Jimmy Carter's "Apology" to Jews

I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out Jimmy Carter's thinking. Now we have this curiously worded "apology" to the Jewish community, which he sent to JTA (a news wire for Jewish newspapers) and released to AP.

Carter wrote, "We must recognize 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."

"As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so." (Al Het refers to the prayer said on Yom Kippur in which Jews ask God for forgiveness for any sins.)

Carter has, indeed, stigmatized and offended Israel as a nation with his criticism of its policies toward Palestinians. He wrote a book ("Palestine-Peace not Apartheid")in which he referred to the Israeli policies as a form of "apartheid". He is clearly on the Palestinian side of the conflict. As a result many American Jews have also been offended and many consider Carter to be an anti-Semite.

Yet, the Jewish community in America is quite fragmented, and not all of them are fervent supporters of Israel. Does Carter consider them to be so monolithic? Perhaps he could have more directly addressed any concerns that he might be anti-Semitic (I myself have no opinion on that question.) At any rate, the letter strikes me as vague and somewhat puzzling-as is Carter himself.

Of course, there is another possible factor here. His grandson, Jason Carter, is running for a state senate seat in DeKalb County, Georgia, a district that has a significant Jewish population. Is there a connection here? Both Carters deny it.

The reaction to Carter's letter seems to be mixed as expected. Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a critic of Carter, is cautiously accepting the apology.

"When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness, it's incumbent of us to accept it. To what extent this is an epiphany, only time will tell. There certainly was a lot of hurt, a lot of angry words that need to be repaired. But this is a good start."

As of this writing, some news reports are stating that organizations like CAIR and the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee "could not be immediately reached for comment." (Neither the ADC nor the CAIR web sites have any mention of the story.)

As Mr Foxman says, only time will tell. We have to wait for the next Carter shoe to drop (which means the next time he will make some outrageous statement). And with Mr Carter, that is a certainty.