A Ballad of Jimmy Carter

When the wicked flourish like grass, and all workers of violence blossom, only to be destroyed to eternity. Psalms 92:8 

 

In 1953, Russians spontaneously poured into the streets to mourn Joseph Stalin’s death. While he was alive, none of them could do anything spontaneously. Any impulsive act was done at the risk of one’s life.

 

In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat proclaimed to the world: “I am ready to talk peace anytime and anywhere.” 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin called his bluff, inviting him to Jerusalem.  Sadat shocked the world by accepting his invitation, flying to Israel, and becoming the first Arab leader to address the Israeli Knesset. He ushered in a new age for the Middle East.  

 

It was an age where nations communicated directly with one another. We, the indigenous peoples who knew our land and communities better than anyone else, would resolve our problems to benefit our sovereign destinies.  

 

It was another step away from her majesty’s Egypt and British Palestine, and great leap forward towards a powerful region poised to rival Europe and Asia.  

 

Until the farmer from Georgia took on the “White Man’s burden”.  

 

Recolonizing the Middle East 

Incensed at President Sadat’s initiative, President Carter summoned the leaders of Israel and Egypt to Camp David in Maryland for two weeks of secret talks.  

 

By Carter’s own admission, both Sadat and Begin were “prisoners” at Camp David. Even though the terms of the treaty were unacceptable to Israel, Carter refused to let the Israeli delegation leave until Begin signed on the dotted line of the Camp David Accords. When it was all done, Jimmy Carter set three tragic precedents for the People of Israel: 

• Israelis and Arabs cannot make peace on their own. From Oslo to Wada Araba (the treaty with Jordan) to the Abraham Accords, the United States would broker all peace deals. 
• Israel must give up land. The Camp David Accords was the first time Israel gave up land for peace. Nobody in Israel expected Begin to cede the entire Sinai Peninsula or throw out the 2,000 Jewish citizens of Yamit. 

By locking Begin into a golden jail, the final deal required us to give everything up. This set the stage for ceding Gaza to Hamas, parts of the Negev to Jordan, and a pledge to abandon parts of Judea and Shomron in the Abraham Accords.

Sinai is where we, as a nation, spoke face to face with God and received the Torah. We are commanded to remember when we stood at Sinai every day of our lives. Carter’s treaty was an attempt to make us forget.  

• No peace can be agreed upon without a pledge by Israel to allow a Palestinian state within its borders. While Israel and Egypt were content to sign the agreement without such a pledge, it was Carter who refused to move forward without mention of a future Palestinian State.  

Every subsequent agreement, including the pending treaty with Saudi Arabia, is stalled by the “Carter add-on” requiring us to promise to allow Hamas to build a military right next to Jerusalem.  

Hundreds of Israeli lives were sacrificed to fight off Egypt in 1967 and take the Sinai. Thousands were lost protecting it from the surprise attack by Egypt on Yom Kippur in 1973. One would think that for all the sacrifices we made for Carter to receive his Nobel Prize, he would show some gratitude to the Jewish People.  

 

Thirty years later, Carter published his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, that accused Israel of treating Arabs living in Judea and Shomron like the whites of South Africa treated the blacks. Somehow, he decided to overlook the tens of thousands of Palestinians working in Jewish cities and the dozens of red signs in front of every Arab city forbidding Jews to enter.   

 

To Israel, Jimmy Carter was a ruthless tyrant. His policies forced us to give our place of national liberation, Sinai, back to Egypt.  

 

They Don’t Last Forever 

Jimmy Carter wasn’t the only harsh president; Biden was also a difficult leader. Even after October 7, he restricted arms sales to Israel to fight Hamas. He handcuffed us by preventing us from attacking Rafiah for months, giving Hamas time to regroup and defend itself from an obvious forthcoming attack.  

 

To this very day, he refuses to allow us to besiege the Gaza Strip, demanding that we willfully resupply our enemies under the guise of “humanitarian aid”. In doing so, Hamas can hold onto our hostages, reject all attempts at peace, and continue to fire upon IDF soldiers and Israeli cities.  

 

We see men like Jimmy Carter, Barrack Obama, and Joe Biden come to power and terrorize us. They meddle in our internal politics, trying to replace local leaders with colonial governors. They force upon us treaties and ceasefires that empower our foes. When we are at war, they side with our enemies.

  

Hashem is the only Constant 

It feels like we will never escape their demonic clutches. We look at the rise of bad people and scratch our heads: 

Aren’t the righteous rewarded and the evil punished in this world and the Next? What’s going on here?  

 

As an old Russian adage goes: Never show a fool work half done.  

 

Whether politically or physically, all these leaders have an expiration date. They are, after all, men – and no more. Even with all their power, they are helpless to Hashem’s decrees.  

 

During the reign of Carter, we managed to take over large swaths of Lebanon. During the time of Obama, the Jewish population of Judea and Shomron increased substantially. Over the course of the Biden era: we reclaimed Gaza and de-fanged Hamas, took the entire Golan Heights, shattered Hezbollah in Lebanon, and decimated the Syrian military with zero opposition.  

 

If Egypt were to be taken over the way Syria was, Hashem willing, we will put the final nail in Mr. Carter’s coffin and re-enter the Sinai to reclaim our eternal place of liberation.  

 

While leaders come and go, leaving nothing more than a disputed legacy, our King reigns forever! 

Behold! The Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Psalms 121:4 

 

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.