Much of the world is describing Jimmy Carter as a saintly soul who went around the world building housing for the poor, monitoring elections to make sure they were free and fair, and still managing — such a humble man! — to teach Sunday School at the small church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. But those familiar with his obsessive dislike of Israel that descended into outright antisemitism have a different view of the Man From Plains. The historian Michael Oren reminds us of this side of James Earl Carter, Jr. here: “Jimmy Carter: A Jewish tragedy – opinion,” by Michael Oren, Jerusalem Post, December
Among many other time-tested attributes, the Jewish people have a long memory. Aid us in the manner of the ancient Persian King Cyrus, and we will remember you forever fondly. Cross us as Seleucid King Antiochus IV did, and we will curse you every Hanukkah.
Our talent for remembering is particularly salient today after the death, at age of 100, of former president Jimmy Carter.
While the rest of the world is now hailing him as a statesman who, after his failed one-term presidency, rose to become an unstinting peacemaker, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and a paragon of now non-existent virtues, many Jews will have a far more ambivalent reaction.
Not just Jews, but all those who care about Israel, will be reluctant to join in the orgy of posthumous praise for Jimmy Carter.
The man whose legacy could have been cherished by future Jewish generations, with streets in Jerusalem named for him and communities created in his honor, will be at best forgotten, if not reviled. That is the tragedy of Jimmy Carter, a leader who could have gone down in Jewish history as a second Truman, will be recalled, if at all, as another Bernie Sanders.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the Jewish state owes Carter an immense historical debt. In an anomalous way, his insistence on including the Soviets in the Middle East peace process immediately after Egypt succeeded in evicting them convinced president Anwar Sadat of the need to act swiftly and independently of the United States.
The result came in November 1977, with Sadat’s groundbreaking visit to Israel. Carter, to his credit, leaped into the diplomatic breach, and devoted 13 presidential days to forging the Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel. Though never close to yielding a warm peace, that treaty has since withstood tectonic pressures and relieved Israel of the threat of large-scale Arab armies.
What keeps the peace between Israel and Egypt is not the peace treaty that Carter helped to hammer out at Camp David in 1979, but Egypt’s recognition that were it to again go to war against Israel, it would undoubtedly be crushed, lose — for the second time — the entire Sinai, and this time, have no hope of ever getting it back.
But, sadly, that achievement proved to be a one-off. The self-proclaimed champion of human rights, Carter was comfortable with Middle Eastern dictators like Sadat, Hafez al-Assad, and the shah of Iran, but endlessly critical of Israel’s democratically elected leaders, beginning with Menachem Begin.
No sooner were the Camp David Accords signed in 1979 than Carter embarked on a 40-year smear campaign against Israel.
In my meeting with him several years after, Carter insisted that Israel was violating UN Resolution 242 by not withdrawing to the pre-Six Day War boundaries and failing to create a Palestinian state.
My assurances that the resolution specifically voided the return to the indefensible 1967 borders and made no mention of the Palestinians, much less of a state, were righteously rejected.
Carter refused to recognize that UN Resolution 242 deliberately did not call for Israel to withdraw from “all of the territories” it had won in the Six-Day War, but only “from territories.” Carter misread, and misled others about, UN Resolution 242.
Carter has had a lot to say over the years about UN Resolution 242, all of it wrong, and most of it appalling. He tried to make it mean what the Arabs wanted it to mean, not what its author, Lord Caradon, intended it to mean.
In his 2016 article “America Must Recognize Palestine,” Jimmy Carter treats a sentence from the non-binding preamble to Resolution 242 as if it were a binding part of the Resolution itself. He thinks that the phrase about the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” applies to Israel, when examination of the Mandate for Palestine reveals that it is Jordan, not Israel, that is claiming territory in the “West Bank” based solely on its acquisition by war (in 1949). Carter then asserts that the other key words of Resolution 242 are these: “the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” He wants you to think that this means that Israel is required to withdraw from “all the territories” that it won in the 1967 war. And indeed, the Arab diplomats at the U.N. sought, repeatedly, to have the words “the” or “all the” inserted before “territories.” But they failed.
somehistory says
carter was scum. He proved it over and over. One can see by his shirt…..which almost matches the terror scarf the hideous arafat is wearing…and the grin on his face as he stands near to his dear friend….the scummy terrorist who bragged that he lied at camp David. The lie covered over the fact that he still intended what the so-called palestinians still intend, what every mozlum intends for Israel….to wipe out all of the Jews.
Edward Amos Brandwein says
Roast/rot in hell, Jimmy Carter.
Walter Sieruk says
Regarding Jimmy Carter and Israel. Carter had said that he’s” a Christian,” but just saying a statement doesn’t necessary make that claim true. For Carter could not have been a real Christian.
The reason why this is so is because all genuine Christians who know the Bible should be very willing to declare the truth, which is that God had given all this land that now composes the State of Israel, including all of the West Bank, which in reality is Judah and Samaria ,to the Jewish people. This may be found in the Bible, as seen in, for example, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteronomy 32:48,49. Psalm 135:4.. 105:7-11.
