Israel Matzav

The sad end of Dhimmi Carter

There's a great article about Jimmy Carter in today's Wall Street Journal by Bernard Henri Levy, who apparently was at one time sympathetic to Carter (Hat Tip: Hot Air).

So what happened to this man, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

Is it the vanity of someone who is no longer so important, who wants a last 15 minutes in the spotlight before he has to leave the stage forever?

Is it the senility of a politician who has lost touch with reality and with his own party? Barack Obama, even more clearly than his rival, has just reminded us that it will not be possible to "sit down" with the leaders of Hamas unless they are prepared to "renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist, and respect past agreements."

Could he be suffering from a variant of self-hatred, or in this case a hatred of his own past as the Great Peacemaker?

All hypotheses are permitted. Whatever the reason, Mr. Carter has demonstrated an unusual capacity to transform a political error into a disastrous moral mistake.

I'm a lot less sympathetic to Carter. I believe that his undoing has been his going out of his way to hate Israel and the Jewish people. That's the only explanation for behavior like this, as described by Levy.

It is one thing to say, in Dublin on June 19, 2007, that the true criminals are not those who proclaim, like Mashaal, that "before dying" Israel must be "humiliated and degraded," but those who would prefer that these charming characters be pushed out of the circles of power, sooner or later, with a distinct preference for "sooner." It is quite another to come over in person and put all one's weight behind the most radical elements, those who are the most hostile to peace, the most profoundly nihilistic in the Palestinian camp.

I don't agree with everything Levy says in his article. For example, he thinks that eventually it's necessary to talk to Hamas; I believe that if we ever talk to the 'people' in Hamas it can only be after a radical transformation of their tactics and value system. But it's well worth your while to read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:01 PM