Monday, December 21, 2009
Take it as you will: JTA: Carter offers Jewish community 'Al Het'
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community for forgiveness for any stigma he may have caused Israel.
In a letter released exclusively to JTA, the former U.S. president sent a seasonal message wishing for peace between Israel and its neighbors, and concluded: "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."
"Al Het" refers to the Yom Kippur prayer asking God forgiveness for sins committed against Him. In modern Hebrew it refers to any plea for forgiveness.
Carter has angered some U.S. Jews in recent years with writings and statements that place the burden of peacemaking on Israel, that have likened Israel's settlement policies to apartheid, and that have blamed the pro-Israel lobby for inhibiting an evenhanded U.S. foreign policy.
Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League's national director, welcomed the statement, calling it the "beginning of reconciliation."
"We welcome any statement from a significant individual such as a former president who asks for Al Het," Foxman said. "To what extent it is an epiphany, time will tell. There certainly is hurt which needs to be repaired."
Dear President Carter
Burn in hell you miserable bastard. Burn in hell.
Cordially,
The Jews.
I'm not impressed either by Carter's mea culpa. He does not sound convinced of his own wrong doing:
"... for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so."
"may have done"?
What does that mean?
Does he accept his responsibility for stigmatizing Israel, or doesn't he?
What he is saying, in fact, is "if I caused any damage, I'm sorry". Asking for forgiveness means, at least in the Judaic code of ethics, that the supplicant acknowledges, openly, publicly, and fully, his responsibility for having done wrong, having slandered the good name of a person, or a people or a nation. Carter's formulation does not meet that onus. This is not an apology, not asking for forgiveness. This is a mockery of the idea of "al het".
This little attempt at damage control can't have anything to do with Jimmy's grandson currently running for the Georgia State Senate seat in a heavily Jewish district, can it? That aspiring politician, Jason Carter, refuses to answer any questions regarding Israel after traveling with the grandpa to Syria, Gaza and Ramallah.
So if Jason does not win, the "Israel lobby" can be blamed for it?
Now there's a win-win situation for Jimmy Carter.
JImmy is sorry. A sorry piece of...
Mr. Carter could say Al Hets for every year from 1978 to the present, and it still wouldn't be enough.
More to the point, he's a liar. He has made it abundantly clear over the years that, if Israel suffered any sort of damage from his words and actions, it wasn't enough damage to suit him.
He's entitled to his opinions, just as Noam Chomsky is entitled to his. And we're entitled to treat him like the paid-off Arab propagandist that he is.
Now, after all the damage already done?
Must be taquiya.
Yes, Carter is sorry.
That he is also issuing an apology of sorts is beside the point.
Damage done.
Go build your houses.
Jimmy Carter ( WPE ) can begin to prove his repentance by writing a book where the title is something like, "I Lied About Israel". The contents being a thorough repudiation of his lies, his distortions in his first book.
"JEC" can go on speaking tours and tell the attendees "I Lied About Israel", take questions, unvetted questions from the audience, as opposed to his carefully staged show at Brandeis and other places.
I don't expect any of this to happen.
As commenter #126 "Jasmine" said on the Haaretz website...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1136829.html
There is NO APOLOGY from jimmy carter ( WPE ) for his lies about Israel on his "carter center" webpage.
http://cartercenter.org/homepage.html
Don't you think that he would have a PROMINENT APOLOGY on his carter center website IF he were "sincere"?
jimmy, you've got to do a lot better to be taken seriously. But I don't expect you to change your hateful, bigoted stripes.
AP and WaPo have picked up the story. Nappy's tickled to see that Rabbi Hier, Andrea Levin and others have more seikhel (Yiddish for street smarts or)than Abe Foxman.
Jewish advocacy group questions Carter's apology