Know Thine Enemies: The Peanut Farmer's Fables

We thank Tundra Tabloids for the photo of Saudi Arabia's lackey.

I'd never been enamored of Jimmy Carter's forays into the Arab-Israeli conflict, believing the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel came about despite, not because of, the peanut farmer's intervention.

When Sadat announced his readiness to go to Jerusalem, Carter's Administration reacted with dismay, since it destroyed Carter's dream of putting together multilateral Geneva conference that at best would have been counterproductive.

Had Carter simply brooded and stayed away, Sadat's visit would have been followed by face-to-face negotiations and a peace treaty between the parties that might have actually been observed in spirit by Egypt. Instead, Carter injected himself between Egypt and Israel, encouraged Sadat to be intransigent while pressuring Israel, subverting the process, leading to a peace which is at best cold and creating dynamics which froze real progress.

I read Carter's error-filled apartheid screed, but had never read his earlier book, "The Blood of Abraham," published in 1985, until I saw it in the library recently. (I certainly didn't want to buy a copy and contribute to Carter's royalties.)

I read "The Blood of Abraham" hoping to get more insight into the sources of Carter's anti-semitism. I gained no more insight into that, but certainly saw lots of evidence of Carter's skewed perspectives. There's clearly something sick in the mind of someone who not only likes Anwar Sadat and King Hussein while hating Menachem Begin, but also loves the Saudi royal family and Hafez Assad and seems to admire Yasser Arafat.

It's astounding that Carter devotes a chapter to the Palestinian Arabs and barely mentions terrorism and devotes a chapter to Saudi Arabia and doesn't as much as hint at the brutal oppression of women.

It is interesting that Carter's own words sometimes betray the misconceptions he tries to promulgate. For example, he tries to portray the Saudis as benevolent peace-seekers, but writes "Although the Saudis look upon Israel as a disturbing irritant that might ultimately be removed, in the meantime they would probably give tacit support to a peace arrangement based on U.N. Resolution 242 or the Fez declaration."

In other words, Carter recognizes that for the Arabs a peace agreement would really be a tactic used if they felt it could further their goal of destroying Israel, but he chooses to ignore that reality.

Also, while repeatedly implying Israel has to totally withdraw from every inch of territory it captured in 1967, and ignoring the fact that all this territory, including portions of Jerusalem, had been illegally occupied by Egypt and Jordan prior to 1967, along with the fact that no part of Jerusalem had ever been designated for the Arabs, he contradicts himself when he rightly points out "The Arabs must acknowledge openly and specifically that Israel is a reality and has a right to exist in peace, behind secure and recognized borders."

The armistice lines from 1948 could certainly never qualify as secure borders, so Carter, in agreement with Security Council Resolution 242, tacitly recognizes secure borders need to be negotiated. Until that happens, something the Arabs have continued to refuse to let happen, all the captured territories remain disputed and Israel has as much right to them as any other party.

Perhaps one of the most typical examples of the distorted prejudice in Carter's view comes at the start of the next-to-last paragraph: "Many Israelis, like their neighbors, are eagerly seeking a measure of normalized existence."

The false implication is that the Arabs want a normal existence but are prevented from attaining one by the obstruction of the Israelis, but there are a handful of Israelis who share the aspirations of their peaceful Arab neighbors and peace could be achieved if only that handful of Israelis could convince their brethren to join them.

The truth, as it is so frequently, is virtually the opposite of Carter's implication. The primary goal of Zionism is to be able to live a normal existence in their homeland, but the Arabs have fought violently from the beginning to prevent that.

I would recommend Carter's book to those who wish to better understand this leading opponent of the Jewish state, but don't expect to gain much understanding for the source of Carter's hatred. Please, however, don't buy this book.