Jimmy Carter; Unglued

[Annie]

Probably should be in politics, though in all honesty I don't think it's a democrat issue. They are not pro-Israel, but not anti-semetic.

http://cathyyoung.blogspot.com/2007/01/anti-semitism-brandeis-and-carter-vs.html

Friday, January 26, 2007
Anti-Semitism, Brandeis, and Carter vs Dershowitz
Jimmy Carter's book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, has been (no kidding, with a title like that) the center of some heated controversy. Some have accused Carter, who is harshly critical of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, of anti-Semitism. This is a vexing issue; I do think some champions of Israel are too quick to label all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. However, I also believe that some criticism of Israel and its supporters has employed anti-Semitic tropes -- from the "Jewish conspiracy" meme, unmistakeably present in much of the talk about "the Jewish lobby," to the "Christ killer" meme -- and has often conflated the terms Israeli and Jew. (I addressed some of these questions in a column in Reason three years ago.)

I don't think Carter is an anti-Semite. ed. I do...However, I think that his book is a very skewed treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that some of his rhetoric is disturbing -- such as a passage that draws a parallel between the Pharisees of the New Testament and modern-day Israeli authorities. And I agree with historian Deborah Lipstadt's charge that in defending his book, "Carter has repeatedly fallen back -- possibly unconsciously -- on traditional anti-Semitic canards"; for instance, he has equated criticism from Jewish commentators who write for mainstream publications such as The New Yorker or The New York Times with criticism from "Jewish organizations."

Incidentally, social liberals might be startled to learn that in the book, Carter chronicles the fact that on a trip to Israel in the 1970s he remonstrated with then-Prime Minister Golda Meir for the overly secular nature of the Labor government. He even took it upon him to lecture Meir about the fact that in the Bible, "a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God." (Paging Pat Robertson?) But I digress.

The specific occasion for this post is Carter's visit to Brandeis University the other day. According to InsideHigherEd News:

...

tangental:

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/01/...once-said-there-are-too-many-jews-on-council/

 

[Annie]

Only one of the reasons I think he was the worst president:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53954

WND Exclusive FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council
Former president also rejected Christian historian because name sounded 'too Jewish'
Posted: January 25, 2007
11:07 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Monroe Freedman
TEL AVIV – Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman, the council's former executive director, told WND in an exclusive interview.

Freedman, who served on the council during Carter's term as president, also revealed a noted Holocaust scholar who was a Presbyterian Christian was rejected from the council's board by Carter's office because the scholar's name "sounded too Jewish."

Freedman, now a professor of law at Hofstra University, was picked by the council's chairman, author Elie Weisel, to serve as executive director in 1980. The council, created by the Carter White House, went on to establish the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Freedman says he was tasked with creating a board for the council and with making recommendations to the White House on how best to memorialize the Holocaust.

He told WND he sent a memo to Carter's office containing recommendations for council board members.

He said his memo was returned with a note on the upper right hand corner that stated, "Too many Jews."

The note, Freedman said, was written in Carter's handwriting and was initialed by Carter.


Freedman said at the time the board he constructed was about 80 percent Jewish, including many Holocaust survivors.

He said at the behest of the White House he composed another board consisting of more non-Jews. But he said he was "stunned" when Carter's office objected to a non-Jew whose name sounded Jewish.

Freedman said he could not provide the historians name to WND because he did not have the man's permission.

"I got a phone call from our liaison at the White House saying this particular historian whose name sounded Jewish would not do. The liaison said he would not even take the time to present Carter with the possibility of including the historian on the board because he knew Carter would think the name sounded too Jewish. I explained the historian is Presbyterian, but the liaison said it wouldn't matter to Carter."

Freedman said he was "outraged by this absurdity."

"If I was memorializing Martin Luther King, I would expect a significant number of board members to be African American. If I was memorializing Native American figures I'd expect a lot of Native Americans to be on the board.

"I do not for a moment consider it inappropriate to build a Holocaust council with a significant majority of the board being Jewish," Freedman stated.

Freedman describes himself as "self-proclaimed liberal." He said he decided to speak out after the release of Carter's latest book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," which some have accused of being biased against Israel.

This would not be the first time Carter's messages on right hand corners of letters generated a Holocaust-related scandal.

Last week, in an interview with the Tovia Singer Show on Israel National Radio, a former U.S. Justice Department official said he received a letter advocating "special consideration" for a confessed Nazi SS officer accused of murdering Jews in the Mauthausen death camp in Austria.

Neal Sher, who served in the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation, said that in 1987 he received a note from Carter petitioning for re-entry into the U.S. for Martin Bartesch, who had been deported by Sher's office to Austria after it was established he served as an SS officer.

Sher said his office had "extraordinary evidence" Bartesch shot Jews.

Bartesch originally immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Chicago. He later admitted to Sher's office and the court he had voluntarily joined the SS as a teenager and served in its Death's Head Division at the Mauthausen concentration camp where many thousands of prisoners were gassed, shot, starved and worked to death. Bartesch also confessed to having concealed his SS service at concentration camp from U.S. immigration officials.

