Earlier today I posted Jimmy Carter's statement on the Diane Rehm show in D.C. that he could throw a grenade over the separation wall in Israel/Palestine. Just listened to the actual show. He said that the wall was dreamed up by Yitzhak Rabin as a way of stopping attacks but had turned into a landgrab wall. And: "I could throw a grenade over the top of it in most places, and so forth, but it is a barrier." Somewhat different from the construction I gave the comment this morning. Apologies to the president.
Carter also said, feelingly, "For the last 30 years of my life, the most important single issue of my life and the most important single desire and private prayer in international affairs has been to bring peace to Israel, with peace and justice for the Palestinians. The two are completely related." A beautiful statement. And part of the reason he lost his job, and has been pariah'd in the Democratic Party.
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Hey Phil – you need to do some journalism about this amazing song and its author, Michael Heart. Nobody seems to know anything about him, but the song is going viral – nearly a million hits on youtube: link to youtube.com
A folk song like this, which cuts through the propaganda, is going to be the end of the hasbara campaign.
Anyone who has Phil's email address – I don't – please ask him to look into this…
A Window for Israel/Palestine Peace?
Just Foreign Policy and Jewish Voice for Peace have launched a campaign to urge President Obama to reform U.S. policy toward the Palestinians so that George Mitchell's diplomacy can succeed: lift the blockade on Gaza, authorize U.S. diplomats to talk to Hamas officials, get serious about ending Israeli settlements in the West Bank, insist that US weapons supplied to Israel be only used for self-defense, as required by US law.
You can sign their letter here:
link to salsa.democracyinaction.org
Background:
link to huffingtonpost.com
You think some song is going to end the campaign to ensure most of you actually learn the truth about the Arab – Israeli conflict? Dream on.
Carter lost ebcause he screwed the economy and he proved to be ineffectual in dealing with Iran. On top of that, he was a lousy politician. But the Jews loved him, until he became senile.
Chris, you sound like you are trying to convince yourself rather than us. Good luck with that. :)
Georgian and big admirer of President Carter
Maybe by 'senile' he just means 'soft'. That would make some sense for these macho types – anyone who wants peace with 'evil' must be 'soft'.
Phil Weiss says that Carter made a "beautiful statement" by talking about how bringing peace to Israel with justice for the Palestinians has been his "most important single desire" and etc. for the last 30 years.
Well, even if he meant to exclude the last year he was in office and was talking only about the years after he was out one has to wonder about this. Almost kind of an even stronger but still quasi-religious mirror-image of the strange fascination that Bush too seems to have had with the conflict, and Clinton as well albeit without the religious undertone.
Why? Because the world is so lacking in any other big festering problems? Malnutrition, terrible poverty, chronic hot wars in Africa, terrible diseases with known cures but just underfunded or those with cures just around the corner but likewise underfunded…. But no, for some reason the world should somehow devote most of its attention, decade after decade, to these relatively few peoples in this one little corner of the Mediterranean who apparently think they should be at the constant center of the globe's attention.
Makes one wonder what would happen if the world just got together and told 'em nobody's interested anymore. Let 'em go beat each other bloody or whatever but nobody is gonna give either side dime one anymore, nor any attention either. Shit, you'd probably see the Israelis and Palestinians become instant allies trying to get those money and attention pipes flowing again.
Do either peoples really seem to fundamentally want to define themselves anymore as being anything other than perpetual warrior tribes?
Besides being just stupid for American Presidents to continually expend so much of their time and energy and legacies on such a hopeless place, it's just wrong as well given the microscopic interest the U.S. really has in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Whadda they think, that if they bring the "'peace" to the conflict that never quite comes the Bible's gonna be amended to put their name in it? "The Book of Jimmy" or "The Epistles of Georgie"?
Let's sure as hell hope that in the end Obama isn't going to contract this weird disease. Is there anything clearer than that the further we get the U.S. out and away from that morass the better U.S. interests are served? Aren't the primary reasons U.S. Presidents exist for is to try to advance American interests and solve America's problems?
The reason for the Presidency is to lead the nation in the direction that congress decides it should go. A strong president urges the congress to follow his vision, a weak president follows congress.
Congress should represent the will of the majority as limited by the constitution. That 'will' wants to ensure Israel's survival. It has wanted a Jewish homeland for over 160 years and has fully supported it after its establishment.
Learn to live with the will of the american people. You'll feel better.
Congresscritturs all equally bought and sold, that's how they get there.
Chris Berel – Your lies about President Carter are about as sickening as your lies in support of Zionism.
FOAD.
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From The Existentialist Cowboy
We need rebirth of the American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private life as well. The United States of America is unique in world history because it has a genius for leaders — many leaders — on many levels. But, back in 1976, Mr. Carter said, "Trust me." And a lot of people did. Now, many of those people are out of work.
–Ronald Reagan, Acceptance Speech at the 1980 Republican Convention
A promise never kept. Here's the truth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Job Growth Per Year Under Most Recent Presidents
Johnson 3.8%
Carter 3.1
Clinton 2.4
Kennedy 2.3
Nixon 2.3
Reagan 2.1
Bush 0.6
–Steve Kangas, quoting Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Survey
The Reagan economy never equaled the Carter economy. The job creation rate under Reagan never equaled that of the GOPs demon du jour –Jimmy Carter. Carter is still unfairly libeled and reviled by the extremists and liars of the GOP mainstream.
“You can't use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!” – Henry Brooks Adams (American writer, 1838-1918)
I thought Carter was simple, sincere and humble. But he is also willing to cling to the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will. He is being rehabilitated. Those who stone him and boast about how they hurt him only diminish themselves.
the will of the american people
what a grandiose and spurious phrase.
Doppler, a very interesting interview with his cousin reveal Carter to be unbearably rightious and paranoid. He had a pronounced "No one is good enough to be in this romm with me" attitude.
I also remember his NR days, a rather puffed up buffoon fawning over Rickover.
"unbearably rightious(sic) and paranoid"
Sounds a lot like "our little buddy" (OLB – aka Israel) although these definitions seem to apply more to Pres. Carter and less to Israel.
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1: acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin
2 a: morally right or justifiable -a righteous decision- b: arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality -righteous indignation-
—–
I would label most of Israel's posturing as faux indignation.
Kind of like your labeling Carter as bad for the US economy, yet ignoring your error (so what else is new?) when it's pointed out to you, chris.
Hasbara much?
~
chris Berel's view of the separation of powers afforded by the US Constitution is not the one I learned in my Constitutional law classes in my USA law school. He must have read it in a comic book. And, as a statement on real politics, it addresses nothing, but rather avoids.
He needs a smarter Hasbara mentor.
The jews loved Carter until he made the courageous decision to apply his righteous indignation also to Israeli government policies.
It is Zionism that is senile.
Then you did not go to an american law school.