Carter slams Canada

Jimmy Carter has thrust himself back into the spotlight recently with his new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". It's bad enough he goes around coddling terrorists and encouraging their "leaders", but now he's attacking Canada for withdrawing funds that would have gone to Hamas.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter says the decision by Canada and other nations to withhold money from the Hamas-led Palestinian government is "a crime."

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"It's a crime against the people of Palestine," Carter told CBC News in an exclusive interview from New York.

"For Canada and others to punish the Palestinian people because they voted for their candidates of choice, I think is literally a crime."

I think the former President is literally a loon. If the Palestinians want Hamas to lead them so badly, then this is the result of having their candidates of choice in power. But it's obviously Canada's fault that the leadership of Hamas couldn't lead their way out of a wet paper bag. If they could, perhaps they'd consider finding ways of improving the lives of their people, rather than continually spitting vitriol and hatred at their neighbours.

But no, Carter needs to blame Canada, blame Canada...

"I deplore the Palestinian suicide bombings as much or more than anything than I do what Israel has done against the Palestinian people. It's horrible on both sides and should be eliminated. But you have to look at the facts."

He said that by the time Hamas was elected in January, the Palestinian authority had already been brought to bankruptcy and couldn't pay police officers, firefighters and government employees.

Or suicide bombers, or the families of suicide bombers, or contribute to the insurgency in Iraq, etc.
Carter seems to suggest that it is not Hamas' fault for the social woes in Palestine, and that they were voted in to pick up the pieces. But the fact is Hamas has funded terrorism, they have never truly renounced violence against Israel, and they have not done anything to improve the lives of average Palestinians.
They cannot be trusted to use our charitable funds in responsible and appropriate ways.

Even the leaders of the Democratic Party are distancing themselves from Carter:

Carter's latest book has drawn stern rebukes from current Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean.

"With all due respect to former president Carter, he does not speak for the Democratic party on Israel," Pelosi said in a statement.

This is certainly a positive thing, but I can't help but think that there are many Democrats who share Carter's views on the situation in the Middle East.