Friday, January 03, 2025
From Ian:
The ISIS Threat Never Left
But the story of Carter’s attitude towards Israel goes deeper. He was not simply a modern-day anti-Zionist—an ignorant idealogue who wrongly believed that Israeli counter-terrorism policies harmed the “human rights” of the Palestinian people. Carter was, in fact, a traditional, old-fashioned Christian antisemite.
We know this because his many post-presidential activities included teaching Sunday school. In 2007, Simon & Schuster released a 13-disc CD boxed set of recorded sermons that Carter gave at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., called “Sunday Mornings in Plains.”
The sermons contain a slew of chillingly pre-modern antisemitic prejudices. For example, he claimed that Judaism teaches Jews to feel superior to non-Jews, that Jewish religious practices are a sleazy “trick” to enhance personal wealth, and that current Israeli policy towards Palestinians is based upon these “Jewish” values and practices.
In the sermons recorded between 1998 and 2003, Carter attacked Israel by retreading antisemitic tropes dating back to the gospels and patristic writings of the early church. These anti-Judaic beliefs were formulated not in the 1960s or 1970s but between the first and fifth centuries C.E., ensuring well over a millennium of institutional, lethal Christian antisemitism.
Speaking of Jews’ supposed air of “superiority” to non-Jews, the former president said in one lecture, “ … [T]his morning I’m gonna’ be trying to relate the assigned Bible lesson to us in the Uniformed Series with how that affected Israel, and how it affects us through Christ personally. … It’s hard for us to even visualize the prejudice against gentiles when Christ came on earth. If a Jew married a gentile, that person was considered to be dead. … How would you characterize from a Jew’s point of view the uncircumcised? Nonbeliever? And what? Unclean, what? They called them ‘dogs!’ That’s true. …What was Paul’s feeling toward gentiles in his early life [before his conversion] … ? Anybody? Absolute commitment to persecution! To the imprisonment and even the execution of non-Jews who now professed faith in Jesus Christ. … We know the differences in the Middle East. But the differences there are between Jews on the one hand, who comprise the dominating force both militarily and also politically, and the Palestinians, who are both Muslim and Christians.” When Ireland Became ‘Paddystine’
The ISIS Threat Never Left
Terrorist movements wax strong when they believe that history is on their side. And there is no better way to rid the terrorists of that notion than to deny them haven and reduce their leaders to ash.Global rise in antisemitism leaves Jewish community isolated, rabbi says world at 'a tipping point'
America forgot this lesson. Our leaders reduced commitments in Iraq and Syria. Federal law enforcement shifted its attention to domestic extremism and white nationalism. Worst of all, President Biden beat a hasty retreat from Afghanistan that left 13 U.S. servicemen killed, U.S. citizens and visa-holders stranded, Afghan allies abandoned, the Afghan people in hock to a jihadist militia that calls itself a government, and Afghanistan's ungoverned spaces in the hands of ISIS.
At the time, Biden pledged continued surveillance of the enemy, "over-the-horizon" military capabilities, and support for Afghan women and girls. None of this was true. Retired general Frank McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander, said last spring that "in Afghanistan, we have almost no ability to see into that country and almost no ability to strike into that country." The Taliban resumed public executions, imposed dress and behavioral codes on women, and deprived girls of schooling. The other day, the Taliban said it would shutter NGOs that employ women.
Consider the contrast between Israel and the United States. Israel possesses the will to strike its enemies, establish facts on the ground favorable to its security, and restore deterrence in a dangerous neighborhood. The United States, meanwhile, has been tossed about by a whirlwind of events that it believes are beyond its control: an open southern border, a passive-aggressive desire to renew the nuclear agreement with Iran, disaster in Afghanistan, war between Russia and Ukraine that is lessening weapons stockpiles, virulent anti-Semitism on campuses and in city streets, and long-running operations against the Houthis that have led nowhere. This aimlessness and passivity create openings for terrorists. It gives them the sense of impending victory.
I am not arguing that we re-invade Afghanistan tomorrow. Nor am I saying that a more assertive U.S. foreign policy would end every threat to the homeland. My argument is that the way to reduce the ISIS threat, foreign and domestic, is to take the fight to the evildoers. Don't pretend jihadists can be left to their own devices. Put them on the defensive. Thin out their ranks, dry up their finances, keep them on the run. Then ISIS's ability to inspire will wane. And justice will be done for the people of New Orleans.
The escalation of antisemitism in the wake of the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror massacre in Israel has paved the way for attacks on Jewish communities around the world. For the duration of the past year, schools, community centers and houses of worship have faced threats, intimidation and physical violence.A Jimmy Carter surprise: He hated Jews, not just Israel Remembrances of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, should keep in mind how America’s 39th president profoundly damaged the Jewish state, especially with his deceitful 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, told Fox News Digital that throughout 2024, the "level of presumed security" the American Jewish community has lived with has shifted. "That’s difficult, when you have a place that you call home, and suddenly you don’t feel so at home." With the environment of "rolling antisemitism" in the U.S. becoming "an accepted part of daily life," Hauer said the issue "is still looked at as a problem for Jewish people as opposed to a stain on society."
