The Defamation of (past) President Carter |
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Servetus
Senior Member Male Joined: 04 April 2001 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2109 |
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Posted: 18 January 2007 at 4:23pm |
This is my immediate response to Stu Bykofsky's (Philadelphia Daily News) review of a book I have not yet read, Jimmy Carter's �Palestine, Peace not Apartheid�. I quote Bykofsky (in blue) and provide the URL below. Stu Bykofsky entitled his article: �Carter's book approaches anti-Semitism� To those who equate �SO JIMMY CARTER wrote a book and it's called " And in this review, one might say that Stu Bykofsky at times seems to erase the line between honest criticism of ideas and hoary ad hominem attacks. �It's so Arabcentric, Carter ought to be wearing Yasser Arafat's kaffiya.� But that might only give Israelocentric bull-dozers in yarmulkes more reason to encircle his house. �Carter heaps blame on tiny, terror-tortured Seymour Hersh, in his �Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy� has already told us who is tiny and who is massive in that little powder keg of a region. �When he {Carter} insinuates � " Note the assertion, or inference, in this case, that Carter �insinuates.� It�s all so very subtle. Apparently it cannot be proven that Carter has actually said, or stated anything of the sort, but an �insinuation� suffices for argument�s sake. �When he {Carter} insinuates that Jews - 2 percent of the U.S. population - control the government, the media, Wall Street, etc., it's the hoary anti-Semitism you expect to find on a KKK Web site, not in a book by an American president.� When Stu Bykofsky intuits that Jimmy Carter is insinuating, he writes sensational and emotionally charged sentences. They should be either accepted or rejected for what they are. �In interviews, Carter said his purpose was to ignite public discussion about Good. �Instead, he touched off a raging debate about the truth and honor of his book.� He has done both. �American Jews, and other friends of I would think he probably did expect it. Perhaps then, as he has suggested in his interviews, by means of public debate, �whole� truth, whatever that may be, shall be made clear. �He might not have expected some of his friends would rip the book.� Mr. Carter is well schooled in the vagaries and uncertainties of politics. �A devastating rebuke came from Dr. Kenneth Stein, of the democracy-promoting I trust Dr. Stein will find a job elsewhere. �Stein sat in on some Carter meetings with Let�s ask the �Summing up, Stein said, "Being a former president does not give one a unique privilege to invent information."� As something in the nature of a coup de gras, he might have added that that privilege seems restricted to current presidents. �Last week, 14 members of a I�m sure they will find jobs elsewhere. �Another former admirer, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, criticized Carter's command of the facts, his tilted analysis and even his tone.� One would expect no less from the pusillanimous and, in my opinion, rather likeable Mr. Dershowitz. �Having ignited the discussion, Carter declined You said that Carter desired to ignite �public� discussion. I don�t read that as his having agreed to a chat with Dershowitz. �"There is no need for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Ouch! Go Jimmy (and pass the popcorn)! �In that dismissive quote, Carter dropped the mask of humility to reveal the cold face of arrogance.� Oh, please. He is an ex-president and Ambassador at Large. If he doesn�t want to enter an arena to have a tug with a strong-jawed law professor from Hahvud, it is hardly indicative of arrogance or masks falling or, like, whatever. �If Dershowitz's schooling doesn't impress Carter, will he listen to someone with impeccable credentials?� Evidently, he has listened. He once also had an entire State Department at his disposal and was Commander in Chief of a rather impressive war machine. He wrote a book and found a publisher. Get used to it. �Dennis Ross, President Clinton's envoy to the This is one man�s opinion and it I think it deserves to be heard. But, it seems to me, a great deal more than Carter�s rather late and alleged �misrepresentation� has gone into undermining efforts to �bring� peace to the region, whether by Clinton or anyone else. Has Clinton himself weighed in on the matter? �In reading the book, several "tells" signaled Carter's bias to me.� Finally, we have something to analyze. �When blame falls on Arab shoulders, Carter's tone is often passive, such as reporting in 2000, "Peace negotiations at Point noted. �But when a second intifada breaks out {sic}, Carter casts specific blame on Jews, by writing it began "After Ariel Sharon visits the You make an intifada sound like a flu virus that inexplicably �breaks out.� Anyway, an intifada did follow immediately thereafter. If Carter had been truly wearing a kaffiya, he might have said that the intifada broke out after Ariel Sharon, of Sabra and Shatilla fame, evidently decided, for reasons known primarily to him and to his advisors, to consciously provoke an uprising by taking a no doubt perfectly legal stroll through the precincts of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Carter doesn�t do that. He writes only that �In one historical passage Carter writes, "Although Christian and Muslim Arabs had continued to live in this same land since Roman Times... "� Please cite the entire quotation in context. Is Carter here describing, or focusing upon inter-Arab conflicts between Christians and Muslims? �Astonishingly, Carter omits that Jews lived on that land before there was either Christianity or Islam and always had a presence there.