Jimmy Carter: Neville Chamberlain's Number 1 Fan

Stop the Band-Aid Treatment
We Need Policies for a Real, Lasting Middle East Peace

By Jimmy Carter
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Page A17

The Middle East is a tinderbox, with some key players on all sides waiting for every opportunity to destroy their enemies with bullets, bombs and missiles. One of the special vulnerabilities of Israel, and a repetitive cause of violence, is the holding of prisoners. Militant Palestinians and Lebanese know that a captured Israeli soldier or civilian is either a cause of conflict or a valuable bargaining chip for prisoner exchange. This assumption is based on a number of such trades, including 1,150 Arabs, mostly Palestinians, for three Israeli soldiers in 1985; 123 Lebanese for the remains of two Israeli soldiers in 1996; and 433 Palestinians and others for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers in 2004.

This stratagem precipitated the renewed violence that erupted in June when Palestinians dug a tunnel under the barrier that surrounds Gaza and assaulted some Israeli soldiers, killing two and capturing one. They offered to exchange the soldier for the release of 95 women and 313 children who are among almost 10,000 Arabs in Israeli prisons, but this time Israel rejected a swap and attacked Gaza in an attempt to free the soldier and stop rocket fire into Israel. The resulting destruction brought reconciliation between warring Palestinian factions and support for them throughout the Arab world.

Hezbollah militants then killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others, and insisted on Israel's withdrawal from disputed territory and an exchange for some of the several thousand incarcerated Lebanese. With American backing, Israeli bombs and missiles rained down on Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets from Syria and Iran struck northern Israel.

It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response. The result instead has been that broad Arab and worldwide support has been rallied for these groups, while condemnation of both Israel and the United States has intensified.

Just what the world needs, another Jimmy Carter solution to a world-wide crisis. What's the matter Jimmy, your disasterous North Korean agreement wasn't bad enough? Now you want to destroy Israel. As is typical of your limited mentality, you want Israel to give their enemies everything they request,

"withdraw from all Lebanese territory, including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners"

Of course! Why didn't I see it before? I must have been blind. You give a bully everything he asks for and he will leave you alone from then on. Neville Carter, eh? "Peace for our time." Is that what you are offering?

Jimmy, you truly are an idiot of the most profound and dangerous sort. Your Presidency was the single most disasterous since the Great Depression both economically and diplomatically, yet here you are giving advice to the American and Israeli people on how to run our foreign policy. You talk as if World War II and the lessons we learned never occurred. Like all Liberal idiots, you mistakenly believe that goodwill shown toward an implacable enemy whose only aim is the complete destruction of Israel will result in a like response. It is not only naive to believe so, but it requires a concious effort at being ignorant of history.

One would have thought that the lessons of Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" declaration would be ingrained in the mind of any who sought to be a diplomat on the world scene, particularly in a highly charged environment like the Middle East where one side is intent on the total destruction of the other side who for themselves seek only the right to peacefully and securely co-exist, but clearly it is not so because the Chamberlain path is the very path you are suggesting to resolve the current situation.

Full Story: Jimmah, Go Back to Your Peanut Farm

For another blogger's eye view, click on the Webloggin link below:
Hasn't Jimmy Carter Caused Enough Harm?

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