More Jimmy Carter Awesomeness and More Fun with the UN

Today started off as a nice relaxing Sunday. I slept late and sat down to watch Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer as I ate my bagel and lox. Suddenly, Wolf announces he will be interviewing none other than our pal, Jimmy Carter about Jimbo's meetings with Hamas. You know my thought: awesome!

Wolf begins by playing a clip of a speech from President Bush denouncing Jimbo's meeting with the mass-murdering terror gang. Now, we know "Dubya" isn't exactly Abraham Lincoln when it comes to political oratory, and admittedly, yeah, he fumbled this one. Bush said almost nothing useful and stammered and stuttered about how Hamas would not recognize Israel, refused to endorse the so-called "Two State Solution," and was generally an "obstacle to peace." Of course, the problem with such a statement is that it implies that if Hamas were out of the picture, peace would be more likely to occur. Of course, as you know, faithful readers, this is a position I completely reject.

Carter responded by chortling mightily about how Bush OBVIOUSLY did not understand Hamas's TRUE positions because, dagnabbit, he met with their leaders, and while they seem all tough and musky on the outside, they're really just a nice bunch of guys who enjoy cuddling kittens and grooving to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

See, the Hamas leaders told Carter (after they crossed their hearts and hoped to die) that they wanted a ceasefire. And more important, they would recognize and abide by any peace agreement (including, Carter believes, one that would recognize Israel), so long as it was approved by a popular referendum of the Arabs living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

Wolf, who is not completely oblivious, makes two points. First, Hamas spokespeople vigorously disputed Carter's account of the meetings and what was promised. And second, such statements fly in the face of what Hamas has proclaimed publicly, both to their own people in Arabic and to the West.

Carter's response was, well, Carter-like. He stated these Hamas spokespeople disputing his statements were low-level dudes on the totem pole, while he had met with the "high leaders" of Hamas. Unfortunately, Wolf didn't press Carter any further, and the conversation then moved to the Democratic Primary.

I really wish Wolf had confronted Carter with some of the statements that I have previously documented, along with the many others Hamas has made both disparaging Jews and declaring their unwillingness to recognize Israel.

At the very least, Wolf could have shown Carter the recent statement from Khaled Mashal (one of the leaders Carter met with) that the ceasefire, or "Tahdiah", that Hamas proposed "is a tactical means. It is a step within the resistance and is not detached from it." Mashal went on to say that:

"'It is only natural for any resistance movement, which cares about the interests of its people, to bear in mind the general Palestinian condition. At times, it generates an escalation, and at times, it withdraws a little. It is a process of ebb and flow, going up and down. This is how you run a battle. Hamas is renowned for this.

'In 2003, we began a tahdiah, and later renewed the operations. The same thing happened following 2005. Hamas conducted resistance from within the government, as well as when it was not in the government. This is a method of conflict management.'"

So, yeah, I guess it never occurred to Carter that Hamas might just be utilizing him as a useful idiot to improve their PR in the West.

In other news, there was a lot more fun at this Durban II Prep Session the past couple of weeks. Anne Bayefsky has two recent columns describing what went on. Both are excellent reads.

The April 23 column is especially fun. There, Bayefsky describes how the Arab/Muslim delegations argued that the only way to truly fight racism and oppression is well . . .with more oppression and less freedom (as I keep saying, satire is obsolete):

"The Egyptian representative gave a good summary of most everything wrong with Durban II. He claimed the conference and its preparatory process should focus on criminalizing “racial profiling,” “racism in the media,” “the challenges posed by Islamophobia since the events on 9/11,” and “instrumentalization of democratic processes for racist applications.” In short, racism is an evil Western plot to victimize Muslims, who can only be protected by the undermining of democracy, freedom, and law enforcement."

