The Sad End of Jimmy Carter

[question everything]

The Sad End of Jimmy Carter
By BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY
April 25, 2008

(snip)

The problem is how Jimmy Carter went about it. The problem is the spectacular and useless embrace he exchanged with the senior Hamas dignitary, Nasser Shaer, in Ramallah. The problem is the wreath he laid piously at the grave of Yasser Arafat, who, as Mr. Carter knows better than anyone else, was a real obstacle to peace. It is that in Cairo, if we are to believe another Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, whose statement has so far not been denied, Mr. Carter apparently described Hamas as a "national liberation movement" – this party which has made a cult of death, a mythology of blood and race, and an anti-Semitism along the lines of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion into the linchpin of its ideology.

The problem is also the formidable nose thumbing he got from Hamas's exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, who, at the very moment he was receiving Mr. Carter, also triggered the first car bombing in several months in Keren Shalom on the Gaza strip – and that this event elicited from poor Mr. Carter, all tangled up in his small-time mediator calculations, not one disapproving or empathetic word.

(snip)

It is one thing to say, in Dublin on June 19, 2007, that the true criminals are not those who proclaim, like Mashaal, that "before dying" Israel must be "humiliated and degraded," but those who would prefer that these charming characters be pushed out of the circles of power, sooner or later, with a distinct preference for "sooner." It is quite another to come over in person and put all one's weight behind the most radical elements, those who are the most hostile to peace, the most profoundly nihilistic in the Palestinian camp. The truth is, if one wished to discredit the other side, to fully humiliate and ridicule the only Palestinian leader (Mahmoud Abbas) who at the risk of his life continues to believe in the solution of two states – if with a word one wanted to ruin the last dreams of men and women of goodwill who still believe in peace – one would be absolutely on the right track.

So what happened to this man, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate? Is it the vanity of someone who is no longer so important, who wants a last 15 minutes in the spotlight before he has to leave the stage forever? Is it the senility of a politician who has lost touch with reality and with his own party? Barack Obama, even more clearly than his rival, has just reminded us that it will not be possible to "sit down" with the leaders of Hamas unless they are prepared to "renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist, and respect past agreements." Could he be suffering from a variant of self-hatred, or in this case a hatred of his own past as the Great Peacemaker? All hypotheses are permitted. Whatever the reason, Mr. Carter has demonstrated an unusual capacity to transform a political error into a disastrous moral mistake.

Mr. Levy's new book, "Left in Dark Times: A Stand against the New Barbarism," will be published by Random House in September. This essay was translated from the French by Sara Sugihara.


URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120908506974843623.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Sorry, but this is a piece of garbage.

[Dorian Gray]

13. I know why you feel that way

but is there anything in the article that is factually incorrect? That's what I'd like to know.

Knowing it comes from the conservative WSJ, I don't want to take it at face value, but I'm also really cautious about Carter's meeting with Hamas. I don't think it was
the right move on his part, but I do think that his point that we need to have a dialogue with all parties is TRUE. The problem is, he was dialoging with only
one party, exacting promises that Hamas has no intention on honoring, and now it seems as though he's been played by a fool by everyone.

[notfullofit]

36. It was the laying of the wreath that pissed me off.

Arafat did more to hurt the Palestinian people than anyone else on the planet.
All those millions in Swiss bank accounts, now being enjoyed by his widow, all the while crying for the poor Palestinians, the hottest place in hell for him!

[genna]

47. I thought peacemakers seek out leaders who can make change.

Even if the majority of Americans are offended that President Carter would speak to PLO or Hamas to gain peace, who would Israel or America speak to who can stop the killing in the PLO or Hamas place?

At some point, when you make peace you must speak to those people who are making war.

Why would he talk to the people who already want peace?

[Redbear]

2. I could not disagree more. (n/t)

[Submariner]

3. Right wing neocon tripe n/t

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. This is laughable.

[specimenfred1984]

5. Ouch, citing RW propaganda as credible these days?

How's the Kool-Aid taste?

[canadianbeaver]

6. Prez Jimmy Carter is a humanitarian.....

I love that at least he is trying to get people talking and communications going....keep up the good work Jimmy..you are loved.

