Jimmy Carter stood by while Iran's Shah asked for American support to defend his government against Islamic extremism. After his overthrow, Carter stood by while American hostages withstood 444 days of imprisonment and torture under the Khomeini regime.

This fecklessness emboldened Iran, which took its cue from Carter's weakness and began its reign as undisputed terror paymaster of the world. Carter himself has found few dictators that he hasn't coddled and supported: Arafat, Castro,  Ortega, Chavez and a large cast of other rogues.

What has escaped much attention is that Carter protégés have also played roles after their time on the world stage has ended. One of these figures is Ed Peck, who has emerged as a major critic of American policies, a foe of Israel, and a promoter of anti—Semitic myths. Peck served as chief of the U.S. Mission to Iraq under Carter and now has continued his outreach towards Arab fanatics.

A few months ago , he wrote an op—ed for the Pittsburgh  Post—Gazette that defended the paper written by Professors Walt and Mearsheimer on the "Israel Lobby."  The paper was roundly condemned on academic grounds; furthermore, many critics across the political spectrum openly declared that the paper was anti—Semitic (see, for example, the Washington Post op—ed: "It is Anti—Semitic".)

Peck praised the paper and did not deal with any of the substantive criticisms of the work. Instead, he used his op—ed instead to blame Israel for anti—Semitism in the world, stating

"Israeli actions also generate anti—Semitism, the very label the lobby uses to bludgeon into silence anyone in America who questions relations with Israel and its expansionist policies" (as noted by James Taranto in his Best of the Web column)

Now Peck is back. In an appearance on Fox News Channel, he absolutely denied that Hezbollah is a terror organization and compared their fighters to American soldiers in World War 2. He went on to say equate Hezbollah's actions against Israel to Israel's actions in Lebanon. He says acts of terrorism that Hezbollah commits are the same type of actions "others" commit but America doesn't call those acts terrorism because they are committed by "friends."  When he was asked if Hezbollah was a terror group, he deflected the question by this cliché: "A terrorist organization is in the eye of the beholder" and he went on that

"America is opposed to a cease—fire because we want to give Israel a chance to kill as many people as we can".

Yet, he goes on to proudly call himself a "diplomat."
 
Some diplomat.

Hezbollah has murdered many Americans, French, Lebanese and others over the years. The group kidnapped more than 200 foreign nationals in Lebanon, most of them Americans or Western Europeans. Hezbollah also organized suicide attacks against U.S. and French targets, killing almost 1000 people, including 241 U.S. Marines and 56 French paratroopers sent to Lebanon to enforce peace. Hezbollah blew up a Jewish community center in Argentina, killing over 80 people. The group hijacked TWA Flight 847 in 1985, beating to death a US Navy diver and dumping his body on the tarmac. The group blew up the Israeli Embassy and cultural center in Argentina, killing over 30.

According to Peck, these acts are comparable to US soldiers fighting in World War Two—because, after all, they are not trerrorists.

Ed Lasky  7 28 06