Sadness of Jimmy Carter
Great piece from French intellectual Bernard-Henry Levy. He laments former President Carter's loss of touch with morality on his tour of Syria and discussions with Hamas. I agree whole heartedly. I don't doubt Carter's sincerity regarding peace in the Middle East. But as he proved when President (with the exception of the Camp David Accords), his complete naivity of the brutal realities in the world, makes him susceptible to empty moralizing that sounds wonderful, but is easily exploited by the ruthless and the unyielding. His trip was a disgrace and his anti-Israel line is also troubling.
Israel is far from perfect and has committed numerous acts that are very harsh. However, it is easy for intellectuals to be critical when they are not the ones being targeted for annihilation. Compared to how a Russia, a China, and probably even America would handle a similar situation, Israel has been restrained in its response to terrorism for years. The media amps every mistake and the international community criticizes them at every turn (much like President Carter), yet I don't see the Israelis committing suicide bombings.
I know all the theorizing about how such acts are born out of "desperation" and are embraced by the "weak" when confronting the jack booted evil of Zionist expansion, but at the end of the day, these acts are explicitly targeting civilians. I do not believe the Israelis have ever explicitly targeted civilians (though this is not to deny civilian casualties). This is a distinctive moral point, though often lost amid the self righteousness of so many intellectuals.
I can support a Palestinian state, in the long run it is clearly the right thing to do. I do not support the end of Israel. Until the extreme elements within the Palestinian movement can be reconciled with the real prospect of peace, however, they will not be successful in obtaining their nation and they will only incentivize a bunker mentality amongst the Israelis that will perpetuate the violence. Someone must break the cycle, whether right or wrong, the only ones who can do it are the Palestinians. For their sake as much or more than for Israel, they need to do this or nothing will change.
President Carter, unfortunately, doesn't believe this and offers a fig leaf to the elements that are responsible for the destruction of Palestinian society. His moralizing obscures his defense of what is indefensible and the irony is, he appears to have absolutely no clue.
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