[classof56]

17. Amen! n/t

[shireen]

7. Jimmy Carter is my hero

He has a rare and bold courage that's missing in most world leaders.

[classof56]

18. Mine too! n/t

[CottonBear]

8. Bernard-Henri Levy is full of shit.

President Carter is a brave and intelligent man working for world peace.

Mr. Levy is an egotistical French writer who isn't doing a thing to bring about peace.

The gall of him to sugest that President Carter is senile. :grr:

[question everything]

20. And you base your claims on what?

Levy became famous as the young founder of the New Philosophers (Nouveaux Philosophes) school. This was a group of French intellectuals who were disenchanted with communist and socialist responses to the near-revolutionary upheavals in France of May 1968, which articulated a fierce and uncompromising moral critique of Marxist and socialist dogmas years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In contrast to the neo-conservatism of ex-leftist anti-Marxist American intellectuals, however, neither Lévy nor the New Philosophers embraced capitalist ideology on the rebound.

Lévy was one of the first French intellectuals to call for intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s, and spoke out early about Serbian concentration camps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard-Henri_L%C3%A9vy

[CottonBear]

32. I'm familiar with B-HL and his work. I disagree with him regarding President Carter.

I agree with many of his other positions and views and I respect him as a writer and a philosopher.

[Hannah Bell]

35. Henri-Levy, like David Horowitz, is a former (supposed) man of the

left who quickly shifted right. He's not considered of the left in France, but a toady of the ruling class.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/the_lies_of_bernard_henri_leacutevy/

[geiger]

9. is there a "do not recommend" button somewhere?

[classof56]

21. Oh, I wish there were!

I'd click on it in a millisecond. What an ugly diatribe against a peacemaker who is blessed indeed!

[DJ13]

10. By BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY

Gee, is it possible he's a supporter of Likud policies, so of course he has a bias against someone trying to obtain a peaceful resolution?

[Fearless]

11. He visited an elected governing body... so it's democracy until we don't like them...

Sounds like Reagan and Latin America all over again.

[question everything]

22. Yes, Hitler and Ahmedinejead were democratically elected

and do you think that Carter could visit any other country in the Middle East, or, say, Cuba or Venezuela, hold a press conference shitting on the hosting country and not be expelled or jailed?

[nels25]

30. Just to quibble a little bit

most historians accept as fact that Hitler was in fact appointed chancellor of Germany in early 33.

There were elections held in Germany in 32 and the fact is that the Nazi's never got to the 50% mark(although they did get close).

Hitler was proposed by Franz Van Popen (I believe I have the name correct) because he and certain German industrialist believed that he would be the best of the choices to be controlled by them.

The german government at that time was extremely unstable and had gone through numerous changes in the years leading up to Hitler's appointment.

They reasoned this was the best choice available, they had no idea (but sure should have) what they had unleashed.

As for I am a nut job. He was elected, but the election could hardly be called legitimate.

Check out the way the mullahs control who gets to participate in elections in Iran and come back and lecture me on how fair and open they are,

[Fearless]

38. Very true.

And as for Venezuela... American dislike of him stems from the FALSE belief that communism was growing from within democracies during the Reagan era. Reagan supported dictatorial take overs in many of these Latin American nations.

Hugo Chavez, though controversial, poses no threat to the United States or to the neo-conservative idea of the second coming of communism which in itself is stupid because communism inherently shouldn't be feared, dictators should be, and which is also utterly false.

[Fearless]

37. He should be able to. Or are we liberals hypocrites too.

[Hydra]

12. EWWW!

:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:

I feel soiled!!! I need a bath!

[thereismore]

14. Dare I say that BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY is a biased towards the Jewish state? nt

[liberal N proud]

15. What is sad is how the regime treated Carter

Because Carter didn't promote more war for the regime and their pals, they condemned him an didn't even offer security.

What a piece of trash BERNARD

[genna]

48. What regime?

A former president went to Israel without any security? U.S. Protection or otherwise?

If that is true, President Carter deserves more than a little praise. He was willing to take threat to life and limb and go in there unprotected by the Secret Service? WOW.

[ORDagnabbit]

16. 11th commandment thou shalt not point out the truth of the zionist state

[grassfed]

19. Carter is a true statesman

[niyad]

23. wishful thinking, bernie old boy? carter is a man of intellect and integrity, qualities

with which you might try to become acquainted.

