The charge of anti-semitism besmirches your integrity
and goes against you in an unexplainable way, puts the
Hitler label on you.
Why would anyone do that, if untrue, except in a
despicable effort to try to destroy a person's
character?
How dare anyone accuse former President Jimmy Carter,
who organized the historic September 1978 Camp David
meeting and accord between late Egyptian President
Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menacham
Begin, of being anti-semitic? The accord signed by
them on September 17, 1978, was a model of pro-semitic
global diplomacy at its best.
How dare anyone state differently? The anti-semitism
charge against former President Carter is ridiculous
and an insult against him and our country's legacy
when he was our leader and thereafter.
Yet in newspapers across the country, for example The
Houston Chronicle on January 28, President Carter's
book, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid, is labeled as
anti-semitic.
So, yes, in his book, President Carter questioned the
number of Jews on a particular United Nations
committee. That is not anti-semitism, as charged by
his critics, but a legitimate concern he raised about
diversity on a particular committee that was
apparently top-heavy with one point of view.
Apparently, President Carter wanted more balance on
this committee. That is not anti-semitism. It was a
request by the president, who organized the historic
1978 Sadat-Begin agreement, for more balance and
fairness on that committee whose focus was the Middle
East.
Arnaud de Borchgrave, for 30 years Newsweek magazine's
chief foreign correspondent, then editor-in-chief of
The Washington Times for a decade before taking the
helm at United Press International, quotes author
Yoram Kanyuk, 79, who de Borchgrave describes as "an
intellectual hardliner and former liberal," from a
Christmas Day 2006 piece run by Ynetnews.com or
Yedioth Ahronoth, one of Israel's main electronic news
sources:
"Israeli action in the territories corrupt the Zionist
dream, and is no better than apartheid," Kanyuk wrote.
"I haven't been a leftist for years because I don't
believe the Arabs would agree to share this country
with us, and I believe in the Jews' right to a home
and a state in our historic homeland. Yet what we've
been doing in the territories borders on the criminal."When President Carter, who was never a friend of
Israel, writes that what we are doing in the
territories is similar to apartheid," Kanyuk wrote,
"everyone cries out in protest. Yet he wasn't far off
from reality: our behavior is worse than that
prevalent in South Africa at the time. It's unpleasant
to say this, but this is the way it is."The killing. The hatred. The beatings. The
humiliations. What will all this bring? Will we have
fewer Qassam rocket attacks? Will there be no more
rocket attacks if an elderly woman cannot reach the
hospital? I'm ashamed of a country I helped create
[because] we've become a violent, heartless society.
We've killed at crosswalks because no car driven by an
Israeli would allow someone limping with a walking
stick to cross the road. What happened to us?"Our intelligent young people are leaving the country.
For most of them the reality they see is a harsh one.
Those who remain here are violent and indifferent, yet
we, who do not wish to renounce the Zionist dream, see
how with every passing day it becomes more wicked and
cruel."
Well. We're still waiting for a peaceful solution two
decades after the Sadat-Begin accord signed with
President Carter's blessing at Camp David, but a good
outcome will probably never be seen in our lifetime as
crazy young Middle East hoodlums prevent it.
This has been our horror story for more than five
decades. Why did our forebears get us into this hornet
nest?
We live in an unfortunate era that replicates the
cultural war centuries ago between Christians and
Muslims.
Jews and Muslims are all semites.
The United States, through its military sales program,
has for decades provided the best military aircraft to
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Libya, Iraq, Iran
- going back to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's
administration in the 1950s and up until today. We
have continuously trained the pilots and mechanics of
these countries to fly and maintain these aircraft
sold to their counties by Northrop Grumman, Boeing,
Martin Marietta, Cessna, you name it.
So we armed these people on both sides, our allies
over decades, trained them. How can we now be called
anti-semite?
We want a two-state solution. Presidents Gerald Ford,
Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, both George Bushes, all
worked for this. So how can anyone legitimately throw
out the smear anti-semitic label?
Our country and all presidents from both parties
throughout our lives have worked for liberty and peace
and human rights for all the people in the Middle
East. So forget the anti-semitism charge. That's a low
tar-baby used by people without manners or proper
upbringing who apparently want to besmirch unfairly
another person's character and integrity.
Is this what we have come to? Having to defend
ourselves against vulgar people without manners or
intellectual ability, who just throw offensive insults
and threaten us with pure vulgarity?
This is the culture war we face. It's not Christian or
Jew versus Muslims. It's decent people who care for
others versus vulgar people who care only for
themselves and always want to start a fight. Bring it
on. People of good character and honesty will win this
battle, as they always have.