A brief correction first -- one
more lesson that we cannot believe all that comes to us on the Internet.
Several people have forwarded me an e-mail about the last 819 Jews leaving
Norway because of anti-Semitism. I was a bit dubious about this and
did a bit of checking.
Found a statement from the ADL at
http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/cyber-safety/c/internet-rumors/alarmist-e-mail-norway-Judenrein.html:
"Much of the information in this
e-mail message [about the 819 Jews leaving] is alarmist and outright
false.
"ADL is in close contact with the leadership of the Norwegian Jewish community. The community has assured us there is absolutely no truth to the claim that all 819 Norwegian Jews have left. The Jewish population of Norway is approximately 1,700 and there has not been any significant emigration."
"ADL is in close contact with the leadership of the Norwegian Jewish community. The community has assured us there is absolutely no truth to the claim that all 819 Norwegian Jews have left. The Jewish population of Norway is approximately 1,700 and there has not been any significant emigration."
~~~~~~~~~~
And then... a follow-up on my
notice yesterday that Jimmy Carter is about to be presented on Wednesday with
the “International Advocate for Peace” award at Cardozo Law School at
Yeshiva University. This is what I call shameful.
I advised people to see a site set
up by concerned alumni, who advised protesting to the school. The official
school response, however, is that this is a decision of the students --
with the award to be presented by the school's "Journal of Conflict
Resolution."
That there is no official
sanction of this event by the school administration is being seriously
questioned, however. See: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/yus-law-school-to-honor-jimmy-carter-for-conflict-resolution/2013/04/08/
At any rate, there seems next to
no chance that the event will be cancelled. Professor Alan Dershowitz
offered to come to Cardozo tomorrow and debate Carter on human rights, but he
seems to have made this offer via the press and not directly to the
school. And I have no expectation that his offer will be accepted in any
event.
~~~~~~~~~~
What I can do here is provide some
salient information about Carter, which I ask you to share with
others. If Carter is being honored, his record must be very public as
well.
We can begin with a photo of
Carter, with his arms open wide to embrace Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, in Gaza
City, after the two had been discussing ways to eliminate the blockade of
Gaza.
Credit: Hamas via
The Jewish Press
~~~~~~~~~~
You can see links to several
positions Carter has taken with regard to terrorist organizations and
Israel (all from Elder of Ziyon) here:
~~~~~~~~~~
Where Israel is concerned, some of
his most outrageous statements can be found in his book, Peace: Not
Apartheid. The fact that he employs the term "apartheid," which
is a libelous buzz word the Palestinian Arabs use with regard to Israel,
provides a major clue as to where he's coming from.
You can see many issues regarding
the book, including some of his outright fabrications, addressed here: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=1246&x_context=2&x_outlet=118.
I would like to look at just once
prime example -- shameless in its blatant distortion of truth. This is
from the CAMERA link above:
"Carter claims Israel
has been the primary obstacle to peace, that Arab leaders have long sought peace
while Israel preferred holding on to 'Palestinian land' over peace,
and that if only Israel would '[withdraw] to the 1967 border as specified in the
U.N. Resolution 242...', there would be peace.
"...Carter
is factually wrong when he asserts that U.N. Resolution 242 requires
Israel to withdraw to the 1949 armistice line that was in place until
1967. He has repeated this serious falsehood in many interviews...
(Emphasis added)
"'The demand [wrote
Carter] is for them to give back all [his emphasis] the land.
The United Nations resolutions that apply, the agreements that have been made at
Camp David under me and later at Oslo for which the Israeli leaders received the
Nobel Peace Prizes, was [sic] based on Israel's withdrawal from occupied
territories.'
"He mischaracterizes UN
resolutions and apparently has forgotten what he himself signed as
a witness to the 1978 Camp
David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which states in Section A1c: 'The negotiations
[concerning the West Bank and Gaza] shall be based on all the provisions and
principles of UN Security Council Resolution 242. The negotiations will resolve,
among other matters, the location of the boundaries...'
"To claim
now that the very agreement he witnessed and signed specifies
withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines
is outrageous...
"UN Resolution 242 does not require
Israel to withdraw from all the land to the '1967 border,' since there is no
such border. The 'green line' is merely the 1949 armistice line
and the drafters of 242 explicitly stated that this line was not
a 'secure border' -- which 242 calls for.
"The British UN Ambassador at the time,
Lord Caradon, who introduced the resolution to the Council, has stated that,
'It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions
of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and
artificial.'" (Emphasis in original)
~~~~~~~~~~
Beyond exposing Carter, I cited
this example -- which shows how blatantly he lied -- for another reason as
well. What Carter says here is a reflection of the Palestinian Arab
"narrative," and you're likely to encounter it in many places (including in what
I am writing below about Kerry's efforts). I welcome the opportunity to
set this record straight once again.
~~~~~~~~~~
Lastly here, see what Alan
Dershowitz wrote in 2007, regarding "Ex-president for sale":
"Recent disclosures prove that it is
Carter who has been bought and paid for by anti-Israel Arab and Islamic
money."
"Journalist Jacob Laksin has documented the tens of millions of dollars
that the Carter Center has accepted from Saudi Arabian royalty and assorted
other Middle Eastern sultans, who, in return, Carter dutifully praised as
peaceful and tolerant (no matter how despotic the regime). And these are only
the confirmed, public donations.
