The Delusions of Jimmy Carter

By Jan Markell

www.olivetreeviews.org

Jimmy Carter traveled to the Middle East this week to meet with, among others, Khaled Meshal, the notorious Hamas commander living in exile in Damascus. This experience of "Carter Follies" is blatantly dangerous.

In Washington, the White House said Carter did not represent the United States in his Mideast tour, and that he was acting in a private capacity. President George W. Bush "is not a supporter of having conversations with Hamas, and we have made that known," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. The State Department told him "don't go." Carter stressed he was on a fact-finding tour for the Carter Center. That is why Israel is exercising pressure to try to prevent this meeting.

Among others, Khaled Meshal, the notorious Hamas commander living in exile in Damascus will be paid a visit.  For one thing, there is little to be learned from him. His resume speaks gruesomely for itself. A Hamas veteran, Meshal is suspected by Israeli authorities of being the mastermind of several high-profile terror attacks. The June 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit reportedly was carried out on his orders.

Meshal makes no effort to conceal his true aim: To destroy the Jewish state through a relentless campaign of terrorism. 

To his supporters, Meshal can be heard declaring that "Israel with the help of Allah will be defeated." With chilling candor, he has confessed that "resistance" - i.e., terrorism - is not only the "basis" of Palestinian politics but the "destiny" of the Palestinian people. 

Carter has maintained that "there is a good chance" that Hamas could become a nonviolent organization, which clearly shows a "Carter delusion."

Deluded though it is, there is a reason why Carter is prepared to believe Hamas' rhetoric over brutal reality. As he made clear in his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Carter shares the Palestinian terrorists' belief that Israel's "occupation," as opposed to the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel and their war against it, is to blame for the stalemated conflict.

Carter has become a pawn of terrorists who have the blood of countless Israelis, as well as Americans, on their hands.

Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 and the end of the so-called "occupation" there, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups have launched more than 6,000 rockets and mortars into Israel. But I bet that topic will not even come up.

As Frank Gaffney states, "In point of fact, it seems there is scarcely a serious bad actor on the planet with whom Jimmy Carter has not met. He is a serial tyrant-enabler, the very personification of Rodney King's appeal, 'Can't we all get along?' Mr. Carter has come to epitomize the notion that "dialogue" is always in order, no matter how odious or dangerous. In short, thanks in no small measure to Jimmy Carter's proclivities and meddling, the world is a considerably more dangerous place. 

That Carter continues to see these committed killers as peacemakers just furthers his strong delusion.

As Gary Bauer says, "Will Carter ask Hamas to end its anti-Semitic indoctrination of Palestinian children?" The latest from the region was a TV program showing Hamas killing President Bush.

Hamas, which is covenantally-committed to destroying Israel, has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

For a greater understanding of all of this, visit these categories at my Web site: Israel, Islam & the Arabs, and "Palestine."

Appeasement never works! If the Islamofascists believe America, then Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria warrant "negotiations" and this will embolden some of America's worst enemies as well.

By Jan Markell Click here for bio and archived articles