The suddenness of the shift has been striking, Hauer said. "It was like we were a source of darkness," he explained. "All those who we stood shoulder-to-shoulder with to fight for their needs and to fight for their rights suddenly don’t recognize us, so that’s jarring."
The Anti-Defamation League tallied over 10,000 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7, 2023 and Oct. 6, 2024, up from 3,325 during the prior year and representing the highest annual total the group has counted. They include over 8,000 incidents of harassment, 150 physical assaults and 1,840 acts of vandalism. Combined, more than half of these incidents took place at anti-Israel rallies (over 3,000) or at Jewish institutions (over 2,000).
Some politicians and the United Nations (U.N.) have stoked domestic anti-Israel hate. In January, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza without also calling for the disarmament of Hamas, drawing wide condemnation from Jewish community leaders.
Despite multiple U.S. officials and the State Department condemning her spread of antisemitism, U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese visited numerous U.S. campuses in October while presenting her latest report before the U.N. General Assembly. During a stop at Barnard College, Albanese "described Israel’s war in Gaza as a ‘genocide,’ justified the October 7 attack, and questioned Israel’s right to exist," the Times of Israel reported.
Hatred that had been percolating on university campuses took new shape when anti-Israel encampments sprung up at learning institutions countrywide during the spring. During some encampment protests, Jewish students were excluded from their own campus spaces.
Terror flags have been flown on U.S. streets and campuses during anti-Israel protests. School administrators and business leaders who have angered anti-Israel protesters have had their homes and institutions tagged with the inverted red triangle that Hamas uses to denote military targets. In July, protesters replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag in Washington, D.C., and wrote "Hamas is coming" on a statue of Christopher Columbus.
But the story of Carter’s attitude towards Israel goes deeper. He was not simply a modern-day anti-Zionist—an ignorant idealogue who wrongly believed that Israeli counter-terrorism policies harmed the “human rights” of the Palestinian people. Carter was, in fact, a traditional, old-fashioned Christian antisemite.
We know this because his many post-presidential activities included teaching Sunday school. In 2007, Simon & Schuster released a 13-disc CD boxed set of recorded sermons that Carter gave at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., called “Sunday Mornings in Plains.”
The sermons contain a slew of chillingly pre-modern antisemitic prejudices. For example, he claimed that Judaism teaches Jews to feel superior to non-Jews, that Jewish religious practices are a sleazy “trick” to enhance personal wealth, and that current Israeli policy towards Palestinians is based upon these “Jewish” values and practices.
In the sermons recorded between 1998 and 2003, Carter attacked Israel by retreading antisemitic tropes dating back to the gospels and patristic writings of the early church. These anti-Judaic beliefs were formulated not in the 1960s or 1970s but between the first and fifth centuries C.E., ensuring well over a millennium of institutional, lethal Christian antisemitism.
Speaking of Jews’ supposed air of “superiority” to non-Jews, the former president said in one lecture, “ … [T]his morning I’m gonna’ be trying to relate the assigned Bible lesson to us in the Uniformed Series with how that affected Israel, and how it affects us through Christ personally. … It’s hard for us to even visualize the prejudice against gentiles when Christ came on earth. If a Jew married a gentile, that person was considered to be dead. … How would you characterize from a Jew’s point of view the uncircumcised? Nonbeliever? And what? Unclean, what? They called them ‘dogs!’ That’s true. …What was Paul’s feeling toward gentiles in his early life [before his conversion] … ? Anybody? Absolute commitment to persecution! To the imprisonment and even the execution of non-Jews who now professed faith in Jesus Christ. … We know the differences in the Middle East. But the differences there are between Jews on the one hand, who comprise the dominating force both militarily and also politically, and the Palestinians, who are both Muslim and Christians.” When Ireland Became ‘Paddystine’
Higgins charged the Mossad for leaking his “fawning letter of congratulations” to Iran’s new president, but it was the Iranians themselves, not the Israelis, who had made his letter public. Informed of this, he did not admit to his mistake, much less apologize to the Israelis for his initial claim. Higgins also makes preposterous claims about Israeli expansionism. When he received the new ambassador of “Palestine,” he claimed that in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt Israel was aggressively assaulting those countries’ sovereignty, presumably meaning that the Zionists hope to enlarge Israel so that it extends “from the Nile to the Euphrates.” This is an old chestnut among the world’s antisemites.
In reality, the aggression is all coming from Hezbollah, and now many Lebanese, not just the Christians and Sunnis, but even many Shia, are tired of Hezbollah’s continuing war against Israel that has led to so much destruction, not only in southern Lebanon between the Litani River and the Israeli border, but elsewhere as well — especially in southern Beirut, most of which has been leveled by Israeli airstrikes. And Hezbollah has also been responsible for other destruction that did not involve Israel. Think of the “Beirut blast” of August 4, 2020, that resulted from Hezbollah’s faulty storage of ammonium nitrates in a hangar at the Port of Beirut. That huge explosion — the largest non-nuclear explosion in history — caused 218 deaths, 6000 wounded, and $15 billon in damages. Lebanon has only suffered from Hezbollah’s dominance, its killing of so many of its political enemies, including Rafik Hariri, Samir Kassir, George Hawi, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, and Walid Edo.
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