And then came my favorite part:

"While the European Union attendees stayed in their seats, the assault on democracy carried on. Algeria said “freedom of expression spread[s] hatred and violence and lead[s] to the burning of mosques in ‘advanced’ countries.” Syria ranted about “the crimes that are perpetrated in the name of democracy” and the “killers” that “are countries that advocate democracy . . . and give [a] free hand to perpetrate massacres.” *

Yes, indeed. Freedom of expression leads to mosque-burnings. I mean, what can I really add to that? Jimmy Carter could not have said it better. I fear that as I wrote this note, a child weeps in the distance as a mosque burns.

*Syria is, of course, uniquely qualified to educate the world as to what leads a nation to perpetrate an old-school massacre.

The UN Spends Our Money Bashing Canadian Jews

Update: The Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy has withdrawn its application to attend the UN Conference on racism. Nice start to the Conference: The Jews have been successfully excluded.

A couple of weeks ago, the glorious UN began its two-week preparatory session for the "Durban II" World Conference on Racism that will take place next year. I'm sure all of you are VERY excited, right? So how does this preparatory session begin? Well, channeling the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, there was a two-and-a-half hour fight about whether or not the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, an NGO, should be accredited and allowed to attend the conference. According to the National Review's Anne Bayefsky, this took up roughly three-quarters of the entire opening day.

So, yeah, the first day of the newest World crusade against racism was spent, um, trying to keep the Jews out. The fact that the world insists on spending so much of its time thinking about us Jews is just so empowering in a way. Who led this latest obsession with the Children of Israel? Why, Iran, of course, with Egypt, Pakistan, Algeria and the delegation from the Palestinian Authority in tow.* Progressive, anti-racist nations, right? Dr. King would be so proud.

In case there was any doubt that satire has been rendered obsolete, the reasoning behind the opposition made me fall out of my chair:

"Ezrin said Iran is objecting in part because the Canadian Council is not involved in anti-racism or anti-discrimination work."

As opposed to Iran, which is totally the world's bastion of tolerance and anti-discrimination (this is at least partly true, I guess -- they don't discriminate against Holocaust Deniers). Just ask all of Iran's apparently non-existent homosexuals.

Of course, this would be the perfect opportunity for SOMEBODY to point out that Iran (and its lackeys) are supporting the overtly racist PA (since, as we've discussed several times, one has to be an Arab to be a Palestinian under the PLO Covenant). But such things only happen in my fantasies, I suppose.

To add more hilarity, according to Bayefsky, "Algeria was concerned about Jewish money, or 'their sources of funding.'" Gotta watch out for those perfidious Jews and their Jew money, right? Some might think that's a rather ironic statement to be making during a preparatory session for a conference that's supposed to be fighting bigotry, old prejudices and intolerance, but I just see it as further proof that we don't need comedy writers to be adequately entertained.

Not to be outdone, the Palestinian Authority Representative argued that "the NGO supported Israeli settlements and no NGO supporting an illegal activity could be involved in Durban II." First the settlements are NOT illegal for various reasons (but that's far too boring to cover in this Note). Second, that statement is rather ludicrous given the PA's overt use and support of numerous indisputably illegal activities, most notably war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from attacks aimed exclusively at civilians. The idea that the representative of a "government" led by HAMAS, which prides itself on breaking the rules of war and civilization, could oppose anything based on "illegal activities" and do so with a straight face is really quite astounding.

Finally, Bayefsky reported that "Algeria and Egypt voiced their support for rejecting this NGO’s accreditation on the basis that inclusion would be 'political' and 'politics must be set aside.'" That is just awesome beyond words.

So to recap, the first day preparing for the World Racism Conference was spent trying to keep the Jews out and making ridiculous and often overtly anti-Jewish remarks. All in a day's work at the UN. And the best part is, THEY SCHEDULED ANOTHER DEBATE on the issue for next week. So even more time and money (wouldn't be surprised if it's most of the day again) will be wasted bickering about whether or not to let the Jews in. Just so empowering. I love it.

*It is well-known, of course, that Iran loves Jews.