� You seem easily astonished. �Does this small slip {sic} reveal Carter's Juden frei {Jew-free} state of mind? No. At this point, it does not. At least it doesn�t to me. Not anymore than your suspicious question and attribution of a so-called �slip� on Carter�s part reveals your state of mind. �Carter doesn't explain that when the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamas and Hezbollah "are seen to be struggling against Israeli occupation of So there are things you would like Carter to better explain. Suggest these things, as legitimate criticism, for his next book. �Carter's dishonesty {sic} extends to using the word "apartheid" in the title. That is an insult not just to Jews, but to the millions of South African blacks who lived under its terror.� Stu Bykofsky doesn�t explain why Carter�s use of the word �apartheid� is supposed to be insulting to [all?] Jews and South African blacks and gives us a big mouthful of swirling, gushing emotions to wash down his slander of Carter as �dishonest.� At any rate, and as it has been reported, Carter has explained his use of the term. �Carter eventually explains he doesn't mean that kind of apartheid; he means economic apartheid, and the terrorist-thwarting wall between To some in the public audience, even if he did mean that kind of apartheid, he wouldn�t be that far off. �He well knows that Arabs living among Jews in Consider sending him a list of things you expect him to say next time around. �Carter catalogs every {sic} Jewish abuse, but soft-pedals suicide-bombing Muslims. Using a classic double standard, he blames If this is true, then this is a legitimate criticism. But thus far in this article, it seems to me, you have done little more than to go on an emotional rampage and to bring unfounded accusations against President Carter. �That's why some feel Carter's book approaches anti-Semitism.� See opening statement for additional logic. At any rate, some people are overly sensitive and I am wary of �feelings� passing as public discourse. �That's why I agree with them.� And that is why I probably would not. Serv Ref: http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/16486312.htm Edited by Servetus |
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Servetus
Senior Member Male Joined: 04 April 2001 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2109 |
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�I have been called an anti-Semite," [Carter] said. "I have been called a bigot. I have been called a plagiarist. I have been called a coward. Those kind of accusations, they concern me, but they don't detract from the fact the book [Palestine, Peace not Apartheid] is accurate and is needed.� http://news.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBIS35Z6XE.html |
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mariyah
Senior Member Joined: 29 March 2006 Status: Offline Points: 1283 |
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Asalaamu alaikum Not to be rude, but isnt the above quoted critic a known zionist? In another post, I pasted a story from my local newspaper about a palestinian american friend of my who recently went with a jewish medical delegation to Jerusalem. Interestingly, the way she was treated there confirmed many of the claims made in Carter's book, Palestine, Peace or Apartheid. http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8277& ;KW=maryah Its funny about americans and many jews, they SCREAM bloody murder if you make a statement against the holocaust or deny it.. So what do you call the murder and systematic eradication of Palestinian men, women and children from their native homes? Think about it. And then answer. Read the book, and you will cry. People stated Carter was a bad president. Well maybe he was, he was too decent for the job. Tell that to the trash in the whitewash house now! Edited by Maryah |
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"Every good deed is charity whether you come to your brother's assistance or just greet him with a smile.
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Salams_wife
Senior Member Joined: 31 July 2007 Status: Offline Points: 296 |
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I read (former) President Carter's book and many things he said are easy to confirm, others are not because they took place behind closed doors. Yet, it is easy to see the after affects of what happened in those meetings behind closed doors. I respect Carter for doing what no former president has ever done. Talk about what is really going on. I suspect the only reason he felt safe to do so now is he is nearing the end of his life and so it is more difficult for anyone to hurt him politically, financially, or in any other way. Personally for the critics of his book, I think the truth hurts and that is why they try to defame him. |
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