Soccer Dad

Jimmy Carter Tyrant Enabler

I just found this report, "OBSERVERS ACCLAIM PALESTINIAN VOTE
RESULTS LIKELY TODAY" from the Washington Post dated January 22, 1996:

There were enough irregularities in the conduct of the vote that neither the European Union's poll-watchers nor an international delegation led by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter chose to use the formula that the election was "free and fair."

I had not known that even Carter had recognized that something funny was going on. (Dan Polisar documented how atrocious it was in "Yasser Arafat and the Myth of Legitimacy." Yet the observers weren't concerned with such trivia:

But Carl Lidbom, chief of the European unit, said the vote "can reasonably be regarded as an accurate expression of the will of the voters on polling day," and Carter said his delegation's "overall conclusion is that the Palestinian people had an historic opportunity to choose their leaders yesterday, and they did so with enthusiasm and a high degree of professionalism."

)
However a day earlier is the report where Carter said what he really felt in "PALESTINIANS ELECT ARAFAT, LEGISLATURE" :

Thousands of Israeli police and border guards, many wearing body armor and helmets and carrying assault rifles, deployed at the five postal voting sites, greatly outnumbering those who managed to get inside to vote. In the Beit Hanina neighborhood, there were more soldiers on the rooftop than could fit inside the tiny, two-window postal branch, and voters had to run a gantlet of dozens of soldiers to get inside.

"I am very much scared of all these guys," said Taghreed Bakri, 18, one of only two voters seen entering in nearly an hour. "I never saw even one policeman here before."

Carter and other observers complained sharply that Israeli police also videotaped every person who entered the polling site inside the walled Old City's Jaffa Gate.

Of course the videotaping was done to discourage Israelis who had threatened to disrupt the elections not voters. Carter wasn't being honest and neither was the reporter Barton Gellman who had an obligation to report the Israeli rationale whether he believed it or not.

So is it any surprise that Carter, 9 years later doesn't find fault with the Palestinian election? Here's today's "Abbas Declares Victory in Palestinian Elections:"

In East Jerusalem, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have clashed vociferously over allowing Palestinians to vote, turnout was extraordinarily low. Many of those who tried to cast ballots were rejected because of confusion over registration lists, according to election officials and monitors. Former president Jimmy Carter, an election monitor, telephoned Sharon's office and urged the loosening of restrictions.

The low turnout in the Arab sections of Jerusalem might be due to something else altogether.
Of course Jimmy Carter's the guy who certified Hugo Chavez's stolen election. He really couldn't be expected to notice what Jeff Jacoby wrote about in "The Problem with Mahmoud Abbas":

The outcome of yesterday's election for president of the Palestinian Authority was never in doubt. Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's longtime accomplice -- the two men co-founded Fatah, the largest terrorist faction within the PLO, in 1965 -- was always going to win in a landslide. The three other candidates were never going to get more than a sliver of the vote. That they got any votes at all was impressive, given the virtual news blackout on their campaigns by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian media and the bullying of anyone tempted to support them. The New York Sun described some of the arm-twisting on Dec. 31:

One of the reasons none of the three candidates has received much support is intimidation by the PA [Palestinian Authority]. `People are afraid to be seen even reading their campaign literature,' says one Palestinian. . . . The message that the people have received from various leaders of the PA is that if they vote for a candidate other than Mr. Abbas, they will either lose jobs they already have in the PA or will not be hired by the PA in the future. Since the PA is the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza, the threat carries a great deal of weight.

Physical intimidation has also played a role. . . . On Wednesday, shots were fired at [candidate Bassam el] Salhi's offices in Ramallah . . . .

That's what Carter won a Nobel Prize for. Certifying one more tin plated dictator as legitimate.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at January 10, 2005 10:17 AM | TrackBack