I have saved the worse for the last. The bulk of this, our last look at the former Sunday school teacher at a church in Plains, GA, is taken from Jewish sources concerning the attitude and actions of the former president concerning Israel and the Jews.
From "The Jerusalem Post"
"The self-proclaimed champion of human rights, Carter was comfortable with Middle Eastern dictators like Sadat, Hafez al-Assad, and the shah of Iran, but endlessly critical of Israel’s democratically elected leaders, beginning with Menachem Begin.
"No sooner were the Camp David Accords signed in 1979 than Carter embarked on a 40-year smear campaign against Israel. Carter insisted that Israel was violating UN Resolution 242 by not withdrawing to the pre-Six Day War boundaries and failing to create a Palestinian state.
"From a mere misreading of 242, Carter descended into a dark obsession with Israel, casting it as the source of all Middle Eastern instability and a world-leading violator of human rights. His 2004 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, though based on half-truths and outright lies, effectively legitimized Israel’s delegitimization."
FROM "THE JEWISH PRESS"
"The story of Carter’s attitude towards Israel goes deeper. He was not simply a modern-day anti-Zionist—an ignorant idealogue who wrongly believed that Israeli counter-terrorism policies harmed the “human rights” of the Palestinian people. Carter was, in fact, a traditional, old-fashioned Christian antisemite.
"We know this because his many post-presidential activities included teaching Sunday school. In 2007, Simon & Schuster released a 13-disc CD boxed set of recorded sermons that Carter gave at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., called “Sunday Mornings in Plains.”
"The sermons contain a slew of chillingly pre-modern antisemitic prejudices. For example, he claimed that Judaism teaches Jews to feel superior to non-Jews, that Jewish religious practices are a sleazy “trick” to enhance personal wealth, and that current Israeli policy towards Palestinians is based upon these “Jewish” values and practices.
"In the sermons recorded between 1998 and 2003, Carter attacked Israel by retreading antisemitic tropes dating back to the gospels and patristic writings of the early church. These anti-Judaic beliefs were formulated not in the 1960s or 1970s but between the first and fifth centuries C.E., ensuring well over a millennium of institutional, lethal Christian antisemitism."
AND THIS FROM "THE TIMES OF ISRAEL"
"Carter, who cancelled a planned visit to Gaza on this trip, said Saturday he “deplored” criminal acts by members of Hamas, but said he was looking to support moderate members of the group, which he said wasn’t a terrorist organization."
Enough said.
Enough said indeed. Actions speak louder than words but his words seem to be a pretty good reflection of what was in his heart. Sad.
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