Sher said the Justice Department obtained a journal kept by the SS and captured by the U.S. Armed Forces listing Bartesch as having shot to death Max Oschorn, a French Jewish prisoner.

Bartesch's daughters, who still lived in the U.S., attempted in 1987 to appeal to politicians to allow the former Nazi officer to enter the country. They wrote a note in which they claimed it was "un-American" to persecute a man for crimes committed when he was only 17 and 18 years old.

Sher said he was shocked when he received the daughter's letter replete with a handwritten note from Carter on the upper right corner stating the former president wanted "special consideration" for the Bartesch family for humanitarian reasons.

The note, containing Carter's signature, was obtained this week by the NY Sun.

 

[UnAmericanYOU]

LOL, this guy is getting VERY entertaining. The JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOs did it! But that's okay, Jimmuh's sorry. Really:

Carter Apologizes for 'Stupid' Book Passage
By Eric Pfeiffer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 26, 2007


Jimmy Carter has apologized for what he called a "stupid" passage in his book that critics say is a de facto endorsement of Palestinian violence against Israelis.

The former president had spent most of the past two months defending his new book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," after 15 board members at his Atlanta-based Carter Center resigned in protest of the book's content.

"I apologize to you personally and to everyone here," Mr. Carter said when asked about the passage by a student during his appearance at Brandeis University on Tuesday. After explaining that the passage was "worded in a completely improper and stupid way," Mr. Carter said he has asked publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. to change the wording in future editions of the book.

The questionable passage, which appears on Page 213 of the book, reads: "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 Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070125-112710-7481r.htm

Oh, yes, the infamous page 213. Supposedly his book was super-accurate and so true blue he didn't even have to debate it last week.

Oh, Jimmuh.

 

[Roopull]

I'm ashamed he's from my home state... he's beginning to lose it in his old age.

He should stick to curing strange African illnesses... there aren't a lot of Jews in the Congo. He should feel right at home, there.

I was really surprised when Clinton was elected... I figured he'd pretty well ruined any chances of another Southerner ever making it to the ovoid office.

...if only I'd been right!

 

[red states rule]

I grew up throught the four years of President Peanut. Libs whine about how rotten the IS economy is today. Try DOUBLE DIGIT inflation, DOUBLE DIGIT interest rates, and near DOUBLE DIGIT unemplyment.

Americans held hostage for 444 days

Gas prices DOUBLING nearly overnight

Top tax rate of 70%

Yes, President Peanut was the most incompetent inept, goof ever to sit in the Oval Office

His supreme stupidity lives on today in his racist views

 

[trobinett]

I grew up throught the four years of President Peanut. Libs whine about how rotten the IS economy is today. Try DOUBLE DIGIT inflation, DOUBLE DIGIT interest rates, and near DOUBLE DIGIT unemplyment.

Americans held hostage for 444 days

Gas prices DOUBLING nearly overnight

Top tax rate of 70%

Yes, President Peanut was the most incompetent inept, goof ever to sit in the Oval Office

His supreme stupidity lives on today in his racist views

All good points, plus, and also, that was the launch of the housing market going absolutely crazy. So many Americans were seeing THEIR chance at the American dream slip through their fingers.

When Ronald Regan took office, it was like a giant weight had been lifted from our shoulders.

Seems almost like the next day, that the Iranians released the American hostages.

 

[red states rule]

Carter has the IQ of a doorknob and I wish he would go back to his peanut farm and stay there

 

[Eightball]

We had a 13 pecent mortgage during Carter's reign as President!!!! The payments were killing us! That was a low percent loan too, as many of our friends and neighbors who had bought during that time had mortgages as high as 16 percent! These mortgage rates were for folks with 800 + point credit scores too.

Remember how the hostage release had the Demos so mad? They blamed the Reagan administration for stalling the release so it would look good for Him and not Carter's administration. I don't think they ever could get that one to stick, but they tried.

 

[Eightball]

Carter has the IQ of a doorknob and I wish he would go back to his peanut farm and stay there

Billy Beer was a big hit too.

 

[glockmail]

....

Seems almost like the next day, that the Iranians released the American hostages.

As I recall it was about 15 minutes before his swearing in. The Iranians hated Carter and feared Reagan.

 

[red states rule]

As I recall it was about 15 minutes before his swearing in. The Iranians hated Carter and feared Reagan.

No they did not hate him

They saw him as a joke that long ago ceased to be funny

 

[glockmail]

No they did not hate him

They saw him as a joke that long ago ceased to be funny

I'm just relaying what an Iranian friend told me. He was there when the radicals took over the embassy.

 

[red states rule]

Ok, They hated him them - then they were laughing their asses off later

 

[glockmail]

Ok, They hated him them - then they were laughing their asses off later

No doubt about that. The same crew is laughing their arses off now with the UN afraid to do anything, and the MSM's choke-hold on Bush in Iraq.