Stand for Israel

It’s no secret that there’s not a whole lot of love lost between former President Jimmy Carter and the Jewish state (and those who care about her). There has, however, a been whole lot of lovin’ between Carter and Israel’s enemies. Also Carter and tyrants around the world – but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.

So, earlier this week, tongues were wagging when Carter recently offered a public apology to the American Jewish community—he even used the term “al het” from the Yom Kippur liturgy, which in modern Hebrew means any sort of request for forgiveness (though he used a weird transliteration for it)—for all the nasty things he’s said about Israel over the years. Here’s what he said:

“We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

Uh huh.

As National Review’s sagacious (and terrrrrribly funny) Jay Nordlinger has put it, “No one quite realizes just how passionately anti-Israel Carter is.”

Long before the rest of the West would even acknowledge them, Carter was cozying up to terrorist despots, including Yasser Arafat, the “father of modern terrorism.”

(Try to hold down your lunch if you look at this photo of Carter and his wife laying a wreath at Arafat’s grave. Or read the accompanying article in which Carter praises Arafat as one who “fought for just causes.” In addition to his murderous record, once he had legimitate power, Arafat built a kleptocracy that enriched his cronies(and his wife) while depriving the Palestinians of even the most basic civil rights. For one of the best exploration of Carter’s bizarro-world love for Arafat, along with other troubling quirks, read Nordlinger’s excellent…