Comments on: Jimmy Carter’s New Book http://blog.z-word.com/2008/12/jimmy-carters-new-book/ Commentary about Zionism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism and the conflict in the Middle East Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:33:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5-RC1.1 By: Noga http://blog.z-word.com/2008/12/jimmy-carters-new-book/#comment-2395 Noga Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:35:42 +0000 http://blog.z-word.com/?p=635#comment-2395 Jimmy Carter, in my opinion, is a religious zealot. Here is where Carter’s faith takes him, as reported in Goldberg's review of his book in 2006: “On his first visit to the Jewish state… Carter writes…” I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures and that a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God. I asked if she was concerned about the secular nature of her Labor government.” Jews, in my experience, tend to become peevish when Christians, their traditional persecutors, lecture them on morality, and Carter reports that Meir was taken aback by his “temerity.” He is, of course, paying himself a compliment. Temerity is mandatory when you are doing God’s work, and Carter makes it clear in this polemical book that, in excoriating Israel for its sins — and he blames Israel almost entirely for perpetuating the hundred-year war between Arab and Jew — he is on a mission from God.” Here’s Hitchens on same: “Here is a man who, in his latest book on theIsrael-Palestine crisis, has found the elusive key to the problem. The mistakeof Israel, he tells us (and tells us that he told the Israeli leadership) is to have moved away from God and the prophets and toward secularism. If you ever feel like a good laugh, just tell yourself that things would improve if only theIsraeli government would be more Orthodox. Jimmy Carter will then turn hisvacantly pious glare on you, as if to say that you just don’t understand what it is to have a personal savior.” And even Chomsky agrees with this prognosis, from an aposite angle, of course: "... Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian." I think Carter's view of Jews and Israel is basically similar to that of TS Eliot. The great poet did not mind the identifiable religious Jews who were preoccupied with their religious observances and lifestyle. It was "any large number of free-thinking Jews" that was "undesirable,". I'm wondering if that's why Carter finds favour with Hamas and Hizzbala: they are so tightly religious, and far from free-thinking. Will he still support Palestinians if they become as secular as Israelis? Jimmy Carter, in my opinion, is a religious zealot. Here is where Carter’s faith takes him, as reported in Goldberg’s review of his book in 2006:

“On his first visit to the Jewish state… Carter writes…” I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures and that a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God. I asked if she was concerned about the secular nature of her Labor government.”

Jews, in my experience, tend to become peevish when Christians, their traditional persecutors, lecture them on morality, and Carter reports that Meir was taken aback by his “temerity.” He is, of course, paying himself a compliment. Temerity is mandatory when you are doing God’s work, and Carter makes it clear in this polemical book that, in excoriating Israel for its sins — and he blames Israel almost entirely for perpetuating the hundred-year war between Arab and Jew — he is on a mission from God.”

Here’s Hitchens on same:

“Here is a man who, in his latest book on theIsrael-Palestine crisis, has found the elusive key to the problem. The mistakeof Israel, he tells us (and tells us that he told the Israeli leadership) is to have moved away from God and the prophets and toward secularism. If you ever feel like a good laugh, just tell yourself that things would improve if only theIsraeli government would be more Orthodox. Jimmy Carter will then turn hisvacantly pious glare on you, as if to say that you just don’t understand what it is to have a personal savior.”

And even Chomsky agrees with this prognosis, from an aposite angle, of course:

“… Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian.”

I think Carter’s view of Jews and Israel is basically similar to that of TS Eliot. The great poet did not mind the identifiable religious Jews who were preoccupied with their religious observances and lifestyle. It was “any large number of free-thinking Jews” that was “undesirable,”.

I’m wondering if that’s why Carter finds favour with Hamas and Hizzbala: they are so tightly religious, and far from free-thinking. Will he still support Palestinians if they become as secular as Israelis?

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