Thursday, January 8, 2009

Jimmy Carter Hates Teh Jews

You can expect that meme to be pushed on right wing radio and FoxNews I am sure in reaction to an op ed entitled "An Unnecessary War" Former President Jimmy Carter has written in today's Washington Post. Once again I wonder how long it will be before any of our current elected officials break from the herd and actually have the courage to speak out and tell the truth. I am really hoping at the latest it will be January 20th.

Some excerpts.

After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife, Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions. About 3,000 residents had moved to other communities, and the streets, playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty. Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens in his office to meet us and complained that the government of Israel was not stopping the rockets, either through diplomacy or military action.


snip

We knew that the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza were being starved, as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food had found that acute malnutrition in Gaza was on the same scale as in the poorest nations in the southern Sahara, with more than half of all Palestinian families eating only one meal a day.

Palestinian leaders from Gaza were noncommittal on all issues, claiming that rockets were the only way to respond to their imprisonment and to dramatize their humanitarian plight. The top Hamas leaders in Damascus, however, agreed to consider a cease-fire in Gaza only, provided Israel would not attack Gaza and would permit normal humanitarian supplies to be delivered to Palestinian citizens.


snip

Since we were only observers, and not negotiators, we relayed this information to the Egyptians, and they pursued the cease-fire proposal. After about a month, the Egyptians and Hamas informed us that all military action by both sides and all rocket firing would stop on June 19, for a period of six months, and that humanitarian supplies would be restored to the normal level that had existed before Israel's withdrawal in 2005 (about 700 trucks daily).

We were unable to confirm this in Jerusalem because of Israel's unwillingness to admit to any negotiations with Hamas, but rocket firing was soon stopped and there was an increase in supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel. Yet the increase was to an average of about 20 percent of normal levels. And this fragile truce was partially broken on Nov. 4, when Israel launched an attack in Gaza to destroy a defensive tunnel being dug by Hamas inside the wall that encloses Gaza.


snip

After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that time, Israel rejected international efforts to obtain a cease-fire, with full support from Washington. Seventeen mosques, the American International School, many private homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by courageous medical volunteers from many nations, as the fortunate ones operate on the wounded by light from diesel-powered generators.


Why oh why President Carter do you want to give aid and comfort to the terrorists?

I give President Carter major props for speaking truth to power about this conflict when it is definitely not the popular thing to do in this country.

2 comments:

  1. Reliably, Charles "Kill 'Em All" Krauthammer has a different opinion in yesterday's WaPo. Jesus, he's bloodthirsty.

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  2. Yeah "the Kraut" is definitely of the "kill em all and led god sort em out" group of neocon journalists. But it pretty much comes from a perversion of the first amendment. In our founding father's infinite wisdom they protected journalists right to speak the truth. But they couldn't have foreseen the roles that journalist would eventually serve in. Now adays as long as you are an opinion journalist you get to have it both ways. You get to say what you want like a real reporter but you also get to tell total lies and get away with it which is something no actual reporter could get away with and keep their jobs. He is a cheerleader for war with any brown people he can find and its amazing to me that the Washington Post continues to publish his drivel.

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