Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Nuts To You, Jimmuh Carter!

Jimmy Carter continues to amaze. During a speech in Ireland where he picked up a $1.2 million check for his Carter Center he said, "the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

Jimmuh? I'm not certain they need any help with that.

Besides, hasn't Hamas been on the list of terrorist organizations for years, with an ever-increasing devotion to violence? Why WOULD other countries support them? Is he truly serious about Israel helping to fund the very group who wants them annihilated? Jimmuh, even YOU can't seriously think that's not batsh*t crazy.

Besides-besides, isn't it a bit reductive to assume that all Palestinians want the same thing? Like, "Oh, you're Palestinian. Then your hopes and dreams for your nation's future include the following three things I've decided you must be longing for...." Jimmy Carter doesn't see Palestinians as actual human people; he sees them as a political tool for his increasingly asinine rants. Why not mention those Palestinian individuals running for the border crossing into Israel when the fighting started? Why not mention the humanitarian aid being sent into both Gaza and the West Bank by Israel? Why not mention all the Palestinian people who have told journalists that they want the fighting to stop and for these gangs of thugs to let them live in peace? Why not treat them like actual people rather than a monolithic political bloc about whom Jimmy feels most qualified to speak?

I swear to G-d, it's like watching someone you thought you knew come completely undone, little by little, in dreadfully public ways. Rosalyn, you are stronger than you ever let on. Call him home and put him to work on building a house.

1 comment:

Vigilante said...

For two generations, Palestinians have had worse political leadership than Americans have had for two presidential terms. Now, until Israel can bring itself to surrender the West Bank settlements, they have not demonstrated they are doing any better. This week, the ME has gone from a situation in which a two-state solution was barely possible to one where a four-state (counting southern Lebanon) solution seemed inevitable. Maybe clarity has been achieved, but certainly not livability.

I haven't read Carter's book, unlike you, so I won't go farther than this for the time being.