Stretching The Truth In Peanut Land

Stretching The Truth In Peanut Land

By Gerald A. Honigman
September 25, 2003

Former President Jimmy Carter is at it again. He either loves living in a make believe world or is deliberately telling non-truths. He has access to too much information to blame it on ignorance or naiveté.

Pardon me if I don't sound too respectful, but the man has been shown to be a blatant hypocrite and, despite delusions about his own self-worth (an argument could be made that Camp David occurred despite him, not because of him), an outright menace to the survival of a viable Jewish State.

In his most recent blast of hot air in the September 23, 2003 Washington Post ("The Choice For Israelis"), he again proclaimed that the occupied territories and settlement issue were the main causes of Arab resentment and thus the violence as well. Surely he's aware of poll after poll taken among Arabs that have shown that if Israel withdrew completely from those disputed areas, the Arabs would still reject Israel's right to exist. It's not how big Israel is but that Israel is that's the problem...and he knows this. And he knows about the offers made by Barak and Clinton at Camp David 2000 and Taba. Yet he insists on prodding Jews to take suicidal chances and forsake security measures with a bloodthirsty enemy he wouldn't dream of asking others to do.

Surely he knows that the PLO was formed in 1964....before Israel was in the territories. And surely he knows that nothing has changed in the Arab mindset since then or before. Mr. Carter sees the Palestinian Authority websites, maps, schoolbooks, hears the imams calling for death to the Jews, etc. He knows full well that the proposed 23rd Arab state - second one to be created within the original borders of Mandatory Palestine as Britain received it on April 25, 1920 - plans to replace Israel, not live side by side with it.

It's no accident that at the summits leading up to the "Roadmap," Ahmed Qurei - newest Arafatian chief marionette - went on record as opposing the use of "Jewish" along with "State of Israel." And these folks still insist that Israel, after being made to return to its 9-mile wide, pre-'67 armistice line existence, then agree to absorb millions of real or alleged descendants of Arab refugees. The half of Israel's Jews who were refugees themselves from so-called "Arab" lands doesn't seem to register with him.

At the close of hostilities after the invasion by Arab states of a nascent Israel in 1948, those fragile UN-imposed Auschwitz - I mean armistice - lines made Israel a constant temptation to its enemies. Most of Israel's population and industry lies in that narrow waistband. Mr. Carter knows full well that you need a magnifying glass to find Israel in a map of the region...a microscope for a map of the world.

He dares to bring up UN Resolution #242 to support his position for Israel's departure from the territories. While he's a bit more careful in his wording this time, he still implies that a virtually total withdrawal is required. Nations have acquired territories thousands of miles away from home in the name of their own security, but Mr. Carter can't seem to figure out that Israel's 9-mile wide, artificially-imposed existence (the '49 armistice lines were never meant to be final borders) was a travesty of justice in desperate need of rectification. Whatever the size, shape, etc. the proposed 23rd Arab state might eventually be, it must not come at the expense of security of the sole, miniscule state of the Jews.

In the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War Israel was forced to fight after it was blockaded at the Straits of Tiran and other life-threatening hostile acts, UN Resolution #242 most definitely did not demand that Israel return to the status quo ante bellum. The architects of that resolution such as Eugene Rostow, Arthur Goldberg, and others have all stressed quite the contrary. It called, instead, for the creation of secure and recognized borders to replace those fragile post-'48 armistice lines. Most of Israel's settlements have been built on strategic high ground areas for this reason. Even with these left in place, Israel's width goes from 9 miles up to perhaps around twenty in that waist bordering the West Bank / Judea and Samaria. Most people in America drive further just to go to work. Any "Roadmap" discussions must continue to take this into account. Those currently involving the path of the security fence are particularly relevant. While compromises are in order, Carter's demands, advice, or whatever on this issue are not..

He speaks of the territories as if Palestinian Arabs (many of whom were newcomers - settlers - themselves in Palestine) had exclusive rights there. Contrary to popular current protestations, these are not occupied Palestinian Arab lands.

Leading scholars such as William O'Brien, Rostow, and others have pointed out that these lands were non-apportioned areas of the Mandate, and all residents - Arabs, Jews, etc. - had the right to live there. Indeed, Jews had lived and owned land in Judea and Samaria until their earlier massacres by Arabs. And Mr. Carter knows this too...As he does the writings of the so-called moderates like the late Faisal Husseini whose goal was/is still a purely Arab Palestine from the River to the Sea. Indeed, the "moderates" of the good cop/bad cop game the Arabs have played to gain concessions from the Jews speak in terms of temporary, meaningless concessions to the Jews as the Trojan Horse that will be used to deliver the final prize, Arafat's modern professed version of the "Peace of the Quraysh." The latter were the pagan tribe the Muslim Prophet, Muhammad, made his temporary truce with until he gained the position and strength to deliver the final blow. Talk of a new "truce" with Arafat falls into this same category.

It's time to call it what it is... Mr. Carter's constant demand that Israel cave in to such above hogwash is nothing short of hostile intent on his part towards the Jewish State. He expects no others to bare their necks so freely to their sworn murderous enemies as he does Jews.

When I see Mr. Carter show the same concern over the plight of some thirty million perpetually victimized stateless Kurds as he does for creating a 23rd state for Arabs (on the ashes of Israel...but fear not, he'll give a proper southern gentleman's eulogy), I might listen to him again. For now, his hypocrisy and double standards vis-á-vis Jews and Israel simply make him a spokesman for the Arab cause.

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