[pacalo]

24. From the Wall Street Journal OWNED by Rupert Murdoch.

Money can buy the tools to shape public perception; they're buying up all the previously-credible publications, & the neocons are now teaching in our country's universities & law schools.

[Red Zelda]

25. Levy

all I need to know.

[question everything]

27. Yea, like Cohen, or Goldman, or Rubinstein. Right?

What if his name was Abdul, or Hassan?

Is that how you form an opinion? Based on the name of the author?

And here I thought that liberals and Democrats are more open minded. Not on DU, they are not.

[genna]

49. Come on, that is not enough information to judge the idea upon.

I wonder if all comments on the Jewish nation-state Israel have to boil down to the religion on the commentator. All people do not think alike who are named Levy.

That's unfair.

[mike_c]

26. tripe...

...undeserving of more substantive commentary, IMO. Damn, I'll never get that five minutes back.

[Beregond2]

28. The great thing

about Carter is, he doesn't give a damn about his own reputation or how a particular action might be perceived or portrayed, so long as it might help the peace process. That is a level of selflessness that the chattering class can't begin to comprehend.

[Laughing Mirror]

29. I gave up reading the media whore BHL, as he is known in France, 20 years ago

But it is fun reading the comments here of people who did bother to click on the link and read this Rupert Murdoch published "opinion" piece.

[bemildred]

31. Levy is an egotistical windbag.

Someone with his training and experience ought to be able to do better than this sort of vacuous name-calling. Just ask yourself if Carter would ever attack Levi in this way, and then judge for yourself who is truly the better man.

[Prophet 451]

33. Rubbish

Mr. Levy makes the mistake of taking Carter's statements at face value. Jimmy Carter may be a passionate advocate of peace but he is also a shrewd and extremely bright man. Diplomacy is a game much given to meaningless praise and of all people, Carter would think that a few empty statements of praise would be entirely worthwhile if they lead to a more positive accomodation in the back room where the real negotiation is going on.

Mr. Carter is not as stupid as Bush, as thuggish as Cheney or as naive as Chamberlain. He knows exactly how this game is played and exactly how to put his hosts in the right frame of mind. He has proven in the past to be a master at finding common ground where others can find only war. Personally, I wonder if the man plays chess...

Incidently, describing Hamas who, distasteful or not, were democratically elected, as "this party which has made a cult of death, a mythology of blood and race" is the kind of thing that belongs in a polemic not the WSJ.

[question everything]

40. Are you saying then, that Hamas is not enocuraging its people for suicide bombing?

That it does not put women in a no win situation, forcing them to take such mission?

Attacking the very ports of fuel and supplies from Israel and then get the whole world to cry that Israel is closing these ports?

Israel withdrew from Gaza two years ago. Since then, there has been a non-stop attack on Israeli cities. One place, visited by Carter and even he had to admit of the brutality of these attacks.

As for race, it has been reported that Hamas children programs are full of hatred of Jews. Not of Israelis, that many on DU are trying to distinguish, but of Jews.

[Prophet 451]

44. I don't know

I'll be honest, I don't know a great deal abaout Hamas. However, I do know that there is always a great deal going on behind the scenes at such events that the public is never told about.

[katty]

34. JC a flawed, yet tireless humanitarian-never a popular job title

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. I'm sorry, QE, but there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides

This is not angels versus devils here.

Both sides have done evil things to each other, but neither side will admit it.

[question everything]

41. The sad thing is, that after the 1993 Oslo agreement

when Rabin and Arafat shook hands under the auspices of Bill Clinton, may hoped that they were on the road to peace.

Many Palestinian-Americans came to the West Bank, ready to start new businesses, developing tourism, etc.

And then the second intifada started, all the people with hopes and dreams and planes just left.

Someone told me that one reason was that the top leaders were imported from Tunisia, where Arafat and his entourage spent many years, instead of letting the people who actually fought there to take the positions of leadership. The corruption of Arafat was known, and was exposed after his death.

Eventually the settlements in the West Bank were going to be dismantled; eventually Israel was going to withdraw from most of the land, the way it did from Gaza. But the non-stop missiles attacks from Gaza since Israel withdrew, is it any wonder that many view further withdrawl from the West Bank with suspicion?

