Jimmy Carter Apologizes to Jews
Dec 24th, 2009 | 11 responses
Jimmy Carter has not exactly been a favorite of many Jewish people, partially because some have charged that he didn’t exactly sympathetic to some of their concerns, particularly on the issue of the Middle East. So now he has issued an apology to clear the air:
Former President Jimmy Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often-tense relationship.
He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It signifies a plea for forgiveness.
“We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,” Carter said in the letter, which was first sent to JTA, a wire service for Jewish newspapers, and provided Wednesday to The Associated Press. “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”
Carter, who during his presidency brokered the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty, outraged many Jews with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” Critics contend he unfairly compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.
Israeli leaders have also shunned him over his journey to Gaza to meet with Hamas, considered a terror group by the U.S., the European Union and Israel.
Carter’s apology was welcomed by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a vocal critic of Carter’s views on Israel.
This will only go so far. The issues in the Middle East will remain volatile for some time to come. Middle East policy is often a touchy one for debate since each side often defines those with whom they disagree on policy in the most enemy-like terms. There is also a mirror-like image in the way each side perceives their situation and the behavior of the other.
So Carter’s apology will win him some approval. Until the next time he and those who lock horn on policy or perceptions clash.
Then it’ll likely be back to square one. The reason: just as in the Middle East itself, the bad blood and unflattering perceptions on both sides of the ongoing Carter controversy go back a ways and will not likely be erased with a simple act or apology. Each side will have to see the other side as more flexible and less set-in-concrete in perception. And as the Middle East shows, it’s hard to break that cement.
11 Responses to “Jimmy Carter Apologizes to Jews”
Jimmy Carter apologizing for his anti-Semitic bigotry and hatred of Israel has nothing whatsoever to do with his grandson running for state senate in a district with a politically significant Jewish community.
Close your eyes, repeat this three times, and you may be cleansed of all doubts about his sincerity.
Does he really mean what he says? That's an awfully familiar, resentful, untrustworthy, going-through-the-motions-to-fool-the-easily-fooled 1990s Presidential pose I see in that photograph.
[...] Jimmy Carter Apologizes to Jews (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
Could you, please, provide some reasoning, some documentation for your beliefs that Mr. Carter is anti-Semitic and hates Israel?
“It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the road map for peace are accepted by Israel.”
Perhaps “pro-terrorism” would be more apt.
Yeah, I don't buy that this was anything but a ploy because his grandson is running in a heavily Jewish district. This is a man who writes a book of lies about Israeli politics, claiming that they are an apartheid state (and if that does not signify anti-Semitism in its rankest form, I know not what would be classed as anti-Semitism), and then expects that a mere Al Het will change things. Opportunism, thy name is Jimmy Carter.
So, are you saying that any criticism of Israeli actions is a prima facie case for anti-Semitism?
“any” criticism of Israel? Is that some type of straw man you are holding up?
How about pervasive, ongoing, pernicious scathing attacks on Israel, combined with falsehoods about the country while repeatedly offering sycophantic praise and support for those who want Israel to be destroyed and its Jewish occupants killed?
Certainly it is impossible to see into Mr Carter's heart, assuming such exists, but one might as well make a case that David Duke is not against black people but only feels they would be happier relocated to Africa. That pretty well parallels the rationalization that one is not against Jews when one vocally sides with the radical Palestinians who want to “relocate” the Jews. I wonder, if someone fired rockets into the Vatican and demanded the inhabitants be butchered, would we suspect them to be anti-Catholic? If one then wrote a book comparing Vatican City to one of the most odious and reviled states on Earth, might it heighten our index of suspicion?
It really doesn't make much difference anyway. Carter is just trying to get his grandson into office. I doubt that many will fall for this cheap stunt, regardless of what protocol requires them to say in public.
I will concede that what you say sounds as if you believe that Mr. Carter is an anti-Zionist. While I have not read any of Mr. Carter's writings, I do not see anything in his public statements that would make me draw the conclusion that he is either an anti-Semite or an anti-Zionist.
The “straw” man you hold up is “fired rockets into the Vatican.”
I feel that I can criticize the US for it's foreign policy with out being anti-American and I can do the same to Israel with out being an anti-Semite. I believe that there are a heck of a lot of Jews who feel that Israel's policy of building settlements on land that they have just bull dozed Arab houses on is wrong. The UN is on record as saying that Israel's settlement policy is wrong, especially those unauthorized settlements that are not recognized (but allowed) by the Israeli government.
Thanks Oaechief, for telling the truth. It is difficult to belief in this day and age, using any statistical analysis possible, that anyone would believe the Israeli propaganda machine that their war against terror, is anything but a ruse for land theft.
ok oaechief, we'll make it a straw man apiece and agree to disagree. As I said, Carter's statement was just a ruse in the first place so hardly worth generating heat over. Have a great New Year.