Carter was a good man, and my introduction to the ability of the media to maul anyone that frightened America's elites; I'm sure you remember the killer rabbit. America's turn from Carter to Reagan was one bookend of my working life, and its turn to trump is the other. We get what we deserve, and it's a shame for the rest of the world.
As for Deir Yassin, perhaps you have not heard of the relatively recently published book "The Massacre That Never Was," by Professor Eliezer Tauber of Bar-Ilan University. Tauber interviewed everyone he could find, from all sides, and was told by former residents of Deir Yassin that the accusation of a "massacre" was hype demanded by Arab leadership at the time, in hopes of involving other Arab militaries. Instead, it became a major cause of the flight that created the dispossessed Palestinian refugees. The book was initially published in Hebrew, and American university presses didn't want to publish a translation for fear of offending the politically correct. It eventually found a more courageous publisher for the English translation, and is easily available. For a discussion of the shameful cowardice of the university presses you could see: https://jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/231367/truth-deir-yassin/
You'll probably consider it Israeli propaganda. I believe it is the truth.
I feel like JFK tried to stand up to Pax Americana and it got him killed. Carter pushed against it and got tarred and feathered. As for Tauber's book - I'd like to read it. Sounds like a zag worthy of a proper consideration!
A substantial free sample is available by going to it at Amazon and clicking "Read Sample;" it is also available for Kindle for $12.99. The book itself is forty bucks. I don't know how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can end when the two sides both believe in completely different versions of history about this and much more. I've increasingly begun to wonder whether anyone can know the true history of anything.
I was able to read a 2018 Tauber article in the Times of Israel, in which he outlines the book he was trying to (and eventually did) get published. I guess there is a long history of scholarly dispute over Deir Yassin. I recall reading about it as a kid in "O Jerusalem!" by journalists Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, who cited several sources confirming both the massacre and atrocity allegations. Tauber comes along to say everyone he interviewed denies any massacre or atrocities. They all agree, however, that the Irgun lied about (exaggerated) the death toll for propaganda reasons. It's hard (but not impossible) to find a corroborated narrative when so many parties are in the business of propaganda!
I agree it is hard to know exactly what happened in any event whatsoever. Short of eyewitness testimony from someone you personally know to be reliable, I doubt it is impossible to come to a confident conclusion in an environment saturated by propaganda.
There are a (very) few things about which we can be certain. One is that our current economic and political systems have led to the destruction of the ecological platform that allows our civilizations to continue. Another is that attempts to change systems often make things worse. What a person is to do with that knowledge, beyond drooling and babbling, is beyond me.
And Carter was simply too real a Christian for America to accept. America's version of Christianity is closer to football Jesus than to what Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount. I still don't understand how he was elected to begin with. As I think you know, I'm an atheist, but this contradiction between the religion as it exists in America and the beliefs of the religion as expressed in the New Testament has never stopped amazing me. We are a very adaptable species, with an unlimited capacity for self-deception as needed.
Jimmy Carter was one of my favorite presidents (JFK would top the list). I was living on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada in the Fall of 1976 when Carter was elected. There were a lot of draft dodgers living in the area (I wasn't one - I was born in Canada). I met one guy from Santa Cruz who wasn't able to attend his mother's funeral because he would have been arrested. There were a lot of happy American ex-pats after that election - Carter followed through in granting them amnesty. The peace accord he brokered between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin showed his skill as a diplomat - possibly unmatched since then. He was a decent and intelligent man (nuclear engineer) - just the type of honest. humble person the country needed in the wake of the Nixon disgrace and the failure of Gerald Ford as a leader.
Carter was a good man, and my introduction to the ability of the media to maul anyone that frightened America's elites; I'm sure you remember the killer rabbit. America's turn from Carter to Reagan was one bookend of my working life, and its turn to trump is the other. We get what we deserve, and it's a shame for the rest of the world.
As for Deir Yassin, perhaps you have not heard of the relatively recently published book "The Massacre That Never Was," by Professor Eliezer Tauber of Bar-Ilan University. Tauber interviewed everyone he could find, from all sides, and was told by former residents of Deir Yassin that the accusation of a "massacre" was hype demanded by Arab leadership at the time, in hopes of involving other Arab militaries. Instead, it became a major cause of the flight that created the dispossessed Palestinian refugees. The book was initially published in Hebrew, and American university presses didn't want to publish a translation for fear of offending the politically correct. It eventually found a more courageous publisher for the English translation, and is easily available. For a discussion of the shameful cowardice of the university presses you could see: https://jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/231367/truth-deir-yassin/
You'll probably consider it Israeli propaganda. I believe it is the truth.
I feel like JFK tried to stand up to Pax Americana and it got him killed. Carter pushed against it and got tarred and feathered. As for Tauber's book - I'd like to read it. Sounds like a zag worthy of a proper consideration!
A substantial free sample is available by going to it at Amazon and clicking "Read Sample;" it is also available for Kindle for $12.99. The book itself is forty bucks. I don't know how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can end when the two sides both believe in completely different versions of history about this and much more. I've increasingly begun to wonder whether anyone can know the true history of anything.
I was able to read a 2018 Tauber article in the Times of Israel, in which he outlines the book he was trying to (and eventually did) get published. I guess there is a long history of scholarly dispute over Deir Yassin. I recall reading about it as a kid in "O Jerusalem!" by journalists Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, who cited several sources confirming both the massacre and atrocity allegations. Tauber comes along to say everyone he interviewed denies any massacre or atrocities. They all agree, however, that the Irgun lied about (exaggerated) the death toll for propaganda reasons. It's hard (but not impossible) to find a corroborated narrative when so many parties are in the business of propaganda!
I agree it is hard to know exactly what happened in any event whatsoever. Short of eyewitness testimony from someone you personally know to be reliable, I doubt it is impossible to come to a confident conclusion in an environment saturated by propaganda.
There are a (very) few things about which we can be certain. One is that our current economic and political systems have led to the destruction of the ecological platform that allows our civilizations to continue. Another is that attempts to change systems often make things worse. What a person is to do with that knowledge, beyond drooling and babbling, is beyond me.
And Carter was simply too real a Christian for America to accept. America's version of Christianity is closer to football Jesus than to what Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount. I still don't understand how he was elected to begin with. As I think you know, I'm an atheist, but this contradiction between the religion as it exists in America and the beliefs of the religion as expressed in the New Testament has never stopped amazing me. We are a very adaptable species, with an unlimited capacity for self-deception as needed.
Jimmy Carter was one of my favorite presidents (JFK would top the list). I was living on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada in the Fall of 1976 when Carter was elected. There were a lot of draft dodgers living in the area (I wasn't one - I was born in Canada). I met one guy from Santa Cruz who wasn't able to attend his mother's funeral because he would have been arrested. There were a lot of happy American ex-pats after that election - Carter followed through in granting them amnesty. The peace accord he brokered between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin showed his skill as a diplomat - possibly unmatched since then. He was a decent and intelligent man (nuclear engineer) - just the type of honest. humble person the country needed in the wake of the Nixon disgrace and the failure of Gerald Ford as a leader.
Great thoughts- thanks!