Four Years Is Enough (Vol. 46, Issue 2)
It was only four years ago that the Jews of New York went to the polls on election day with the name Carter on their lips and on the levers they pulled. The Jewish vote played an important role in denying Gerald Ford (who was no friend of Israel) an opportunity to further exert pressure on Israel. Hope was placed upon the Georgian governor who masterfully ‘uttered promises of support for Israel and Jewish rights. Four years later, it is quite clear that Carter excels in breaking promises as well as in making them, and he has demonstrably proved himself to be more than a mere opponent of the Jewish State, but rather an adversary and detriment to Israel’s welfare and security.
Only four years ago, Jimmy Carter expressed his grave concern to Jewish voters over the deluge of sophisticated weapons being funneled into the Arab Nations by France, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. After four years of forgotten promises and vows, Carter’s record of initiating weapons supply to the Arab nations is staggering and bypasses that of any former president of the United States. Examples of such aid and sales are as follows: On Feb. 2, 1978 the administration notified Congress of its intention to sell 60 F-15 planes to Saudi Arabia, twenty percent more than the Saudis had requested. On June 6, 1980, after promising never to continue these sales, Carter once again proposed an advance of F-15s to Saudi Arabia. On July 23, 1980 Carter rewarded Jordan with 100 M-60 tanks as gratitude for “non-participation” in the peace process. Such examples of Carter’s betrayal have in effect strengthened the enemies of Israel by giving them extra access to the weapons they would need if conflict with Israel can ever be foreseeable in the future. It is interesting to note here that the President has also violated an American commitment to Israel on the sale of CBU 72 bombers. Although G. Ford promised their sale to Israel, Carter has refused to fulfill this commitment.
The Los Angeles Times of June 6, 1976 quoted one of Carter’s many pre-election anti-P.L.O. declarations stating, “We must make it clear that there can be no reward for terrorism.” So professes the fair-weather President, but Carter’s actions as president tell quite a different story and paint quite a different picture. The following examples depict Carter’s reaction to the P.L.O. during his administration.
On March 17, 1977 Carter greeted the P.L.O. representative, Terzi, at a U.N. reception. On August 8, 1977 Carter signed legislation easing restrictions on P.L.O. representatives to the U.S. on Oct. 1, 1977 Carter, in Alequinn, Penn., defended the rights of the P.L.O. to operate an information office, which was established on May 11, 1976 in Washington, D.C. Carter’s lack of opposition to a group which advocates the destruction of Israel through acts of terrorism was a promotion of their cause.
As a result, the P.L.O. gained overwhelming legitimacy and recognition during his four-year presidency. It is no mere coincidence that Yasir Arafat supports Carter for re-election. Evil as he may be, Arafat is a levelheaded individual when he reasons that Carter will continue in his tracks of P.L.O. support.
Senator George McGovern, perplexed by the President’s outright bolstering of the P.L.O., stated, “The administration condemns the P.L.O. one week and greets them at cocktail parties the next!”
It was only four years ago when Carter pledged to stand firmly by a Jerusalem under Jewish Sovereignty. Once again in 1980, he has the audacity to blurt out these baseless claims, after he has failed to show recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Carter’s actions regarding Jerusalem merely involved violating his 1976 pre-election vow to relocate’the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and his U.N. ambassador’s participition in U.N. resolution 465 which condemned the settlements in Judea and Samaria and declared Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem as illegal. The President’s lack of recognition of a Jewish Jerusalem, which he regarded as “occupied Arab territory” on Oct. 16, 1979, as well as his failure to veto the most recent U.N. vote denouncing the recent Jerusalem bill, only served to further ostracize Israel from the world, as well as from her allies.
Contrary to Carter’s campaign propaganda of increased aid to Israel over the past four years, the U.S., instead of allotting tremendous aid to Israel, only contributed to the crippling of her economy. This was done by violating the U.S. guarantees of covering the ten billion dollar cost of Camp David, after Israel forfeited her oil reserves which she so desperately needed. Carter loaned Israel only 2.5 billion dollars, leaving a deficiency of 7.5 billion dollars. In actuality, Carter never increaseil aid to Israel, but he denied Israel what was rightfully hers. Thus, it is no surprise that Carter responded to Israel’s later request of 1.8 billion dollars of “increased” aid by allotting Israel only 200 million dollars while on the same day Egypt received additional aid of 1.1 billion dollars.
It was on Oct. 13, 1980 in the Forest Hills Jewish Center that Jimmy Carter reaffirmed his support for Israel and denounced the U.S. participation in the U.N. Security Council’s resolution 465 as being a mistake. Whether or not the vote was a “mistake” (which it obviously wasn’t) is an irrelevant fact. The reality is that Jimmy Carter’s actions and policies towards Israel as President have been totally inconsistent with his 1976 campaign platform. Thus, his 1980 vows to stand by Israel must be viewed with extreme caution, to say the least.
Israel would be facing possible strangulation by a president who, if re-elected, would in his next term no longer accommodate the essential Jewish vote. The rate of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union is in perilous danger due to Carter’s pathetic foreign policy of appeasement, which has practically severed U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations.
The Jews of N.Y. must immediately cease their sheepish following of their Democratic shepherds, for as in 1940, when Jews worshipped Roosevelt, he turned out to be a silent partner to Hitler's final solution of deceit, deception, and despair. In 1980, those who constitute a powerful minority known as the “Jewish vote” which can carry New York State, must ask themselves, “Which candidate stands in our advantage or disadvantage as Jews?” The horrible prospect of Carter's re-election would greatly endanger our vital interests as Jews and as Americans. Jimmy Carter must be stopped in the hope of the election of the major Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan. Reagan offers us not salvation, but his election would simply eliminate a man who, with the exception of Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, is the greatest menace to the Jewish People.
