Jimmy Carter's Anti-Semitism

It appears former president Jimmy Carter, now 92 years old, has yet to meet a tyrant he doesn’t admire.

His continuing embrace of terrorist regimes makes some wonder when we will see the cessation of his continual self-exhumations from political burial in order to once again resume his prophetic declamations on behalf of odious regimes, past and present. Carter’s latest declamation on the demise of the pitiless tyrant Fidel Castro reveals once again his lifelong empathy for totalitarian regimes:

“Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country. We wish the Cuban citizens peace and prosperity in the years ahead.”

Just as bad, if not worse, Carter wants Obama to recognize a Palestinian state before Barack Obama leaves office. His love for brutal despotism does not end with his affection for Castro, but extends to leaders who wish to exterminate Israel and the Jews.

Newsweek’s Eddie Mullholland reports:

“Carter has now stepped into the debate with an op-ed for the New York Times on Monday.

‘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,’ he [Carter] wrote. ‘I am convinced that the United States can still shape the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before a change in presidents, but time is very short.

‘The simple but vital step this administration must take before its term expires on January 20 is to grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine as 137 nations have done, and help it achieve full United Nations membership.’

The fact of the matter is this: there has never been a Palestinian leader, including Mahmoud Abbas, who has not denied Israel’s right to exist; and who has not wanted to eliminate Israel the nation from the map. Education follows policy. It is well known that Harper Collins publishes textbooks with illustrations of the Middle East completely erase Israel from the map.

As Frontpage magazine’s Ari Lieberman reported in February of 2016:

“Palestinian Authority incitement and outright anti-Semitism are all but ignored by the Obama administration as is the fact that 6% of the PA’s budget is earmarked toward paying the salaries of convicted terrorists or their families. Since a substantial portion of that budget is subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer, it places the administration of being in the odd position of being an accessary to terror.

The incidents and examples of Palestinian Authority incitement are too voluminous to note in this piece but there are a few recurring themes. Jews (and sometimes Christians) are routinely referred to as apes, pigs or monkeys. Ancient blood libels accusing Jews of kidnapping Arab children for the purpose of using their blood in preparing Passover Matzah are regurgitated with regularity and lastly, those who engage in terrorism and murder are extolled as heroes or Shahids. They or their families are often rewarded with cash payments or lucrative job opportunities. Some have even had public places named after them.”

But the prospect of openly endorsing those with genocidal impulses toward the Jews has never deterred Carter from consistently embracing the world’s most vicious terrorists, including the odious Yasser Arafat, who had more blood on his hands than in his veins.

One only has to recall the New York Times article written in 1990, which reported Carter’s meeting with Arafat in Paris. Carter, who laid a wreath at Arafat’s tomb in 2008, praised him as a “peacemaker” even though Arafat the “peacemaker” as head of the Palestinian Liberation Front, was responsible for countless gruesome acts of terrorism. After all, it was Arafat who once said, “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations.”

Arafat meant his words, as do Palestinian leaders today, regardless of what some more moderate Palestinians may believe.

Carter has even endorsed Hamas, a terrorist organization, as a “legitimate political actor,” causing Alan Dershowitz to ask if the former president was guilty of a “criminal offense.”

Ari Leberman writes of Hamas’ implacable hatred of Israel:

“The Palestinian Authority is only half the problem. In the south, Israel must contend with the spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas. In the summer of 2014, Israel fought a 50-day war with the terror group and during the course of that conflict, uncovered a vast network of tunnels constructed for the ghoulish purpose of carrying out mass terror attacks and kidnapping. Some of these tunnels actually targeted kindergartens as well as schools. Incidentally, much of the building material used to construct these tunnels were donated by the EU, the United States or NGOs financed by the West. Since Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and internal controls are virtually non-existent, it was relatively easy for the terror group to divert funds earmarked for civilian use.”

In view of the constant antipathy toward Israel by the Palestinians and Hamas; and given his supposedly peace-loving nature, how did Carter arrive at his anti-Semitism?

For one thing, Carter is a believer in replacement theology; that is, that the Christian church replaces Israel and that Israel no longer holds a special place in covenant theology. Israel is just another nation and people. This false doctrine has been the basis of deleterious and sometimes fatal foreign policy involving Jews and Israel. Carter’s realpolitik favors current demographics and the global order embraced by the U.N., which partly explains his appeal to President Obama to recognize Palestine. Carter’s globalist vision and belief in supra-national entities as the way for the future replace the Christian vision of the kingdom of God.

Those who insist politics and religion never mix need to re-examine their thinking. Replacement theology has dangerous, even fatal implications for Israel and the Jews. Certainly, replacement theology has contributed to anti-Semitism, including Carter’s implacable hatred of Israel.

On the other hand, there is hope. Certainly, not every Christian leader believes as Carter believes.

Many Christians, particularly American evangelicals and members of the Reformed denominations in the U.S., reject replacement theology entirely, believing in the inseparable link between Judaism and Christianity; and believing in the unity of the Old and New Testaments. Evangelicals and those of the Reformed faith hold with St. Paul, who as a Jew believing in Christ as the long-promised Messiah, taught that the Jews still had a covenantal bond with God; and that Christianity, far from being an entirely new sect, owed its genesis to Judaism. Christians, Paul, and other apostles wrote, regard Christ as the fulfillment of all that went before and as the promise of the future. They were and are merely grafted into the older vine that was Judaism.

The above is why so many evangelicals and those of the Reformed faith support Israel and her right to exist and flourish as a nation. They will not sever their spiritual roots. Nor will they embrace a secular globalist vision at the expense of Israel and the Jews.

Let us hope and pray the incoming Trump administration strengthens America's alliance with Israel, repudiating Carter’s and the Left’s onus toward her; and may it also cherish and reinforce the priceless heritage Western civilization has in both Judaism and Christianity.

Fay Voshell holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, which awarded her its prize for excellence in systematic theology. Her thoughts have appeared in many online venues, including American Thinker, RealClearPolitics, CNS, Fox News, National Review and Russian Insider. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com

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