I can understand the argument that it is the office of the Presidency which is deserving of protection –even if the person who occupied it has shown himself to utterly devoid of merit.

I can also see that the Israeli refusal to provide protection for this individual will lead to increased risk for the brave and noble Secret Service agents whose sworn duty it is to protect even this undeserving miscreant with their lives.

The solution –though I don’t know enough about the organizational relationships to even speculate on how it could be brought about — is as an earlier commenter suggested: Simply withdraw Secret Service protection for Carter on this trip (and possibly for good and all). There are plenty of private security firms which could be retained for the detail, and who would discharge their contractual obligations as free agents making professional choices. They would not be acting as operatives of the American State, implicitly legitimizing this outrageous, unsanctioned folly.

The lovely irony of, say, Blackwater providing (competent and formidable) protection for this enemy of the State would be worth the price of the ticket for me!

Not only fundamentalist-”orthodox” Mormons believe in the virtue of polygamy, but also the great American progressive socialist George Bernard Shaw. “Shaw advocated the abolition of traditional marriage in favor of more eugenically acceptable polygamy under the auspices of a State Department of Evolution and a new ‘eugenic religion.’ … What was therefore required was a ‘human stud farm’ in order to ‘eliminate the Yahoo whose vote will wreck the commonwealth. … towards the undesirable elements…’we should place them in the lethal chamber and get rid of them.” [THAT, BTW, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes accomplished.--see p251] p250, Liberal Fascism.

As Jonah Goldberg points out, Progressivism was born of the fascist moment and has never faced up to its inheritance. Today’s liberals have inherited progressive prejudice wholesale, believing that traditionalists and religious conservatives are dangerous threats to progress. But this assumption means that liberals are blind to fascitic threats from their own ranks.–p254, Liberal Fascism.

Jimmy Carter may be the worst ex-president in American history, but he is still our ex-president, and the Secret Service detail that accompanies him deserves Israeli cooperation

I couldn’t disagree more.

When Jimmy Carter starts acting a little less like the anti-American former President, and more like a respectful former President, then he will begin to deserve the respect that goes with the office.

Besides: JC is our ex-President, and as such we may be stuck with him as a national black-eye. But Israel is not. Good for Shin Bet and good for Israel for saying enough is enough of Carter’s Crap.

I will view it as Israel doing the right thing, because this commie trash Carter is only helping the rag head scum murder people! If Carter gets killed I say GOOD RIDENCE TO A COMMIE PIECE OF CRAP!

In his last book he equated the Israeli’s to South Africa’s apartheid policy. In case Carter does not want to know the truth, the wall Israel erected has saved countless lives.

Now he is going to meet with one of the world’s leading terrorist. I read that despite the adverse reaction of the White House as well as leading Congrss People, including many Democrats, he is doing it anyway.

Please, Carter, just go retire to you peanut farm. We already have enough problems.

Having lived in Georgia when this anti-semitic fool was governor (no great shakes at that either); I must warn you that the iron magnolia (Rosalyn) will probably insist on a full bore state funeral. She’s never forgiven “John Q. Public” for not re-electing her Jimmah.

Supporting this old fool and giving him political cover is not respecting the office. IF Carter had any respect for the office he wouldn’t be making such an ass of himself. Respect is a two-way street!!

Wow… I am really amazed about what I am reading. Jimmy Carter is OUR ex-president.

mycowardice on April 15, 2008 at 12:19 AM

And I’m equally amazed that he, himself, acts more like an “internationalist” tool, than a US ex-President. I mean, it’s almost as if he’s been trying to be as detrimental as possible to US interests on purpose!

I wish Jimmy Carter was as aware that “…(he) is OUR ex-president…” as you or I are. But then again, he would then turn himself in for all the crap he’s pulled over the years, or feel shame, or something. If only on a Metric scale…

Quite frankly, although I understand the Israeli’s action, I think it sets a bad precedent. Cooperation in security should not be predicated on agreement of political policies. Jimmy Carter may be the worst ex-president in American history, but he is still our ex-president, and the Secret Service detail that accompanies him deserves Israeli cooperation.

Nope, sorry Ed. Being an ex-president doesn’t give him impunity for his actions. Why should Israel be expected to put its citizens at risk, both now and possibly in the future, for someone who is undercutting their very efforts simply because he is a former U.S. president? Unless the U.S. and Isreal have a pact, I suspect security is provided to former presidents out of diplomatic courtesy, a concept that Carter appears to have difficulty grasping.

