14 Card-Carrying Carterites Jump Ship!

14 prominent Democrats have resigned from the advisory board of the Carter Center in Atlanta. Among the resigning parties are Michael Coles and Cathy Steinberg, both of whom ran spirited races for Congress against Republican incumbents in the 1990s. President Jimmy Carter, Iran's favorite object of ridicule, has written a book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which, has attracted a great deal of negative attention to the Carter Center. As the title suggests, Mr. Carter blames the Israelis for the 60-year strife in Palestine/Israel and accuses the Israeli regime of establishing an Apartheid-like society treating Palestinians as second-class citizens. By Carter's recollection, every problem that the Israelis and Palestinians have encountered was somehow the fault of the Israelis. The Palestinians have elected Hamas to power, a party that vows the total destruction of Israel as a Jewish state and uses suicide bombers to kill women and children in market places, but Israelis have sometimes searched Palestinians for weapons at the border and thereby inconvenienced them. In view of these two tactics, some observers would say that the side which does the bombing is the bad side. The letter of resignation is here: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009510
Carter has built his post-presidential reputation on helping Habitat for Humanity, attacking Ronald Reagan and defending the legitimacy of Banana Republic elections. (ie. third world elections that MIGHT have been rigged inasmuch as the incumbent candidate got 99% of the vote) Now, he justifies his detractors who criticize him for opposing American support for democracies around the world. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan are working on it.) so we support her efforts and the right of Israelis to live. In order to side with the Palestinians fully, as Carter appears to do, one must support or overlook their incendiary rhetoric and their complete rejection of compromise solutions to their disputes with Israel.
Please do not start asking, "Is Carter an anti-Semite?" That question is as irrelevant as it is unprovable. Truly, it does not matter what the state of his heart is. We Conservatives hate being called "racist, bigot, homophobe" every time we make a statement against Affirmative Action, so slinging incendiary labels at our opponents is the wrong tactic for us to employ. It is sufficient to say that Carter is wrong on this issue. His facts concerning the history of the conflict are incorrect, his perspective clouded, his impression of the benevolence of Hamas naive. In short, he makes an inept Unofficial Assistant Secretary of State for Peace in the World and I wish with all of my heart that he could be fired from his current self-appointed position. 14 of his former advisors now agree with me.