"Carter has also accepted half a million
dollars and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, saying in 2001:
'This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal
friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan.' This is the same Zayed, the long-time
ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to
the Harvard
Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's
rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center,
claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who 'were the people who killed
the Jews in Europe' during the Holocaust. It
has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and
America perpetrating Sept.
11.
"Another journalist, Rachel Ehrenfeld, in a thorough and
devastating article on 'Carter’s Arab Financiers,' meticulously catalogues
Carter’s ties to Arab moneymen, from a Saudi bailout of his peanut farm in 1976,
to funding for Carter’s presidential library, to continued support for all
manner of Carter’s post-presidential activities. For instance, it was the
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), founded in Pakistan and fronted by a Saudi billionaire,
Gaith Pharaon, that helped Carter start up his beloved
Carter
Center."
There's more -- much more. But this is sufficient. A sad
day, indeed, that Cardozo Law School should honor this
man.
~~~~~~~~~~
As to the "peace
process," Secretary of State Kerry met with Prime Minister Netanyahu last
night, and again this morning.
Kerry referred to the
talks as "very productive," but this indicates nothing specific of consequence,
and -- thank Heaven -- I think there IS nothing of consequence that has
transpired. It is always possible that something is going on totally
behind closed doors with regard to Israeli concessions -- especially as Kerry is
insisting that what is discussed in the meetings not be made public as there is
nothing official yet -- but the tenor of the press conference between the two
did not suggest this.
Alluding to progress on
the economic front, he said it "could be critical to changing
perceptions and realities on the ground, all of which can contribute to forward
momentum." Here, he certainly means Israeli's release of PA tax
monies and probably some economic initiatives as well. But if he
thinks this is going to mollify Abbas or bring him to the table he can think
again. What was good was that Kerry stated upfront that these economic
initiatives do not substitute for political progress, which is at the heart of
the matter.
~~~~~~~~~~
Netanyahu, for his part,
provided a very politically correct statement:
"I'm determined not only
to resume the peace process with the Palestinians, but to make a serious effort
to end this conflict once and for all."
But he knows very well
that it is not possible to "end this conflict once and for all" now (or even in
the foreseeable future). If he wants the world to see what a good guy he
is -- and this is his style -- OK. If he prefers not to say publicly,
"Look, you know the PA is hostile and uncooperative and nothing is going to
happen," let it be. As long as he doesn't make concessions as part of that
"serious effort."
Kerry made a statement
about appreciating Netanyahu's "good faith effort;" this may simply be a
response to Netanyahu's eager words. Hopefully.
~~~~~~~~~~
There are unconfirmed
reports that Kerry wants to get Israel and the PA to Amman for four-way talks
with the US and Jordan involved. Jordan is exceedingly eager for this, and
for the international prestige that would accrue.
In the meantime, Kerry
says each of them will "do some homework" over the next few weeks "with a
view to seeing how we can really pull all of the pieces together."
So this is wait-and-see
until he's back again.
~~~~~~~~~~
There have been multiple
reports floating about a revival of the Arab League Peace Initiative. It
was originally a plan advanced by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and then
endorsed by the 22 members of the Arab League in 2002 and reintroduced in
2007.
A great deal was made of
it at the time, because for the first time there was talk about "comprehensive
peace." But this plan was dead at
its inception.
The Arab League intended
to dictate to Israel: No negotiations. Take it or leave it.
Move back totally behind the pre-'67 lines and receive normative
relations (however that was to be defined) with the Arab state in
return.
Israel wasn't having
it.
~~~~~~~~~~
Now apparently, according
to the Times of Israel, Kerry has reintroduced this possibility to Abbas as a
way to break the stalemate.
And here I comment:
The Arabs had expressed hope that Kerry would bring "new ideas" for
negotiations. Well, folks, there ain't no new ideas. There is just
a recycling of the same old ideas over and again. That is, as long as
the "two state solution" is the final goal. It's time to start
thinking out of the box -- something the US government is not remotely prepared
to consider yet. I'll come back to this. Here, I will simply say how
ludicrous that Kerry would think he could use this old plan to invigorate the
"peace process."
Kerry knew, going in,
that Israel would again reject the plan. So he suggested a few changes to
the Palestinian Arabs: a mutually agreed upon modification the 1967 line,
and stronger security guarantees for Israel, which is so concerned with
security.
PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb
Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio that: "Kerry asked us to change few
words in the Arab Peace Initiative but we refused." (Emphasis added)
What has to happen before
the Obama administration gets it?
~~~~~~~~~~
In the meantime,
according to YNet, later this month a delegation from the Arab League's Peace
Initiative Committee -- which will include the head of
the Committee, Secretary General of the Arab League, and the
foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and
the Palestinian Authority -- will be going to Washington to discuss
this.
Are we having fun
yet?
~~~~~~~~~~
I considered it important
to write today about Carter. And so I will table the important subject of Iran
until my next posting.
~~~~~~~~~~
©
Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner,
functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be
reproduced only
with
proper attribution.
If
it is reproduced and emphasis is added, the fact that it has been added must be
noted.
This material
is transmitted by Arlene only to persons who have requested it or agreed to
receive it. If you are on the list and wish to be removed, contact Arlene and
include your name in the text of the
message.
No comments:
Post a Comment