Paleo Conservative]

The more I read about Carter, the more I am conviced he is a vile and petty excuse for a man. Back when he was president, I assumed he was just incompetent. I know better now.

[PhilipFreneau]

Carter significantly changed his views toward Israel after he won the 1976 election. The following is from Carter during a 1976 debate with Gerald Ford:

"Under the last Democratic administration 60 percent of all weapons that went into the Middle East were for Israel. Nowadays - 75 percent were for Israel before. Now [under the Nixon and Ford administrations] 60 percent go to the Arab countries, and this does not include Iran. If you include Iran, our present shipment of weapons to the Middle East, only 20 percent goes to Israel. This is a deviation from idealism; it's a deviation from a commitment to our major ally in the Middle East, which is Israel; it's a yielding to economic pressure on the part of the Arabs on the oil issue; and it's also a tremendous indication that under the Ford administration we have not addressed the energy policy adequately. We still have no comprehensive energy policy in this country."

" . . . in 1975, we almost brought Israel to their knees after the uh - Yom Kippur War by the so-called reassessment of our relationship to Israel. [The Ford Administration] in effect tried to make Israel the scapegoat for the problems in the Middle East. And this weakened our relationships with Israel a great deal and put a cloud on the total commitment that our people feel toward the Israelis. There ought to be a clear, unequivocal commitment without change to Israel.

[Valin]

So did the fact that Reagan was receiving support from some rather surprising sources, including the endorsement of former Democratic senator Eugene McCarthy, at one time a virtual icon of the 1960`s antiwar movement.


Really? I never knew that. Anyone have a link or something about this?