Carter Sinks Even Further

Professor Melvin J. Konner (Ph.D, Harvard, 1973), Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Emory University — who previously considered Jimmy Carter “one of my greatest heroes” and said “countless times that he is the greatest former president” — now has this to say after reading his “bizarre book:”

I don’t recognize Carter any more. . . . He has not just turned his back on the balance and fairness that all peacemaking depends on. He has become a spokesman for the enemies of my people.  He has become an apologist for terrorists. . . .

I have read with shock and sadness Carter’s biased, harmful book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid."  I have watched as Carter was interviewed in the media.  He told CNN’s Larry King that President Bill Clinton and envoy Dennis Ross were misrepresenting their peace efforts in 2000, insisting that only he knew the truth, even though they were there and he was not. . . . He has not once answered the many specific criticisms except to say, again and again, that his book is completely accurate. . . .

Carter has changed.  Something has happened to his judgment.  I don’t understand what it is, but I know it is very dangerous. At a minimum, his legacy is irrevocably tarnished, and he will never again be a factor in the quest for Middle East peace.

Konner also wrote a December 17 letter to Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman declining a position on an advisory panel Hardman was seeking to establish to advise Carter.  In the letter, Konner states that:

“If you want The Carter Center to survive and thrive independently in the future, you must take prompt and decisive steps to separate the center from President Carter’s now irrevocably tarnished legacy. If you do not do this, then President Carter’s damage to his own effectiveness as a mediator, not to mention to his reputation and legacy, will extend, far more tragically in my view, to The Carter Center and all its activities.”

Those who think the Carter Center has been "thriving independently" in the past should read this.

Boker tov, Boulder! posts a letter from William Bradford Smith, another professor who has witnessed Carter up close, with some good comments about those who think that rebuttals to Carter are the same as “stifling” debate. 

The Carter Center has not responded to an email from JCI asking for the name of the “international correspondent” whom Carter alleges “fact-checked” his book, or to provide a citation to the name and page of the Atlas Carter asserts is the source of his doctored maps on page 148 of his book. 

We don’t think the Carter Center is ignoring us; we just don’t think there is any answer to the email they could give — at least not one that would not further damage Carter’s sinking reputation even among those who previously admired him.

UPDATE:  Aramy964 has emailed me links to an article by Carol Gould (a documentary producer based in London) entitled “Jimmy Carter, American Revisionist" and a blog post entitled “The Guardian’s Israel Boycott and Iranian Holocaust Denial,” both worth reviewing, and also Michael Oren’s piece at Opinion Journal  — "Jimmy Carter’s Religious Problem" — which demonstrates how far out of the mainstream of American presidents Carter has placed himself.