southchild

Fresh from bashing President Bush while in his presence and at a funeral, James Earl Carter takes time to add his worthless comments to the recent Palestinian election of Hamas, the terror group whose avowed goal is the destruction of Israel. Let’s see what Jimmy has to say, starting with the title:

Don’t Punish the Palestinians

Jimmy, we all know that you are hopelessly naive, but you couldn’t be foolish enough to fail to recognize that the Palestinians elected, in a landslide, a terror group commited to the destruction of the state of Israel. That’s rhetorical, because of course Jimmy is that foolish.

Israel moved yesterday to withhold funds (about $50 million per month) that the Palestinians earn from customs and tax revenue. Perhaps a greater aggravation by the Israelis is their decision to hinder movement of elected Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council members through any of more than a hundred Israeli checkpoints around and throughout the Palestinian territories. This will present significant obstacles to a government’s functioning effectively.

James, perhaps the Israelis have some serious national security interests in not having the new government function “effectively”. Again, try to remember the stated (and undenounced) goal of Hamas. Given your cute (were it not so terrifying) and trusting nature, I know this is a difficult task. May I suggest that you make some flashcards. On the front, the cards could say “Hamas is committed to ????” and on the back, please write “terror and the destruction of Israel”. Perhaps Rosalynn could help you with these.

The election of Hamas candidates cannot adversely affect genuine peace talks, since such talks have been nonexistent for over five years. A negotiated agreement is the only path to a permanent two-state solution, providing peace for Israel and justice for the Palestinians. In fact, if Israel is willing to include the Palestinians in the process, Abbas can still play this unique negotiating role as the unchallenged leader of the PLO (not the government that includes Hamas).

It was under this umbrella and not the Palestinian Authority that Arafat negotiated with Israeli leaders to conclude the Oslo peace agreement. Abbas has sought peace talks with Israel since his election a year ago, and there is nothing to prevent direct talks with him, even if Hamas does not soon take the ultimately inevitable steps of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel’s right to exist.

The arrogance and naivety of these paragraphs is hard for me to fathom. In other words, James says to Israel, don’t worry about the elections by the “innocent” (he does say this — I just didn’t quote it) Palestinians of a terror group bent on your destruction, keep negotiating. James’ love for dictators is influencing his thought process. James conveniently ignores the fact that the Palestinians have spoken loud and clear, and they have said that peace with Israel is not for them. Israel can continue to negotiate with Abbas, but will such results matter if 1. he has no credibility and 2. the people of “Palestine” have voted in landslide fashion for a government that is antithetical to the stated goals of the negotiation (i.e. a two-state solution).

It would not violate any political principles to at least give the Palestinians their own money; let humanitarian assistance continue through U.N. and private agencies; encourage Russia, Egypt and other nations to exert maximum influence on Hamas to moderate its negative policies; and support President Abbas in his efforts to ease tension, avoid violence and explore steps toward a lasting peace.

Though it just might violate the desire of the Israeli people to not die. Seems a bit more important than Jimmy’s “political principles”. Jimmy, do me a favor and keep talking. The American people already don’t trust the Democrats to deal with national security issues. Every time you open your mouth, I see that gap widening (and of course, your big white teeth).

This entry was posted on Monday, February 20th, 2006 at 8:37 am and is filed under General, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.