Urging President Barack Obama to recognize “Palestine” before leaving office, 92-year-old former President Jimmy Carter showed why he’s not taken seriously on the world stage. Carter’s claim-to-fame were the 1979 Camp David Accords that had Israel cede the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for semi-diplomatic relations. Apart from writing a book in 2006 accusing Israel of an apartheid state, Carter’s been out the picture, showing more sympathy to Palestinians, even after jubilant celebrations in Gaza after Sept. 11. Carter had no problem negotiating with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, whose determined efforts to annihilate the Jewish dates back to 1964. Arafat led the way with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and six other Arab states for the 1967 Six Day War. When the dust settled, Nasser’s Egyptian army was decimated.
Knowing that President-elect Donald Trump takes over Jan. 20, 2017, Carter felt compelled to push Obama into another executive action. For eight years in office, Obama couldn’t find the elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace because Palestinians split into two factions in 2007, leaving the militant group Hamas in control of Gaza, while the PLO controls the West Bank. Defeating Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon in the 1967 war, Israel annexed Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s West Banks and East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan Heights. Carter pressured Israel to abide by U.N. Resolution 242, offering Israel peace in exchange for land taken in the Six Day War. Returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1979 and Gaza in 2005 didn’t result in peace or improved relations with Palestinians. Hamas continued its war with Israel seeking to destroy the Jewish State.
Carter wants Obama to recognize Palestine when Hamas continues its war of annihilation against Israel. Despite the blockade on Gaza, Hamas receives rockets and builds more tunnels to launch its next war against Israel. Since Sept. 11, Israel has become an indispensable ally in the fight against global terrorism, requiring the U.S. to give Israel preferential status when it comes to security. With Gaza at war with Israel, it’s against U.S. national security to recognize Palestinian statehood when half the Palestinian population seeks to destroy Israel. “It has been President Obama’s aim to support a negotiated end to the conflict based on two states living side by side in peace. That prospect is now in grave doubt,” said Carter, urging the president to recognize Palestine. Carter’s so far from reality, he can’t see conditions have changed since Camp David in 1979.
Obama’s in no position to recognize Palestine when most of the 137 U.N. states recognizing Palestine support Hamas’s war with Israel. Obama’s in no position to recognize Palestine by executive order without Trump rescinding the order. Obama can’t recognize Palestine for one simple reason: They’re not one people. Carter wants Obama to recognize the Palestinian Authority when it’s not accepted by 50% of Palestinians living in Gaza. Carter can’t accept the fact that Israel has no peace partner with whom to negotiate a peace treaty or two-state solution. Carter can’t accept that today’s age of Islamic terrorism prevents Israel from returning the pre-1967 borders without sacrificing its national security. “Israel is building more and more settlements, displacing Palestinians, entrenching its occupation of Palestinian lands,” said Carter, echoing the view of Hamas and the PLO.
Carter talks about Israel occupying Palestinian land, as if Palestinians enjoyed sovereign territory in Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s East Jerusalem and West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights before the 1967 War. Carter can’t come to grips with the fact that Palestinians want Israeli spoils of the 1967 war as their sovereign territory without negotiation. Now Carter wants Obama to declare his recognition of Palestiine without knowing its legal borders. Carter assumes that everything reverts back to the pre-1967 borders. Hamas wants to roll back the borders to before Israel’s 1948 statehood. With Hamas closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, Carter doesn’t admit that Egypt wants no part of a independent Palestinian state. Carter’s dated understanding of today’s Israeli-Palestinian conflict shows that he doesn’t understand U.S. national security in a post-Sept. 11 world.
Posting his opinion in the New York Times, Carter showed why he’s removed from the mainstream in his thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Pushing Obama to make serious mistake, Carter has limited understanding of how Mideast peacemaking changed after Sept. 11. If Egypt can’t accept Hamas, how can Carter expect Israel to? Egyptian President Addel Fattah el-Sisi is under constant terrorist attack from the Muslim Brotherhood, much the same as Israel with Hamas. With the U.S. military in a seamless relationship with Israel, giving Hamas statehood would threaten U.S. and Israeli national security. Carter’s plan to recognize Palestine shows he’s not on the side of peace but on the side of weakening Israel’s sovereignty. Whatever the fate of a two-state solution, it’s in Palestinian hands to have the PLO and Hamas end its ongoing war with the Jewish State.
