Our 39th President continues to embarrass and disappoint. The blood of dozens of slaughtered Fatah party members wasn’t even dry when Carter came to the defense of Hamas – a designated Islamic terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department – after a murderous coup in Gaza against members of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party. The former President blasted the Bush Administration, Israel, and the European Union as “criminal” for not recognizing Hamas as the legitimate victor in the 2006 Palestinian elections. Press reports said Carter further explained that “Hamas had proven itself to have ’superior skills and discipline’ in its slaughter of Fatah in the recent Gaza clashes.” To add to the irony, the Man from Plains defended the hooded killers of Hamas at a Human Rights forum in Ireland he attended as a presenter.
Never mind that Hamas has refused to disarm and renounce their support of terror..
Never mind that Hamas has refused to renounce its stated objective of the destruction of Israel, and to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Never mind that Hamas had just confirmed with their guns in Gaza why the US, EU, and Israel refused to recognize the Islamic Terrorist Organization as a legitimate political representative of the Palestinian people.
Carter’s outburst reminds us again of the Iranian hostage crisis that paralyzed his administration for 444 days until he left office embarrassed. It reminds us of the dangerous, failed notion of organizations like the United Nations that pretend all governments are somehow created equal whether they rule by force, fear, and tyranny or with truly free elections and the rule of law. Carter reminds us of his buddy-buddy relationship with another terrorist, Yasser Arafat, whom he foolishly treated as legitimate while Arafat gave rise to Islamic jihad, promote terrorism, and kill innocent Israelis. And, Carter’s latest gaff reminds us of the unwillingness of so very many political leaders – even an American President – to call evil by its name, to hold it accountable, and use every possible means to eliminate it rather than rationalize and legitimize it through cowardice and tolerance.
There is at least one pleasant thought that Carter conjures up, though. He is a former President. We wish he were also silent and invisible.