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.