[DaRuckus337]

Jimmy Carter: courageous free thinker or out-of-touch, bigoted, fossil? Let's hear it warriors.


The United States, Israel and the European Union must end their policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian people to deepening conflict between the rival movements, former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was addressing a conference of Irish human rights officials, said the Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was "criminal."

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.

Carter said the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

While seeking to boycott the Hamas leadership for of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel, Europe and the US have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.

During his speech to Ireland's eighth annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election in which Hamas won 42 percent of the popular vote and a majority of parliamentary seats.

Carter said that election was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Far from encouraging Hamas's move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the US and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, has sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

Carter said the United States and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" - but Hamas this month routed Fatah because of its "superior skills and discipline."

He said plans to reopen international aid to the West Bank, but clamp down on aid to Gaza, would imprison 1.4 million Gazans. He called for both territories to be treated equally.

"This effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples now is a step in the wrong direction," he said. "All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together."

Carter was pessimistic this would happen soon.
"I don't see at this point any possibility that public officials in the United States, or in Israel, or the European Union are going to take action to bring about reconciliation," he said.


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

[computer fogie]

He seems to be far more in touch with what's been happening over there than any of us. Is any of his information factually wrong?

[DaRuckus337]

It's all opinion, so of course none of it is 'factually wrong.' The question is whether or not praising the 'organizational strength' of Hamas relative to Fatah as demonstrated by their recent brutal Gaza insurrection is the kind of opinions a reasonable, sane person would have. His opinion that it was 'criminal' of the US government to refuse to accept and fund Hamas after the 2006 elections is another opinion that borders on insane. Why would it be 'criminal' for the US to not fund an elected terror group that calls for the open destruction of a US ally in the name of religious fanaticism and in denial of a UN resolution? Why should the US government be expected to give US tax payer money to political/religious movements that exclusively use violence, suicide tactics, and hate to fuel their causes? Nobody is entitled to US aid - such charity must be earned - and Hamas has hardly done anything to earn the trust or sympathy of the US people.

[Thaiboxer18]

Everyone knows that Jimmy Carter has been dead since 1996, and that his half-Palestinian, half-American love child Yasser Carter has been calling the shots since then, using his famous father's name for political gain.

[clmetal]

Originally Posted by Thaiboxer18

Everyone knows that Jimmy Carter has been dead since 1996, and that his half-Palestinian, half-American love child Yasser Carter has been calling the shots since then, using his famous father's name for political gain.

lol - 2 nobel peace prize winners

[Darkballs]

Jimmy Carter comes from that rare breed of political thinking which stresses that you can do anything thing you want in this world and immediatly be absolved as long as you say "someone made me do it" or "but i was pissed". this dick-mitten of an ex-president sure has some criticism for this administration, but offers no real solutions of his own.

[KornWhole]

If an openly hostile government took majority of parliament seats and government positions in a European country, there would be a shit storm from all over the world. If Belgium for example wanted to wipe Holland to the Atlantic Ocean, do you honestly think the outside world would just openly support them, or the opposition party? Sure both big ruling parties of the Palestinians are playing a two faced game (with Hamas's gangs and Fatah's Al Aqsa "martyrs" as their armed extension of political party) but Hamas is the one that bases it's entire existence on one goal: to destroy Israel and to establish an Islamic state instead. They have been very reluctant to let go of this principle that has been written to their charter of foundation. They go to great lengths at trying to circumvent this rule in such a way that they don't need to form a lasting peace with Israel. A party that says that they agree to a long, temporary ceasefire, but that they will eventually try to destroy Israel is not a party you want to negotiate with.

For example, see what happened with EU and Serbia/Kosovo, or EU and Austria/Jörg Haiders government.

[kartaron]

Carter is just upset the palis have taken a break from the righteous slaughter of infidels. Old Jimmah needs his ritual transfusion of martyr's blood to get it up and he's worried the supply might dwindle.

[DaRuckus337]

I can't tell what disturbs me most here, that a former president thinks the statements in the above article are reasonable, or that a forum moderator does. I don't like the idea of people in positions of power (even people formerly in positions of power) having such poorly constructed conceptions. It worries me a little bit, even if they are just playing devils advocate (hopefully Jimmy Carter's excuse) or giving a knee-jerk far left response to what they initially perceive to be a right wing motivated post (hopefully Fogie's excuse). Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion (well, everyone who doesn't live under the barrel of 'well organized' Hamas), but it is disheartening to say the least when the very people who are in charge of and who represent us display opinions that are completely out of touch with reality. Perhaps I am taking the ramblings of an old man and the quick-post of an internet junky too seriously, but I fear for the future of the lucid thinking and objective minded members of global society if our leadership - elected and otherwise - truly have such poorly functioning moral compasses.

[TheMMAn]

Yeah, we need the only president that can possibly challenge Bush as the president with the worst foreign policy acumen lipping off.

And that's from a Georgian who knows him and his family.