Quickly approaching a year into his first term, President Barak Obama is already showing eerie parallels to Jimmy Carter's first/worst term as the 39th president in regards to the Middle East. After 30 years, it just goes to show that democrats and progressives have learned nothing.Recalling the 1978, Camp David peace accords, which essentially forced Prime Minister Menachem Begin to hand over the Sinai to Egypt, you would think that a lesson would have been learned from the subsequent fallout.
Not so. If you have been following the President's latest round of his World Apology Tour, you begin to see the eerie parallels between Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama's stance on Middle East politics, particularly Israel.
However, before we compare President Obama with Jimmy Carter, we need to revisit some history, the Middle East and their apparent admiration and support of dictators.
The Foundation
Upon assuming office in 1977, Jimmy Carter moved to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process that had stalled during the presidential campaigns the year before. Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Henry Kissinger was using an incremental, bilateral approach to deal with peace talks in the Middle East, or what is commonly referred to as shuttle diplomacy. Following the advice of the Brookings Institute, Carter decided to change that tactic and use a multilateral approach which called on the 1973 Geneva Conference to be reconvened, this time with a Palestinian delegation. By doing so, he was hoping to negotiate a final settlement, but, it didn't come to pass.
Not liking this approach, because he thought it was a dog and pony show, Anwar Sadat lost confidence in the Western powers to pressure Israel after meeting with them. Completely unknown to NATO countries, Sadat held clandestine meetings with Israeli officials and in November of 1977, Anwar El Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel, thereby implicitly recognizing Israel as a nation.
When Sadat held his Knesset Speech, he shared his views on peace in the Middle east, Israel's occupied territories and Palestinian refugees. His speech went counter to the intentions of what the East and the West had in mind in regards to reviving the Geneva Conference, thus invoking the wrath of many Warsaw Pact nations, such as that by the Hungarian leader, Janos Kadar, who threatened war with Egypt if they signed a peace deal with Israel.
Sadat was counting on the help of NATO after these countries threatened war to improve the Egyptian economy. Sadat held the view that Egypt should focus more on its own interests, rather than focusing on the Arab world, thus hoping to foster similar agreements between Israel and her Arab neighbors and solve the Palestinian issue. Menachem Begin saw many reasons why bilateral talks would be in his country's best interests and showed a willingness to engage the Egyptian leader. By doing so, Israel would have the ability to negotiate with Egypt alone instead of having to deal with a larger Arab world.
At any rate, the gist of Sadat's speech at the Knesset requested the implementation of Resolutions 242 and 338. His visit led to negotiations, such as the preliminary Cairo Conference in December 1977, which ultimately led to the Camp David Accords.
Camp David and the Subsequent Fallout
On September 17, 1978, President Carter hosted a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat at Camp David. This resulted in the first peace accord signed by Israel and one of its Arab neighbors and with several months of further negotiations led to the signing of a peace treaty on March 26, 1979.
Under the terms of the treaty, control of the Sinai Desert would be turned over to Egypt while Israel would retain control of the Gaza strip. In exchange for the return of the Sinai, Egypt would recognize Israel as a state and establish full diplomatic relations with them. Moreover, Egypt would guarantee to pull their military forces back to 50 kilometers of Israel's border. The treaty also called for the free travel of Israeli and Egyptian citizens between both countries. The fallout of this treaty led to an Arab wide boycott, with the exception of Oman and three years later Anwar El Sadat was assassinated by Islamic extremists.
Some felt that Carter had pressured Begin to sign the accord.
According to David Kimche, the current Israeli government felt that Carter was being too sympathetic towards the Palestinians and was in cahoots to compel Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. He states in his 1991 book, The Last Option, "Begin was being set up for diplomatic slaughter by the master butchers in Washington. They had, moreover, the apparent blessing of the two presidents, Carter and Sadat, for this bizarre and clumsy attempt at collusion designed to force Israel to abandon her refusal to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state...this plan, prepared behind Israel's back and without her knowledge, must rank as a unique attempt in the United States's diplomatic history of short changing a friend and ally by deceit and manipulation."
He continues further by stating that, "Unbeknownst to the Israeli negotiators, the Egyptians held and ace up their sleeves, and they were waiting to play it. The card was President Carter's tacit agreement that after the American presidential elections in November 1980, when Carter expected to be elected for a second term, he would be free to compel Israel to accept a settlement of the Palestinian problem on his and Egyptian terms, without having to fear the backlash of the American Jewish lobby."
