Jimmy Carter visits Orange County

According to the LAT, Carter spoke at UCI (University of California Irvine) for 20 minutes before a crowd estimated at 3,300 and then took questions. One UCI official is quoted as saying "We get a great man and don't have to pay him the fortune that he'd be worth." Some would argue whether he's great, and perhaps he's not as valuable a speaker as that official thinks, otherwise they might have had to pay more.

Apparently Carter's theme was that the Palestinians are getting used and abused because Israelis occupy their territory and the U. S. government is afraid to stop it because of the Jewish lobby. Well, the Jewish lobby is active and influential but the Palestinians' main problem is an inability to say yes. Clinton had a deal cooked up in the late 1990s that would have given Palestinians nearly everything they wanted but they turned it down. Palestinian government officials seem unable to make any concessions at all for fear that they will be seen as caving to Israel, and that can get them killed.