Remember, folks, he’s not anti-Israel. He’s anti-Zionist. But the former president is going to meet with the head of a terrorist organization who last spring promised to continue its war against Israel.
“Hamas will not back down. We will not give up on a single metre of our homeland,†Meshaal said to thunderous applause.
“We will and we must continue in the path of resistance,†he added.
Then there’s this one from mid-December:
In an anniversary message to Hamas TV, the group’s top leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, said Hamas will not abandon violence. “This is our real choice, our trump card, which causes the enemy to succumb to us,†he said.
He said moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the West Bank, does not have the mandate to negotiate with Israel. “Our people are able to launch a third and fourth uprising until the dawn of victory arrives,†he warned.
And then there’s the most recent news, where Hamas openly admits that it regularly sends men to Iran for training, and receives weapons and materiel from their Iranian masters.
A senior commander interviewed by The Sunday Times said 300 of the group’s “best brains†had been secretly sent to Tehran.
Half are still being trained by Revolutionary Guards. They are learning how to make explosives from everyday items and produce deadlier rockets.
The rest have already returned from a Revolutionary Guard base in Tehran. Some have been trained as snipers. Others have learnt to use tunnels in attacks on Israeli forces.
“Iran is our mother,†the commander said. “She gives us information, military supplies and financial support.â€
Seven separate groups of Hamas militants have spent up to six months in Tehran since the training began in 2005.
Now, does any of this have any effect at all on the man whose premier accomplishment as president was paving the way for the Republican landslides of the 1980s?
Nope. He’s going to talk to, and thereby give unwarranted legitimacy, to the head of Hamas:
Former President Jimmy Carter is reportedly preparing an unprecedented meeting with the leader of Hamas, an organization that the U.S. government considers one of the leading terrorist threats in the world.
The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Carter was planning a trip to Syria for mid-April, during which he would meet with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on April 18.
Deanna Congileo, Carter’s press secretary, confirmed in an e-mail to FOXNews.com that Carter will be in the Mideast in April. Pressed for comment, Congileo did not deny that the former president is considering visiting Meshal.
“President Carter is planning a trip to the Mideast next week; however, we are still confirming details of the trip and will issue a press release by the end of this week,†wrote Congileo. “I cannot confirm any specific meetings at this point in time.â€
In other words, yep, he’s going to meet with the bastard.
Help me, readers. I need to make some kind of penance for voting for Carter in ’76. Okay, Ford took New Jersey (where I lived at the time), but I am still guilty of the sin of foolishly thinking Carter would be a decent president. I plead the ignorance of youth, but still—I think I need to do something to make up for voting for him. Does voting for W. in 2004 count?
I didn’t vote for Carter, I was too young. :-) But had I voted, I probably would have voted for him. My whole class except for one (sensible student)all supported Carter.
Lynn-B wrote a post a while ago that she also voted for Carter. It’s hard to remember, but Ford as President promised to “reconsider” America’s relationship with Israel. For that reason Ford was not popular with Jews. And Carter was the Obama of 1976, the fresh newcomer with none of the baggage of regular politicians.
Knowing what most pro-Israel people knew at the time, Carter was the right choice.
I am afraid that we could get another Carter this time if Obama wins. I do not think that Hillary is like Carter, in that she does not seem as idiotic. Unfortunately that just means that her evil might be competent.
We might be forced to vote for the least of the three evils this time around. Then again, perhaps the Republican candidate for Vice President will be someone that we can be happy to vote for in 2012.
I never voted for any president on a single issue, until 2004. Then it was the defense of our nation and our future way of life, and W. was the only choice.
I voted for Carter because I didn’t want a continuation of the Nixon Administration, and Ford was exactly that.
Ah, to be young, naive, and anti-Republican again.
Actually, I’ll take the young. Skip the rest.
My sins are greater than yours, Meryl, at least on this issue. I not only voted for Carter twice but in 1980, when I lived in St. Louis, I did a little organizing on his behalf for the Missouri Democratic caucus. The fact that his opponent was Teddy the Pretender mitigates my sin but does not absolve me of it.
I couldn’t even bring myself to vote for Bush in ’04. Maybe I’m a little slower to learn than you are. However, in November I will be voting for McCain, not too happily but firmly.
Meryl pleads:
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Since, as noted, Ford won the state, this is not such a consequential offense. In such cases the courts tend to mete out more lenient penalties consisting of “community service,” in which the penitent offender gives personal testimony as part of an effort to educate the young and prevent them from making the same mistake. Meryl could set up a blog to do this.
That election was my first and I couldn’t vote for Ford because he pardoned Nixon. (He also presented himself as an “outsider” and *cough* an “agent of change”). So I must also plead guilty to contributing to the election of the worst ex-president in history. Mea Culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
Not only did I vote for Jimmy, but I knew him and members of his family for years. And my older brother Z”L was in the Carter White House with friends.
It is sad that he thinks that he can hide behind his profession of faith because that belittles all they tried to do.
And now he sleeps with anyone who will give him and the Center money.
What does that make him?
I never voted for Carter. In fact my one regret about Presidential voting is voting for Anderson in 1980 rather than Reagan. I did this because at the time I was worried about the Religious Right. Over the mext four years I learned this worry was overblown and the result of ignorance and snobbishness. In fact the last Democrat I voted for was Scoop Jackson, and part of his appeal was his fervent support for Israel. Since his death I have been a the analogue of a Yellow Dog Democrat, someone who will never vote for a candidate of the opposition party. I call it being a Dead Skunk Republican. Not that Republicans are always sweet smelling, but I cannot vote for the Copperheads.
A friend of mine voted for Obama in the primary because he is desperate to see Hillary and Bill removed from our political life. I will say to you Meryl, what I said to him when he begged forgiveness for this lapse: “It is forgiven, go thou and sin no more.” No doubt “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” People do a lot of foolish stuff that meets that description.
(Of course this is not actually a matter of sin and forgiveness. That is just a joke, if anyone reading this thread is inclined to take that too seriously. I put this paragraph in because people sometimes have trouble recognizing lighthearted or satirical comments on the Web.)
On a more serious note, I think Sabba is right and an Obama Administration will be the Second Coming of Jimmy Carter’s. The first one was bad enough. If he does win, I will console myself with this mantra: Jindal in ’12, Jindal in ’12. But it will be a long four years, with much disaster to make up for in the subsequent administration.
I guess this is a good time to bring up the time I saw him being interviewed by Bill Moyers. After slamming Israel and the American Jewish community, he began sarcastically referring to Jews as the “Chosen People”, his voice and demeanor dripping with venom and contempt. Make no mistake about it, Carter *hates* Jews with a passion. He is as bad if not worse than Buchanan, Farrakhan and Duke. It sickens me that he is an ex-President, and sickens me even more that I voted for him twice.
I think the real reason he hates Jews so much has nothing to do with Israel. He and his flunkys blame Jews for his loss in 1980, never mind the fact that the stereotypical “Reagan Democrat” was a blue-collar Catholic. He is a classic antisemite, an embittered loser who cannot own up to his own failures and shortcomings so he blames it all on the Jooooos.
That would be ironic Gary, because the Jews were and still are one of the most loyal demographics for the Democratic Party. They have “the lifestyles of Episcopalians and the voting habits of Puerto Ricans” was the way somebody once put it. I’m sure Jews voted for Carter overwhelmingly versus Reagan and Anderson in 1980, as in 1976. Most of them will do the same this year, no matter whether the nominee is Hillary or Obama.