OPINION:
Former President Jimmy Carter died last Sunday. Many will fill volumes writing now that he was a good guy, honest, smart, did some good things as president and afterward. Despite many of these things being true, to me Mr. Carter was an antisemite who made excuses for Arab aggression and terror against Israel. For that and using the pulpit of his presidency in exile to spread these messages, I say good riddance.
As a failed one-term president despite achievements including helping to broker the Camp David peace agreement with Israel and Egypt, Mr. Carter’s abysmal policies left the Shah of Iran overthrown by Islamists and dying in exile, paving the way for the Islamic Republic regime to take over Iran, which it has hijacked for the past 46 years. The Iran hostage crisis was an example of Mr. Carter’s weakness and underscored by the fact that the hostages were released the day Mr. Carter left office.
His ineptitude was on display then and paved the way for the Iranian Islamic regime to become the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. These are not mere words. Millions of Israelis and Iranians as well as Jews and others are still suffering as a result.
Mr. Carter’s antisemitism was not only unrepentant but arrogant as if only he knew the truth, but his truth was a cocktail of distortions and fantasy, looking at the Middle East through a prism about how he thought things should be rather than how they were.
His book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” kept his legitimization of terrorism against Israel despite being called out as such, no apology, no correction, no recall: just a playbook about why killing Jews was OK.
Mr. Carter wrote, “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.”
Basically, as long as Israel doesn’t do what Mr. Carter thinks it should do, terrorism against Israel will continue and is legitimate.
Mr. Carter doubled down on his anti-Israel rhetoric and hate as a leading member of “The Elders,” a group of failed world leaders who colluded to continue his anti-Israel diatribe.
In 2009, Mr. Carter visited my neighborhood in Israel, Gush Etzion, where he surprised many by stating that in an eventual two-state solution (creating a Palestinian Arab state in Judea and Samaria — the West Bank and Gaza), he did not envision that Israel would have to return places like this. “I never imagined that Gush Etzion would be transferred to Palestinian hands.”
Maybe he misspoke or was just making friendly chitchat, but the praise he received then for looking at the reality and not stringent black-and-white policies in which Israel was always to blame was short-lived and not repeated. He must have realized that legitimizing Israeli “settlements” in any way complicated his notion that it was still acceptable for Palestinian Arab terrorists to kill us.
Mr. Carter blamed the Jews both for voting for Sen. Edward Kennedy in an unprecedented primary challenge against a sitting president and his losing to Ronald Reagan. To him, the Jews were disloyal if not all-powerful. Unencumbered by living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Mr. Carter simply allowed his antisemitic tendencies to take prime time in his presidency in exile.
As a student at Emory University, where his failed presidency had found a home, I had several interactions with Mr. Carter. He was charming, and his soft-spoken demeanor led one to think he was a good guy.
One day in the late 1980s, he was making public remarks following another trip to the Middle East where he had no problem cozying up to the original Assad dictatorship and other terrorist leaders. His public comments throughout the trip were a dizzying litany of anti-Israel comments in the Arab capitals where he was feted and when he was in Israel. Basically, he blamed Israel for everything wrong and the lack of peace in the Middle East.
At one question-and-answer period, there was time for one question, and my hand shot up. It had been the week of the anniversary of the Camp David Accords, and I thanked him for helping to make that possible. Then I asked him if, as a representative of Emory University, was it not academically disingenuous for him to travel the world and blame Israel for lack of peace while not holding the Arabs at least equally accountable.
His smile turned to a scowl, and he began a tirade about how I was wrong and Israel is to blame. I never had a former president get angry at me like that.
It felt good not because I upset him, but because I called him out in public for his dishonesty and he had no good answer other than perpetuating his biased rate which was on full display.
Mr. Carter had been in hospice care for a long time I ask myself why God gives people like this who have such evil in their hearts so many extra years. My only explanation, or rationalization, is maybe God was giving him a chance to repent and Mr. Carter needed that many more years to do so.
I’m not convinced that he did repent. While it would be inappropriate and dishonest to say he never did anything good, he was a failed one-term president, and he did ambiguously call for and justify the terrorist murder of my people. That disqualifies him from sainthood or many of the other honors and memories that others will share in the days to come.
At least in remembering his life, let us remember that he at least indirectly caused pain, suffering and death, for which building houses for poor people is no redeeming compensation.
• Jonathan Feldstein is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation, building bridges between Jews and Christians, host of the “Inspiration From Zion” podcast and publisher of “Israel the Miracle,” a collection of 75 essays by Christian leaders from around the world on why Israel is so important. He can be reached at FirstPersonIsrael@gmail.com.
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