Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Middle East and Jimmy Carter

What is Jimmy Carter up to? He continually interjects himself into the Middle East despite the fact that his presidency shows that he is clearly lacking in understanding in that area and it’s conflicts. Carter wrote a book called Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid that pretty much accused Israel of being racist and the problem in the Middle East. Israel has done everything towards attempting to get real peace including handing over the Gaza strip and allowing Palestinian Authority Autonomy in the West Bank.

Last year Carter met with Hamas and said they were ready to make peace with Israel despite the fact that the Hamas charter says they will never make peace with Israel. Nothing came of that and it’s unclear if there was anything really going on other than Carter having some kind of fantasy.

Now Jimmy Carter travels to Israel again and meets with Hamas and they say they found explosives along his proposed travel route. So Jimmy Carter says, hey Hamas has saved me, they should be taken off the terrorist list. It’s an odd coincidence that they find these explosives, it’s more likely that they planted them and found them. There is no reason for Palestinian militants to want Carter dead when he is there biggest ally, that’s why he was honored by the Palestinian government last week.

In one report we read that Hamas will accept Israel and another one says they won’t. So you have to wonder what Carter is doing. Is he just getting old and not seeing reality? Is he just trying to create some kind of legacy through Middle East peace that every US president has tried at without success?

The status of the Middle East doesn’t seem to be changing as far as anything former President carter is doing. With Obama pushing Israel to give in on areas they are unwilling to give in on, we should still keep alert on what’s happening in the Middle East.
What’s more likely to cause some kind of tide turning event is what’s happening in Iran, though it’s not likely that anything will substantively change there either.