Jimmy's world

Bless his bleeding heart. Jimmy Carter has always been a died-in-the-wool believer that one fine day the peoples of the would will join hands and sing in perfect harmony. In my view, even if the world somehow came to that agreement choosing the song would probably cause a war.

His morning op-ed at the WaPo is vintage Carter, urging Israel and the United States not to withhold funds to Palestinia:

...all funding for the new government will be withheld, including what is needed to pay salaries for schoolteachers, nurses, social workers, police and maintenance personnel.

True liberalism at its finest. The Palestinian people voted in Hamas in an election Mr. Carter witnessed and deemed legitimate. Therefore, why not compel them to take another vote--a referendum if you will: renounce violence and formally recognize Israel's right to exist. To most people that would be quite reasonable.

Then again, most of the world understands these people are not likely to change their mission statement, renounce Ahmadinejad, or stop burning embassies over cartoons anytime soon. Except Mr. Carter:

.. even if Hamas does not soon take the ultimately inevitable steps of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel's right to exist.

Gee, wonder why he hasn't given the Bush adminstration the same benefit of the doubt as a group of terrorists? Oops, forgot. Bush and Cheney are the true terrorists.

It would be nice to believe Mr. Carter's high visibility on the issue comes from a genuine concern for the people. It might. However, can't help but thinking there might also be a tad of concern for his own Nobel prize-winning legacy.

MORE 2/20/06

Regarding the funds:

Under the Oslo accord, Israel is obliged to hand over the funds. However, it took similar action at the start of the first intifada and withheld funds by placing them in an escrow account.

In other words, the Israelis aren't likely to take the extra money and hit the casinos. I liken it to taking away a child's allowance when they act up--works almost every time.