I salute the secret service men and women that accompany him. I DO NOT salute him however!

Worst. President. Ever!!!

belad on April 14, 2008 at 4:28 PM

Thanks for the link. I am old enough to remember BCCI.

thatcher on April 14, 2008 at 8:00 PM

and then there was the stamp of approval for Mugabe

Hamas knows who their friends are. I’m more likely to find Heidi Klum naked and waiting for me in my office than Hamas is likely to fire missiles with any chance of hitting Carter.

Besides, I think Nixon started the assistance Israel’s way either during or before the Yom Kippur War. How else did Israel have M60 Tanks, and F4 Fighters by that time?

I’m not sure the Israelis used M60s before 1967. I know they used British Centurions in the late 60s.

While Israel had F4 Phantoms by 1967, until the Six Day War Israel used French and British weapons primarily. In the wake of that war, France established an arms embargo on the Middle East which they only enforced against Israel, refusing to deliver Mirage fighters which had been paid for. Israeli commandos managed to sail five paid for missile boats right out of Cherbourg harbor in 1969, and later a Swiss engineer provided them with the blueprints for the Mirage, on which they based their Kfir fighter.

After the ’67 war, with the Arab countries increasingly in the Soviet orbit, the US started supplying Israel in earnest. Military aid from the US to Israel (usually in the form of credits to be used to purchase US equipment – so aid to Israel could be more accurately described as aid to McDonnel Douglas & Lockheed Martin employees and shareholders) didn’t reach the billion dollar level until Nixon decided to resupply Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, after Israel had lost many front line aircraft and tanks.

Since none of our European “allies” would allow refueling stopovers, planes were flown right off the assembly lines in California and Long Island without insignia, refueled by USAF KC-135s, landed at IAF bases where they were painted with insignia, loaded with weapons and put directly into combat.

It’s not generally known that Israel was badly losing the ’73 war for the first few days. A literal handful of Israeli tankers saved their asses on the Golan, with 260 Israeli tanks facing over 1500 tanks on the Syrian side. Google Zvika Greengold, Shmuel Askarov and Avigdor Kahalani if you want to read about heroes. Askarov had been blown out of a tank and was in a hospital recovering from surgery when he realized how grim the situation was. He discharged himself against medical advice and his teenage brother drove him up to the Golan where he cobbled together tank crews. Greengold singlehandidly held off a column of 200 tanks, and five armored divisions referring to himself on the squawk box as “Tzvika Force” so monitoring Syrians wouldn’t realize he was a single tank. He’d pop up over the berm next to the highway, kill a tank, then retreat and go up the road to do it again. When his tank was damaged, he found another one, fighting for 30 hours straight, sometimes alone, sometimes with a small squadron of as many as 16 tanks. It’s possible that Greengold is the preeminent tank ‘ace’ in the world, credited with 60 tanks kills during those 30 hours.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/greengold.html

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-15150.html

I worked at a scrap yard adjacent to the Detroit Industrial Railway a few miles south of the US Army Tank Command facility in Warren, where they used to build tanks. All summer long in 1974 there were trains packed with M60 tanks destined to replenish our strategic reserve which had been used to resupply the Israelis.

Quite frankly, although I understand the Israeli’s action, I think it sets a bad precedent.

Gee, maybe it’s because they’re as sick of him as we are.

While I often agree with Mr. Morrissey, that is not the case in this instance. Mr. Morrissey is looking at this from an American perspective, and seems to place the lives of U.S. personnel at greater value than that of Shin Bet or other Israeli personnel.

Why on Earth should an Israeli government commit resources, and risk the lives of it’s security forces to protect ANY antisemitic individual (ex-pres or no), particularly one who consorts with terrorists sworn to Israel’s destruction?

For that matter, why should the resources of the Secret Service be expended for an unsanctioned visit with people our government refuses to meet with?
Should the administration pay the tab for those who seek to undermine our foreign policy?
While I recognize we cannot have our ex-presidents wandering around the West Bank or Gaza without security, I believe the correct course is for the State Department to forbid the visit (as too dangerous)… but certainly NOT pay for it with Secret Service blood or our tax dollars!