Jimmy Carter’s New Book Gets It So Wrong: Is He Evil or Just Crazy?

Surely you’ve been as upset as I have by Jimmy Carter’s recent book-length diatribe against Israel, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” Carter reveals his bias starting with the title itself. He places the onus for Palestinian statehood square on the shoulders of Israel and implies that Israel is committing racism similar to that practiced in South Africa. Carter’s book could and more accurately should have been titled, “Palestine: Statehood Not Terrorism.”

While the book has received very few favorable reviews, and the Democratic Party has stated that Carter does not speak for it on the subject of Israel, we should note that the website of the Muslim Brotherhood (parent organization of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas) has praised it.

Even Kenneth Stein, a professor of history at Emory University, who has been associated with Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center from its founding (he was its first executive director and co-wrote Carter’s first book on the Middle East) resigned last week, saying he was “ashamed” that Carter would put his name to a book “based on unvarnished analyses, factual errors, . . . superficialities, glaring omissions and simply invented segments.” Stein also charges Carter with plagiarism, maintaining that his book is “replete with copied materials not cited.”

Mitchell Bard, a pro-Israel author, reviewed the book and notes that Carter ultimately admits that his inflammatory title is specious and misleading. “Curiously, enough,” Bard writes, “if you read through almost the entire book, which persistently accuses Israel of apartheid acts, you arrive at page 189, where he specifically contradicts the entire thesis by stating, ‘The driving purpose for the forced separation of the two peoples is unlike that in South Africa.”

Yes, Jimmy, in South Africa, the ruling majority kept the black minority separate and oppressed to exploit them economically. On the other hand, Israel’s Arab citizens have full civil rights and enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East; Israel fortifies its borders from outsiders only to prevent Arab terrorists from coming in to kill its people. Big difference.

Finally, we are reminded of the anecdote related by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn in their book, “Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship,” about how Jimmy Carter, discussing his fading re-election prospects and his sinking approval rating in the Jewish community, snapped, “If I get back in, I’m going to [expletive] the Jews.”

Is Carter evil or just crazy? That’s probably not the right question. His book is clearly biased, his premise is false, and his “facts” are often false. Carter and his book need to be condemned from every quarter. To give you a full analysis of this spiteful tome, we offer Alan Dershowitz’s incisive review from FrontPageMagazine.com. This piece will allow you to speak forcefully in any discussion about the Carter book and to answer questions that naïve readers may have about its assertions.

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Because Jimmy Carter’s New Book Gets It So Wrong, We Have to Ask …
All Of Grace Ministries – http://allofgrace.spaces.live.com/
Thank You, Jimmy Carter (Rabbi Michael Lerner)
By Derek