In other words the Jews have tall this land by Divine Right. Furthermore, the Jewish people should have this land by historic rights as shown in First Kings 4:20,21, 24,25. 8:55, 56.
carpediadem says
There are plenty of Christian Jewhaters.
They are often supercessionists, replacement theology types or just pain unpleasant people full of themselves.
Ever religion has them. And you cannot ignore the history of Christianity in Europe and its oppression of Jews for generating these Hamas-supporting scum.
James Lincoln says
carpediadem says,
“There are plenty of Christian Jewhaters.”
Yes, but they violate the tenets of Christianity.
somehistory says
Yes, James, that is so true….too bad more people don’t realize that. Especially those ones claiming to be Christian.
joanofark06 says
Every president has said they were a Christian, since Carter days. It’s only to get the votes!
Even Trump has publicly announced that he was one too, but I can tell at least two times, when he was in office before, that showed with no doubt, that he’s not.
Walter Sieruk says
Jimmy Carter had said that he’s “a Christian ” but he liked and approved of such a Joe Biden’s favoring “two state solution” for Israel .,meaning cutting of two parts that nation of Israel.
That fool idea contradicts the Wisdom of Jesus Who taught that “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” Mark 3:24. [N.E.B.]
joanofark06 says
What is a N.E.B? I only use one that doesn’t change the words and verses, to something else, that changes the whole meaning of a sentence/verse, and besides Jesus warns us about doing that, or changing His Words. The K.J.V. is the one, that I feel is the closest to the original Hebrew bible.
Satan has made man make many different religions, bibles, etc etc….to keep us all seperated or having people think that their religion, is better than anyone else’s.
So anytime anyone asks me, what my religion is, I tell them Christianity.
somehistory says
Joan, do you read Hebrew? Aramaic or Greek? Those were the three languages used in writing the Bible.
Since I know none of those languages, I find it helpful to compare several translations as this gives me an overall idea if the words have been translated with as close as possible to the original meaning..
The King James is written in Old English….as in “Jacob sod pottage.” And, “Whatever you find in a shambles, eat.”
Walter Sieruk says
NEB means “New English Bible.” As King James Version s do many times and the same message of Mark 3:24 is given in it. In most of my posting I do use the KJV .
By the way, the KJV that I had obtained in the year 1974 was wearing out from much use . Therefore , I bought another one at a Christian bookstore on the date of September 11th 2020.
Eva says
As far as I’m concerned, carter was a POS, being a Jew-hater, a liar, an a-hole and general all round filth.
I truly hope he is burning in the h3ll he his religion believes in.
The only tears I’ll be shedding are tears of laughter.
loek says
Hi Eva, sorry for responding, but hoping that someone is will be burning in hell is a sad attitude.
I don’t think that is what God wants us to think of others.
Eva says
Some creatures deserve to burn for an eternity.
Terrorists, their supporters and enablers definitely fit that bill.
And the peanut farmer absolutely qualifies, along with many others.
Wellington says
Good riddance to a massive incompetent and enormous fool, made all the worse by his holier-than-thou demeanor.
Check Burry says
I would use the word “wimpy”, certainly he is no Trump, I trust things will get better after the 20th
Westman says
Carter’s big mistake was not decapitating the Mullah regime before the end of his Presidency, followed by the following US Presidents. The cost of giving Iran back to its citizens has risen continually to where any attempt puts Israel in existential jepardy.
The Biden Regime has played both sides, giving the Mullahs a new economic life to support its proxy armies and limiting US involvement with Israel to defense. Very Globalist-minded.
tgusa says
Carter was a useless yet destructive idiot but according to bidenites Carter was a decent useless yet destructive idiot. And so for them it’s all good. I’m sure the good people of Iran today are not mourning his passing. They are probably chanting, bang bang the (ayatollahs) bitch is dead! And as a followup they ask, what took so long?
James Lincoln says
Pres. Carter had a significantly above average intelligence. He was a pioneer in submarine nuclear propulsion – and that takes some brainpower.
But, somehow, his intelligence did not transfer into being an effective US president. Actually, one of the worst US Presidents.
And his treatment of Israel was horrific.
somehistory says
It’s really sad, James, that a high IQ does not automatically translate to being a truly good person with high moral standards and an humble heart.
Brenrod says
Carter was a two bit huckster, an Elmer Gantry profiting on folks ignorance of his scams.
joanofark06 says
What is a N.E.B? I only use one that doesn’t change the words and verses, to something else, that changes the whole meaning of a sentence/verse, and besides Jesus warns us about doing that, or changing His Words. The K.J.V. is the one, that I feel is the closest to the original Hebrew bible.
Satan has made man make many different religions, bibles, etc etc….to keep us all seperated or having people think that their religion, is better than anyone else’s.
So anytime anyone asks me, what my religion is, I tell them Christianity.