In Ben Menashe's 1992 memoirs, Profits of War, he asserts that Begin and his Likud party had nothing but contempt for Carter, "Begin loathed Carter for the peace agreement forced upon him at Camp David. As Begin saw it, the agreement took away Sinai from Israel, did not create a comprehensive peace, and left the Palestinian issue hanging on Israel's back."
What one's opinion is on the Camp David Accords is irrelevant, the subsequent events that were about to occur sounded the death knell of Jimmy Carter's administration and destroying Egypt's ace card.
A Surprise in October
If there was one pervasive fear that Menachem Begin had was a Carter second term. After the 1979 Islamic revolution where extremists took over and the subsequent bungled handling of it by Carter, set the conditions for Begin and the Republican party presidential campaign to secretly hold meetings.
To some Americans, many of which are democrats, believed Begin had colluded with the Republican party in the hopes of a Reagan presidential victory, which resulted in a joint covert operation to negotiate with Iranian leaders behind Carter's back to delay the release of 52 American hostages until Reagan was elected in November 1980.
According to Ben Menashe's sworn testimony, the controversy known as the "October surprise", also involved then vice presidential candidate George H.W. Bush and his participation in a meeting in October of 1980 in Paris. Of course, Bush denied it in two 1992 press conferences and was never called on to testify under oath.
During the Islamic revolution in Iran, the intelligence network that Israel established was annihilated. Being an Iranian born Jew, Menashe began rebuilding the network in 1979 after Begin authorized small arms and spare parts shipments be sent to Iran via South Africa. In November of the same year, disaster struck for Menashe when Iran seized the US Embassy and took 90 hostages, 52 of them being Americans, which resulted in a US led trade embargo and freezing all Iranian assets.
In April 1980, Carter became fully aware of the Israeli clandestine operations being conducted in Iran. According to Carter's press secretary, Jody Powell, "There had been a rather tense discussion between President Carter and Prime Minister Begin in the spring of 1980 in which the President made clear that the Israeli's had to stop that, and that we knew that they were doing it, and that we would not allow it to continue, at least not allow it to continue privately and without the knowledge of the American people."
Befriending Dictators
Jimmy Carter's follies wasn't constrained to the Middle East and he had a penchant for rubbing shoulders with dictators. As I noted in a previous article, which is worth repeating, Carter invited Robert Mugabe to the White House and supported his rise as dictator of Rhodesia, even though Abel Muzorewa had already been elected to the post of prime minister. With the support of the world press, Jimmy Carter declared Muzorewa’s election null and void and causing Mugabe, an avowed Marxist, to win in a second election.
During his term, Jimmy Carter supported the anti-American mullahs and pressured the pro-American Shah to relinquish power to the Ayatollah Khomeini. Then he had the Pentagon tell the Shah’s top military commanders to bow down to the Ayatollah and not fight him, when they did they were subsequently murdered.
In 1994, Carter went to North Korea and brokered a deal with Kim Jung Il that was supposed to keep that rogue state from attaining nuclear weapons. He done this without governmental authority or support. The illegal deal that he made with North Korea provided them with $4 billion worth of light water reactors and $100 million in oil in exchange for a promise not to develop nuclear weapons. On top of that, Carter's’s illegal “negotiations” was also supposed to allow U.N. inspectors to monitor their use. On August 28, 2003, North Korea announced to the world it had developed its first nuclear weapon.
Jimmy Carter was also instrumental with Hugo Chavez’s rise to power. Despite exit polls done by an independent firm in New York showing that Hugo Chavez had lost, he was declared winner anyway with nearly the exact opposite percentages as the independent poll had determined. Regardless, Carter endorsed Chavez’s “victory” anyway.
Jimmy Carter also has a special interest with dictators in Central America. By using the Office of the President, he set the conditions for the overthrow of Anastasio Somosa in Nicaragua, only to be replaced with Marxist Sandanista Daniel Ortega. On a side note, Somosa’s election had been certified by the OAS.
Although the list can go on, I’ll leave Carter and his support for Hamas. A terrorist state supported by Iran that is constantly harassing Israel, Carter says to give Hamas a chance and not supporting them is criminal.
At any rate, Jimmy Carter's presidency left America's economy in tatters, with hyper inflation and high gas prices. The general feeling of American's during that time was one of suicide.
Continued...
President Obama and the Parallel
Picture this: The Republican party has a super majority in both the House and the Senate. President George W. Bush calls for a press briefing to announce that he will request legislation to have the 22nd Amendment removed from the Constitution and declare himself president for life. Much like the democrats tried with Joint House Resolution 5 to repeal the 22nd Amendment in January of this year.
What do you think America's reaction would be?
