Spotlight
NEWS ANALYSIS
Amends With Strings?
Jimmy Carter says grandson's race not reason to apologize.
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington
F
ormer President Jimmy Carter is
asking the Jewish community for
forgiveness — and insists it's not
simply because his grandson has decided
to launch a political career with a run for
the Georgia State Senate.
Jason Carter, 34, an
Atlanta-area lawyer, is
considering a run to
fill a seat covering sub-
urban DeKalb County
should the incum-
bent, David Adelman,
win confirmation as
President Obama's des-
Jason Carter
ignated ambassador to
Singapore.
The seat, which is university heavy
— Emory, among others, is situated
there — also has a substantial Jewish
community.
The senior Carter outraged Jewish lead-
ers with his book Palestine: Peace Not
Apartheid, and they strongly criticized the
former U.S. president for what appeared to
be his likening of Israel's settlement prac-
tices to apartheid and seeming to place
the brunt of the blame for a lack of peace
on Israel.
On the subsequent book tour, Carter
further enraged many Jews by intimat-
ing that the pro-Israel lobby inhibited an
evenhanded U.S. policy.
Such bad blood could potentially trans-
late into problems for Carter's grandson as
he considers launching a political career.
But in an interview with JTA, Carter
insisted that ethnic electoral consider-
ations were not reason enough to reach
out to the Jewish community, although he
did not outright deny that it was a factor.
"Jason has a district; the number of
Jewish voters in it is only 2 percent:' he
said, chuckling.
In a statement issued through his cam-
paign manager, the younger Carter said
his grandfather's statement was not con-
nected to his political plans.
"While I was very happy to see my
grandfather's letter, it was completely
unrelated to my campaign ... Ultimately,
this campaign will focus on the people
44
December 31 • 2009
iN
inconsistent with Israeli leaders and pro-
Israel groups.
"I never intended or wanted to stigma-
tize the nation of Israel, even though I have
disagreed with the settlement policy all the
way back to the White House,' he said.
This apology/defense has frustrated
Jewish leaders in the past. Carter seems
overly focused on the title, they say, and
does not deal with what they say are the
book's distortions.
While Carter remained focused on
the title in the interview with JTA, he
appeared to have internalized criticisms
that he was one-sided and unfair to the
pro-Israel lobby.
He said he was pessimistic about cur-
rent peace prospects, partly because Israel
continued to build settlements — but also
because of the Palestinian leadership's
,
recalcitrance" in insisting on a total set-
tlement freeze and its rejection of Israel's
partial settlement freeze as sufficient
grounds to restart talks.
"The Israelis have said they're not
going to discuss east Jerusalem and are
still constructing settlements in the West
Bank, the Palestinians refuse to negotiate
said Carter, who travels frequently to the
region. "The recalcitrance on the part of
the Palestinians and Israeli settlements
— I don't see at this moment a way to
bring an end to the impasse."
Carter said he never meant to convey
the impression that the pro-Israel lobby
silenced criticism of Israel, only that the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee
was the "most influential lobbying group"
and that presidents, including himself, and
congresses have historically been "totally
committed" to Israel's security. He was
grateful for the rise of J Street, saying that
the dovish group's views were aligned with
his own.
"My pre-eminent foreign policy objec-
tive," Carter said, "has been peace in the
Middle East" fueled in part by his affec-
tion for Israel. He said he remained com-
mitted to helping release Gilad Shalit, the
Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas since
June 2006, and noted that he had helped
relay two letters from Shift's parents to
the captured soldier, and one letter from
Shalit to his family.
Jewish groups that had led criticism
of Carter welcomed the outreach — and
adopted a wait-and-see pose. 1_1
"
Jimmy Carter on tour three years ago
of this district and the issues that a good
advocate in the Georgia State Senate can
affect, including fixing a broken trans-
portation system, getting the economy
moving again, and providing a first-class
education to our kids."
However, Jason Carter saw the apology
as a means of outreach. He had been try-
ing for days to reach Liane Levetan, a for-
mer state senator
and CEO of DeKalb
County, and as
soon as they con-
nected last week, he
directed her to the
JTA Web site to read
the letter.
Levetan is one of
14 Jews who split
with the Carter
Center in 2006 after
the publication of
Palestine: Peace Not
Apartheid. The split
with the center,
which promotes peace and helps alleviate
poverty, clearly pained her; she had known
the Carters for years and had assisted
Rosalynn Carter in expanding education
for the mentally disabled when Carter was
Georgia's governor in the 1970s.
The elder Carter acknowledged that the
negative impressions about his book and
book tour had ruptured his relations with
the Jewish community. Jewish friends,
including Atlanta Rabbi Alvin Sugarman,
prominent Atlanta lawyer Miles Alexander
and Stuart Eizenstat, who was Carter's
chief White House domestic policy advis-
er, urged him to reach out to the Jews.
He attempted to do so by arranging
a talk at a synagogue or another Jewish
venue, Carter
told JTA, but
was rebuffed.
Hence he
opted for the
Christmas-
Chanukah plea
for forgiveness
for any stigma
he may have
caused Israel.
"We must rec-
ognize Israel's
achievements
under difficult
circumstances,
even as we strive in a positive way to help
Israel continue to improve its relations
with its Arab populations, but we must
not permit criticisms for improvement
to stigmatize Israel," Carter wrote in his
statement.
Apartheid was a predictor, he said, not
a description; such an outlook was not
Carter seems overly
focused on the title and,
critics complain, does
not deal enough with the
book's distortions.