32 Comments
author

here's the zoom link: https://journalism-cuny.zoom.us/j/94234983104?pwd=eWVxSmlDRDRpSEF0UVBqbEpIRC9sZz09

we always send it at 6 on Fridays

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, Siham. I appreciate it very much

Expand full comment

Very eloquent in your request that people apologize. The critics should respond because as time has past Jimmy Carter has shown actions speak louder then words. These critics don’t have a lot of time to respond and I hope they do.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for those beautiful stories

Expand full comment
author

i think you're absolutely right about his Christian biblical perspective. at one point he supposedly asked Golda Meir if she worried that in the Bible the Jews were constantly being punished for their sins and that this might happen again and she looked at him like he was from Mars.

Expand full comment

amazing that you recount this anecdote and still don't realize there's something deeply disturbing about his relationship to jews and judaism.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Shirley. I really miss his writing too

Expand full comment

Peter: Well crafted post. While the book was indeed flawed, as you and others pointed out, if you read the book it was from my perch at its core a plea for a two state solution. But my experience was that few in the Jewish community read the book: most were appalled by “apartheid” being in the title and dismissed it without reading. For all the reasons, your call for an apology could not be more timely and appropriate.

Expand full comment

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that the situation in Israel was WORSE than Apartheid, because in South Africa, the blacks and coloured had to travel to and from their townships for work. Palestinians in Israel do not have even that freedom. I heard a journalist from Ramallah tell about a young woman had never been to the beach (the Mediterranean) because she couldn't get a travel pass!

Expand full comment

I agree with Peter’s comments about Jimmy Carter. I am South African and when I visited Israel in 1975 I could see the similarities to Apartheid.

Expand full comment

Thank you for considering such a civilized action as an apology now. I rarely come across such calls for in today’s world.

Expand full comment

I don’t recall looking forward this much to an invited quest as to Sayed Kashua. Please ask him how he and his family are doing. When he stopped writing in Israeli media, it was the end of an era, the beginning of the loss of hope. It will be so meaningful to hear from him how he sees now history unfolding.

Expand full comment

a friendly reminder that both former israeli prime ministers named ehud have plied the "apartheid" label to the jewish state....

Expand full comment

This is not true but okay.

Expand full comment

The Central Conference of American Rabbis cancelled a planned visit to the Carter Center during their 2007 convention in Atlanta. CCAR might apologize too.

Expand full comment
Feb 24, 2023·edited Feb 24, 2023

It's as if the American Jewish establishment is in its own little fantasy world, because the reality (that they may or may not have fully confronted) is simply too painful for them.

Expand full comment

I'm so tired of uncritical support of Israel coming from URJ and CCAR. The strong and unqualified condemnation of the Amnesty report and right of return in particular was so embarrassing.

Expand full comment

“There is no former President in the United States, maybe no other national politician, who was shown as much courage as Jimmy Carter.” And I might at to that, no more undeservedly maligned President. His treatment speaks to the willingness of our leaders to choose the path of least resistance, the path of cowards and ppl with their fingers in their ears whenever truth comes out.

I can’t overstate my gratitude for your speaking truth to power, also in your NYT piece, really got to the heart of the matter. Is not that, too, a Jewish tradition? In any case, there is no more noble profession than speaking the truth, especially when it rocks the boat of injustice.

Expand full comment

Yes, flawed or not former President Carter pointed to an underlying element to the ideology of Zionism that goes back to its beginnings - removing the "other" in whatever manner is deemed necessary and taking their land. President Carter merely pointed to that unjust and uncomfortable element - that still hasn't been addressed - and was, like any other who does, vilified for it. He deserves a raft of apologies. It's there to see but too many prefer to keep it deeply buried and out of their sight. So much so that even Rabbi Brous' impassioned sermon, on the four myths she saw as problematic to Zionism, failed to unearth its tentacles; consequently, they undermined most of her argument. In his response Rabbi Rosen points out how Rabbi Brous' honestly felt and articulately stated ideas failed to address the uncomfortable truth that President Carter hope to draw attention to so many decades ago. Thanks for posting your impassioned plea, Rabbi Brous' too and Rabbi Rosen's thoughtful critique.

Expand full comment

Sadly, the reactions to the “apartheid” reports by human rights organizations you mention were greeted similarly to Carter’s book by mainstream America.

Expand full comment