It was only nine months ago that former President Jimmy Carter issued an open letter to the American Jewish community asking for forgiveness for the pain he had caused by his comments which may have stigmatized Israel. Mr. Carter went on to imply that he would avoid in the future the kind of biased remarks about the Jewish state that have been his hallmark for so long.
Among the more egregious comments that the ex-president had made were those comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa, and those agreeing with Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's conspiracy theory about Jewish control of American policy.
What does one do when a former president begs forgiveness? It would not have been responsible or seemly to ignore this kind of outreach by a distinguished public figure. On the other hand, it would have been naïve simply to accept this apology as indicating a major transformation. So I welcomed the statement as the "beginning of reconciliation," but added, "to what extent it is an epiphany, time will tell. There certainly is hurt which needs to be repaired."
At that time, I suggested several criteria to measure whether Mr. Carter was, in fact, living up to his plea for forgiveness. First, was whether he continued to use explosive negative imagery about Israel such as the apartheid comparison. Second, whether his statements would be balanced in their criticism of both sides. And third, whether the complexity of Israeli actions and decision-making would be taken into consideration.
On Mr. Carter's most recent visit to the Middle East his actions and comments were so problematic that one would hardly have known that he had publicly expressed contrition only months before.
Again, he used extreme pejorative language that cast Israel in a bad light. Visiting Damascus, he told the media that the residents of Gaza "are held in a cage or prison while their human rights are taken away."
The majority and intensity of his criticisms during his visit to the region were directed at Israel. The Israeli blockade of Gaza was deemed illegal and an obstacle to peace and the fact that Hamas remains a terrorist entity committed to Israel's destruction was not mentioned while he called for its involvement in peace negotiations.
And he ignored the challenges facing Israel in the form of the long history of terror and rockets coming out of Gaza.
In sum, by any objective measurement, Mr. Carter has gone back on his public word to the Jewish community not to stigmatize the Jewish state.
Was his statement of last December mere puffery or, even worse, was he pandering to Jews because his grandson was running for state office in Georgia? Each is possible, but I think there's something deeper going on that is more insidious.
I want to take Mr. Carter at his word when he made his statement. He may well have intended to apologize for the hurt he may have caused and he may really have believed that he would in the future act differently.
The fact that he hasn't doesn't have to signal disingenuousness as much as how really difficult true atonement is. It takes not only a statement of commitment but, critically, a change in one's thinking. Unfortunately, Mr. Carter's worldview works against Israel and leads to the bias we have seen time and again.
Rather than focusing on Israel as the only democracy in the region, the one that protects individual rights, including for women and gays, through the rule of law and that has been under siege from the Arab world since its birth, Mr. Carter views the Jewish state through the prism of Western guilt for centuries of racism, colonialism and supremacist ideas. Whatever the good intentions that surfaced when he offered his apology, they are overwhelmed by the interaction of his worldview with the words and images he encounters when he goes to the region.
As it turns out, he can't break out from his preconceptions. So Gaza is a "cage or prison" rather than a complex situation brought on at least as much by Hamas terror and attacks as by Israeli initiatives.
It is sad. I don't regret keeping an open mind last December. In the end, however, as difficult and sensitive as it may be to condemn an ex-president who won the Nobel Peace Prize, we will have to continue to do so when appropriate so that his biased views don't take hold even more profoundly than they already have.
Perhaps Mr. Foxman cannot stand the fact that President Carter does not support Israel right or wrong,
like many leaders in the US do.
I have noticed a trend in some of the posts.
Please take one second in your posts to differentiate between Israel proper and the West Bank, as many of the horrific practices by Israel in the West Bank are not prevalent in Israel itself. I cannot say that Israeli Arabs are treated equally in a state that defines itself as a Jewish state and denies people who owned land but fled brutality and murder the right to return home because they are Christian or Muslim, but there is no Apartheid in Israel proper. It is, however, a very accurate way of describing Israel's odious policies in the West Bank.
If Jews can discriminate against each other... well, I don't fancy the chances of an Israeli Arab.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/7912095/Gaza-is-a-prison-camp-says-David-Cameron.html
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Pope39s-aide-sparks-fury-in.4859196.jp
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=193521
Hamas has now confirmed that most of the war’s casualties were indeed combatants rather than civilians, just as Israel always claimed. So now all that’s needed is a humble apology from all the individuals and organizations that have spent the past two years thunderously accusing Israel of the wholesale slaughter of civilians. YOU FIRST JIMMY !
No one has ever doubted how "honest" hamas truly is. I bet the shoeless one is going to have a cow over this.
Of course there were combatants! Not the kids in the school and not the other 1000 people and the wheat mill and everything else they purposefully destroyed. Its just like the poor American kid on the Mavi Marmara...they shot him in the head point blank AFTER he was already down on his back. Assassins. I do not support assassins and never will.
By the way, did you see Foxman's scathing article criticizing Juan Williams for his comments about Muslims?
Israel has indeed been instrumental in isolating all Palestinians into the world's biggest prison camp denying humanitarian aid to the most impoverished area in the M. East.by
The segregation is based on cultural differences between the oppressed and the oppressor and as such, it is indeed racist!
The difference between Israel's segregation policies and those of S. Africa is that S. Africa pushed the envelope further and segregated on skin colour as well. The very word Apartheid comes from Afrikaans literally meaning separateness or segregation, a very appropriate term to describe Israeli policies towards Gaza.
This can not be an argument over who's territorial claim is better because both sides maintain claims and both sets of claims are intricate, elaborate and will never be decided by (mainly shallow and sometimes biased) public opinion.
Therefore, Palestinian-Arabs are not entitled to shoot 8,000 rockets (and counting) into Israeli territory. No other well armed modern government would permit it.
Had the Arab leaders of Gaza been more concerned with creating themselves a favorable future, rather then attacking their neighbor, Gaza would (at worst) be a neighborhood, not an embargoed belligerent.
How do you expect the Palestinians to make peace when you never gave them the instrumentation to do so? You cannot hope to subjugate people by force.
"denying humanitarian aid to the most impoverished area in the M. East"
Here is the weekly report of aid from Israel to Gaza.
Gaza Strip Weekly Crossing Report for October 17th-23rd, 25 Oct 2010
During this period, a total of 1,083 truckloads crossed from Israel, carrying 23,036 tons of goods, humanitarian aid and development assistance for Gaza’s civilian population.
In addition, 1,876,878 liters of Heavy-Duty Diesel fuel were transferred to the Gaza Power Plant and UNRWA, 825 tons of cooking gas, and 6 truckloads of iron and cement were transferred into the Strip.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40057400/Gaza-Strip-Weekly-Crossing-Report-for-October-17th-23rd
The fact that it doesn't sit well with the propaganda that Israel is starving Gaza and is denying humanitarian aid, or the fact it makes people understand how all these Flotilas and convoys are nothing more than a propoganda stunt and they will need about 10 of those a day to actually make a diffrence.
2. The rest of the Palestinians should have equal rights in the future Palestine.
3. I wonder do Palestinians also have equal rights in places like Lebanon, Syria and Jordan - they do not.
2) Israel is committing and has committed countless war crimes against Palestinians, and continues building illegal settlements on Palestinian land, Israel has no intention of stopping until the creation of Eretz Yisrael.
3) The Palestinians in refugee camps outside of Israel are displaced because of Israel.
The occupiers are truly shameless. To the deepest discredit of their very cause, they perpetrate and perpetuate the odious disfranchisement of so many while the trumpet their democratic values.