Bradley Burston argues that Jimmy Carter’s book was intended primarily to strike at the organized Jewish pro-Israel community:
Best of all, from Carter’s standpoint, is the blistering flak he has taken from an A-list of prominent American Jews. The criticism grants weight to Carter’s carefully worded accusations as to Jewish control of the American media, a self-fulfilling charge if ever there was one, and one sure to keep the hardcovers flying off bookstore shelves.
Echoing Mearsheimer and Walt, Carter hammers on the Jewish conspiracy to prevent criticism of Israel (here in an LA Times Op-ed):
The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.
The sudden prevalence of this point of view smells like a carefully crafted public relations offensive. As I’ve written before, the combination of this with the mysterious FBI sting against AIPAC and the new influence of the Baker-Scowcroft gang seems all of a piece. My feeling is that Israel’s enemies know how important American support is to Israel, and how critical American Jewish influence has been to keep that support. And they want to stop it.
Recently, more and more has come out about Carter’s being a paid lackey of the Saudis. And Baker’s law firm represents the Saudi government. I think it would be useful to look for Saudi connections in other places, like Mearsheimer and Walt. And it would be instructive if we could find out who initiated the AIPAC sting.
Technorati Tags: Carter, Jews, Mearsheimer-Walt, Saudi Arabia, AIPAC
Who is interested in turning the U.S. against Israel?
Obviously, the Arab and Islamic worlds and their supporters within the U.S. The Saudi customers. The oil lobby. The right- wing anti- Semites. The radical Left- wing anti- American ‘intellectuals’.
Their chance of success is enhanced by the turn to the Left of the Democratic Party. And this though Jews are overwhelmingly Democrats, and disproportionate contributors to the party.
Here I think we have to be concerned about the new star on the horizon Barack Obama who seems to have a world- view build on an intense reading of the Boy Scout Manual.
I went to see The Last King of Scotland and of course it was very interesting in showing the Idi Amin regime. Then at the end of the movie it showed some written information on the screen and one of the items is that Idi Amin died in 2003 at the ripe of age of 79 in Saudi Arabia. I think he was thrown out of power for his horrific misdeeds in 1979. So that means he lived 24 years under the protection of the Saudi government.
I remember Carter had an indignant book published late in 2005 called Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis. But the Carter Center is well financed by the Saudis; a foreign government that has donated millions to Carter yet protected a horrific mass murderer. It got so bad in Uganda that they didn’t even bother to bury the bodies.
Also, where is Jimmy Carter’s concern about Arabs killing other Arabs? What about their moral crisis?
Carter is such a hypocrite I can’t believe it.
Andrea Gjerde