Carter Does It Again

[Tigermike 3,053]

Jimmy Carter can always be depended on to take the position that America is wrong and terrorists are right.

THERE HE GOES AGAIN

December 10, 2006 -- For 23 years, Professor Kenneth Stein, a well-known Middle East scholar, has been a fellow at the Jimmy Carter Center at Emory University, where he teaches. In that time, he's worked closely the former president with on Arab-Israeli issues.

Not any more.

Stein last week abruptly resigned his position - saying he doesn't want anyone to think he has any connection to Carter's incendiary new book, which accuses Israel of practicing South African-style apartheid against Palestinians.

Indeed, says Stein, Carter's accusatory tome "is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions and simply invented segments."

Just how bad is Carter's book? Stein all but calls the former president a liar (and he's not the only one).

Stein says the Israel-bashing diatribe discusses several meetings at which he was present. Yet "my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book," he writes. Concludes Stein: "Being a former president does not give one a unique privilege to invent information."

Other respected scholars and political figures also are accusing Carter of distortions - and outright inventions.

Dennis Ross, who was President Bill Clinton's Mideast envoy, notes that Carter - parroting the Palestinian line - uses a map the ex-president claims demonstrates that Israel didn't really offer substantial and unprecedented concessions to Yasser Arafat at Camp David in 2000. (Arafat rejected the offer.)

But Ross says that map was never used at Camp David - he created it for his own 2004 book, "The Missing Peace." Carter not only plagiarized the map, but misrepresents it to create his own skewed version of the Camp David talks.

It begins to look like Carter wrote his dishonest book in the deliberate hope of provoking a heated reaction from supporters of Israel.

It would be easy to just ignore Carter, who for years secretly served as a closed-door political and public-relations adviser to Arafat. But this book is getting an avalanche of attention: Carter has been given fawning interviews on all of the major talk and morning news shows - all to softball questions that don't challenge the myriad lies in this book.

Indeed, Carter's book tour is being filmed for a documentary by director Jonathan Demme, best known for "Silence of the Lambs." (Jimmy Carter as the Hannibal Lecter of Mideast diplomacy? Makes sense to us.)

Moreover, Carter has lately been rehabilitated as a political figure by the Democratic Party - though its leaders now are tripping over each other to distance themselves from him since learning of the book.

Even before the end of his disastrous presidency, Jimmy Carter was discredited as a political figure worthy of serious attention. Now he spends his time publicly bad-mouthing anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him.

Problem is, he still attracts an audience. But, as Dennis Ross notes, "you can't make peace as long as you perpetuate mythology."

Carter's latest screed, like the rest of his pious pronouncements, does exactly that.

NY POST

[DKW 86 7,440]

Saw him interviewed over the weekend. He was just plain pissed at how Carter just simply shrugs off any thing that the Arabs have ever done and blames Israel for everything.

He had Carter's back for 23 years, now he basically cant stand the man.

[otterinbham 0]

Jimmy Carter, LBJ, and Herbert Hoover were the two most disastrous presidents of the past 100 years. Of course, W is climbing that list fast.

[DKW 86 7,440]

Jimmy Carter, LBJ, and Herbert Hoover were the two most disastrous presidents of the past 100 years. Of course, W is climbing that list fast.

Agreed.

[TexasTiger 13,017]

Jimmy Carter, LBJ, and Herbert Hoover were the two most disastrous presidents of the past 100 years. Of course, W is climbing that list fast.

Agreed.

You agree that those three guys were two of the worst?

[DKW 86 7,440]

Jimmy Carter, LBJ, and Herbert Hoover were the two most disastrous presidents of the past 100 years. Of course, W is climbing that list fast.

Agreed.

You agree that those three guys were two of the worst?

There, fixed it for you.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Indeed, says Stein, Carter's accusatory tome "is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions and simply invented segments."

Just how bad is Carter's book? Stein all but calls the former president a liar (and he's not the only one).

Stein says the Israel-bashing diatribe discusses several meetings at which he was present. Yet "my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book," he writes. Concludes Stein: "Being a former president does not give one a unique privilege to invent information."

But of course, this book is tops on the NYT's best sellers. right?

[CCTAU 3,345]

Carter should be campaigning for stem cell research. It's clear that he is entering into the realm of dementia....

[otterinbham 0]

Indeed, says Stein, Carter's accusatory tome "is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions and simply invented segments."

Just how bad is Carter's book? Stein all but calls the former president a liar (and he's not the only one).

Stein says the Israel-bashing diatribe discusses several meetings at which he was present. Yet "my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book," he writes. Concludes Stein: "Being a former president does not give one a unique privilege to invent information."

But of course, this book is tops on the NYT's best sellers. right?

Hey. Any time a former president farts, it's good for at least half a million copies. So it's no big deal.