Carter has been taking a one-sided view. Even in his book with the inflammatory title, he appeared to have a religious problem with Israel. He complained that Israel is not the reincarnation of ancient Judea but a modern, largely secular democracy. "I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures," he recalls telling Prime Minister Golda Meir during his first tour through the country. "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 the Labor government."

[struggle4progress]

42. On the Road Avec M. Lévy (Review by GARRISON KEILLOR)

Published: January 29, 2006

... Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French writer with a spatter-paint prose style and the grandiosity of a college sophomore; he rambled around this country at the behest of The Atlantic Monthly and now has worked up his notes into a sort of book ... You meet Sharon Stone and John Kerry and a woman who once weighed 488 pounds and an obese couple carrying rifles, but there's nobody here whom you recognize. In more than 300 pages, nobody tells a joke. Nobody does much work. Nobody sits and eats and enjoys their food. You've lived all your life in America, never attended a megachurch or a brothel, don't own guns, are non-Amish, and it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title ...

"What is a Republican? What distinguishes a Republican in the America of today from a Democrat?" Lévy writes, like a student padding out a term paper. "What does this experience tell us?" he writes about the Mall of America. "What do we learn about American civilization from this mausoleum of merchandise, this funeral accumulation of false goods and nondesires in this end-of-the-world setting? What is the effect on the Americans of today of this confined space, this aquarium, where only a semblance of life seems to subsist?" And what is one to make of the series of questions - 20 in a row - about Hillary Clinton, in which Lévy implies she is seeking the White House to erase the shame of the Lewinsky affair? Was Lévy aware of the game 20 Questions, commonly played on long car trips in America? Are we to read this passage as a metaphor of American restlessness? Does he understand how irritating this is? Does he? Do you? May I stop now? ...

Thanks, pal. I don't imagine France collapsing anytime soon either. Thanks for coming. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. For your next book, tell us about those riots in France, the cars burning in the suburbs of Paris. What was that all about? Were fat people involved?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/29keillor.html?ex=1296190800&en=f45b6b60925ee6f7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[struggle4progress]

43. From the link in #35:

The Lies of Bernard-Henri Lévy
March 3, 2006
By Doug Ireland

... The flaws in BHL’s work have been evident from the beginning. His third book, the 1979 Le Testament de Dieu, was shot down in flames by Hellenist historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet (a moral leader of the French left) in a famous Nouvel Observateur article that detailed BHL’s numerous errors. To take just two, BHL cited texts he claimed were from the decline of the Roman Empire (fourth century) which were actually from the first century B.C., and cited Heinrich Himmler’s “deposition” at the Nuremburg trials, which opened six months after the SS leader’s suicide ...

That unbuttoned white shirt, by the way, is an important element of BHL’s TV and public images and it tells a lot about the man. If you tried it with your own shirt, the collar would sag. But BHL’s shirts are specially designed by the famous shirt-maker Charvet, with collars that withstand the unbuttoning and never disappear under his jacket. The effect costs some $400 apiece, but BHL is a very rich man. The business magazine Capital recently named him one of the 100 richest people in France.

Born with a silver cuillère in his mouth, BHL inherited the family’s huge lumber business, Becob. He played a major role in running the company, until it was sold in the early ’90s. The company specialized in rare woods from Africa and—as Une Imposture Francaise reveals—while BHL was running the company, numerous international bodies and a report from the Canadian government denounced it for keeping its African workers in penurious semi-slavery, which rather contradicts BHL’s pretensions to be an international humanitarian activist.

The book also describes BHL’s shady stock market speculations, his being questioned by the authorities about insider trading and the secret shell companies he owns in France, Switzerland, England and America, and his troubles with the taxman over undeclared revenue that led to a recommended indictment. Before it could be executed, the indictment was quashed by one of BHL’s new-found conservative friends, the then-Minister of Finances, Nicolas Sarkozy, the rising star of the right ...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/the_lies_of_bernard_henri_leacutevy/

[TankLV]

45. Utter fucking GARBAGE...

[Skittles]

46. ditto n/t

[genna]

50. Tell me what you really think