Andrew Young ... last night [told] an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.” ... “You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.” (emphasis added.)This contrasts strongly with Ambassador Young's feelings toward Ayatollah Khomeini whom he described as "a saint." That statement was from back when the Carter Administration was working, successfully as it turned out, to replace the Shah of Iran with Khomeini. To help push the Shah out, Carter embargoed arms shipments to him. Carter, of course, lifted the embargo when Saint Khomeini assumed power. Khomeini then displayed no gratitude: Iran held Americans hostage for the rest of the Carter presidency.
(There is, by the way, no inconsistency in Young's statements: He may hate Arabs but his sainted Khomeini is Iranian, not Arab.)
This is not irrelevant history: Israel fights with Iran-funded Hezbollah while the rest of the world grapples with Iran's determination to develop nuclear weapons. Jimmy Carter's replacement of the Shah with the Khomeini regime may be one of his most important legacies.
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