In June of this year, something like that nearly occurred in Honduras when Manuel Zelaya attempted to do just that, with the support of dictator Hugo Chavez, when he tried to rewrite the Honduran Constitution to make himself president for life. On June 28, soldiers ousted Zelaya and exiled him while he was still in his jammies after the Honduran supreme court endorsed charges of treason and abuse of authority.
The Honduran Constitution reads in part:
- Article 313: "The courts will require the help of the security forces to fulfill their resolutions, if they refused or were not any available, as required of citizens."
- Chapter 3 Article 42: Anyone who fraudulently produces or alters election documents loses citizenship.
- Article 3: "No one owes obedience to a usurper government or to those who assume public office or employment by force of arms or by using means or procedures that violate or are unaware of what the Constitution and the laws.
- Article 4: "Alternation in the presidency of the Republic is required."
- Article 272: "The Armed Forces of Honduras, is a National Institution of a permanent nature, essentially professional, apolitical, obedient and not deliberating... They are set up to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic, keep the peace, public order and the rule of the Constitution, the principles of free suffrage and alternation in the presidency of the Republic."
Of course, with our state run, fringe news media you wouldn't know any of that.
And what does President Obama and Hillary Clinton do? Remember, they didn't want to meddle in Iran's affairs during the protests after rigged elections, but felt it neccessary to meddle in Honduran affairs when they issued statements claiming that Zelaya's removal was in violation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
Excuse me? Zelaya was trying to re-write the Honduran constitution to extend and expand his power and make himself president for life! If Hillary and Obama had taken the time to at least peruse the Honduran constitution, they would have noticed what article 4 stated.
No. What really happened was that the Honduran government, with the help of the armed forces, acted to defend their constitution to prevent the country from becoming a puppet government of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.
When it comes to Iran, he doesn't want to meddle:
"Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice. The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. In spite of the government's efforts to keep the world from bearing witness to that violence, we see it and condemn it."
Pursuit of justice? What about pursuit of freedom?
Not wanting to meddle, Obama unleashes his surrogates, David Axelrod and UN Ambassador Susan Rice, to make the obligatory, state run media rounds to pay lip service to the Iranian protesters. Their response to the stolen election and the subsequent protests, where many Iranians were murdered, was telling:
"Legitimacy obviously is in the eyes of the people. And obviously the government's legitimacy has been called into question by the protests in the streets. But that's not the critical issue in terms of our dealings with Iran."
Sounds like Jimmy Carter appeasing the mullahs when he was president, doesn't it? But, Obama and his secretary of state declared that Zelaya's removal was a violation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, when he tried to over turn his countries constitution and turn it into a hegemony of Hugo Chavez.
Are we seeing a parallel yet? No? Well, let's move on to Israel.
In May of this year, Obama dispatched his leg breaker, Rahm Emmanuel to deliver a message to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. According to the Jerusalem Post, Emmanuel stated, "The task of forming an international coalition to thwart Iran's nuclear program will be made easier if progress is made in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians."
To anyone with a modicum of intelligence, the message is crystal clear. If Israel doesn't make concessions with the Palestinian's, then the US won't take any actions, whatsoever, against Iran. Never mind that Israel has enemies on three of its borders and a sea at its back, who want nothing more than its complete destruction.
This isn't the only time that Obama has sent a message to the Israelis. Taking off Hillary's muzzle and leash, she told Congress, "For Israel to get the kind of strong support it's looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts." The two issues, Iranian nuclear development and the Israeli-Arab conflict, "go hand in hand."
This ranks right up there as one of the ten most stupidest things ever uttered by a human being. This issue has nothing to do with Israel and the Arab worlds conflicts. Iran's nuclear program doesn't only threaten Israel, it threatens the entire world. Do you honestly believe that Iran won't sell/give any nukes to other countries that are hostile to the US and its allies?
This is Camp David part deux, this time with a nuclear twist. The Obama administration has basically given Israel two options: Commit suicide by making concessions that would force them to give up more territory or commit suicide by Iran (much like suicide by cop).
I'll leave Israel quoting, in part, Benjamin Netanyahu's poignant speech to the United Nations:
But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency? A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong.
Well, we know that our current president and his minions have no shame.
America's Economy Today
Much like the FDR and Carter administrations, we are quickly witnessing a repeat of history with the current economy. From the housing bust to rising gas prices, we are also witnessing what may well be a new depression in America. Starting with George W. Bush's ridiculous stimulus package, it was further continued by another, then an omnibus package, then Cap and Trade and government run health care, which would shut out the private sector and printing money that is quickly devaluing the dollar, we can only hope that, like Carter, Obama will be a one termer.
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