For the benefit of Israel, US media stoops to trashing Carter

Jimmy Carter’s visit to the Middle East will be remembered not for his meetings with Hamas leaders but for the savagery of the reactions he received from the American media.

Although the Bush administration refused to give its support to the Carter peace mission to the Middle East and warned him not to meet with Hamas leaders, the vociferous reactions came from journalists, media men and opinion writers which far outweighed the voices from the political establishment, both presidency and Congress alike, and in the most explicit of tones.

This time around the different strands of the American media provide more extremist cannon fodder than the Bush administration known for using iron fist in fighting terrorism and lambasting those who would meet terrorist-labeled organizations like Hamas, despite the fact Carter is on a peace mission.

Carter has been callously branded as a “citizen traitor,” stripping him of his former presidential status -- a traitor to his cause and country if you are willing to walk the extra mile and believe the US and Israel are one and the same country.

He is further seen as someone “embracing the enemy,” while in fact he is talking to a legitimate organization, and, a fact-of-life, a body that is part and parcel of the Palestinian people and won their support on numerous occasions.

In the Carter visit to the Middle East, including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia, the corporate media have allowed themselves to scream and cry wolf, all in favor of a hard-nosed Israel that believes to be under threat by continually fighting and killing Palestinians.

American editors have allowed themselves to be used to support a country on the far end of the Mediterranean as if it were a suburb of New York or Chicago. They cite chapter and verse without question and with obedience.

In “Peres blasting Carter,” the editor and newspaper of the headline clearly feel delighted and cherish the fact that Carter was scolded by Israeli President Shimon Peres for wanting to meet Hamas as if they don’t exist as a legitimate source in Palestinian society and instead reproached him. Online Journal