Reports on the recent passing of former President Jimmy Carter have portrayed him as an honest and compassionate man who tried to do what was best for our country. More critical reports portrayed him as a failed President but a great former President, whose humanitarian efforts earned him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Many in the Jewish community had the opposite reaction. As President, he brokered the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, a linchpin of Israel’s security. After leaving the White House, his virulent criticism of Israel was considered by many to be anti-Semitic.
The reality is more complicated. Jimmy Carter the President and Jimmy Carter the former President were the same man. He was a humanitarian who led a virtuous private life. His political decisions were often disastrous. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, he undermined the interests and security of the United States and Israel.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, and grew up on a peanut farm with no running water, near Plains, Georgia. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946 and worked with Hyman Rickover on the first nuclear submarines. With the death of his father in 1953, he resigned from the Navy to run the family business.
Carter’s first political race was a run for the Georgia State Senate. He lost the Democratic primary to Homer Moran, challenged the result in court, was awarded the nomination and went on to win the General Election. In 1966 he made an unsuccessful run for Governor, finishing third in the Democratic Primary, in a race that was eventually won by the arch segregationist Lester Maddox.
In his1970 race for Governor, he appealed to supporters of the arch segregationist Governor of Alabama, George C. Wallace, deriding his opponent in the runoff, the more liberal, former Governor Carl Sanders, as “cufflinks Carl.” It thus raised some eyebrows when the new Governor proclaimed in his inaugural address, “I say to you quite frankly, the time for racial discrimination is over.” The comment put him on the cover of Time Magazine as a symbol of the new south. In retrospect it also showed that he could say one thing to win an election in rural Georgia and turn around completely to gain fame on the national scene.
In 1972, I was deeply involved in the Presidential campaign of Senator Henry M. Jackson, widely regarded as one of the best friends Israel and the Jewish people have ever had. I ran his campaign at YU and was on the slate of delegates pledged to him in the New York Primary. The high point of the campaign was a third-place finish, with 13% of the vote in Florida. After several poor showings, he suspended his campaign well before the New York Primary and our slate never made it to the ballot. At the Democratic Convention, Senator Jackson became the last refuge for opponents of the eventual nominee, the ultra-liberal Senator George McGovern. Governor Carter gave the nominating speech for Senator Jackson.
In 1972, Senator Jackson sponsored the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which made “most favored nation” trading status for the Soviet Union conditional on the Soviets allowing free emigration. This landmark legislation paved the way for the mass exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union.
In March 1975, a diplomatic impasse between Israel and Egypt over Israeli withdrawal from the strategic Mitla and Gidi Passes in Sinai led President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to announce a “reassessment” of US relations with Israel. Arms deliveries to Israel, including F-15 aircraft were frozen. Kissinger wrote that “every department should put Israel activities on the bottom of the list.” With Senator Jackson leading the way, the Senate forced President Ford and Secretary Kissinger to relent.
By 1976, Senator Jackson was clearly the Jewish community’s choice for President. I coordinated his student campaign in New York. During that campaign, I met and worked closely with two people who helped launch my career and became close lifelong friends, Joel Schnur and Steve Orlow.
In December 1974, Governor Carter launched his own campaign for the Presidency, famously saying, “I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement.” My reaction at the time was “anyone running for President who says he will never tell a lie, has just told his first lie.” It was the first of many.
Carter won the first two nominating contests: in Iowa and in New Hampshire. Senator Jackson won in Massachusetts and New York. Pennsylvania shaped up as the decisive battle. On the day before the primary, I was campaigning for Senator Jackson at the Liberty Bell, when Carter came to make a statement. Knowing I was a Jackson supporter, Carter made a point of shaking hands with me and exchanging pleasantries. It was the only time we met face to face. Carter won a decisive victory in Pennsylvania, in effect clinching the nomination.
Like many members of Senator Jackson’s New York staff, I moved to the successful Senate campaign of former US Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I also was on the Jewish Steering Committee for Carter’s New York campaign in the General Election.
My support for Carter in the General Election was based in part on distrust of President Ford because of the 1975 “reassessment” of relations with Israel. I was also impressed by the strong support Carter received from the Jewish community in Atlanta. Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, the longtime Rabbi of Congregation Beth Jacob, personally encouraged me to support Carter. Stuart Eizenstat, a deeply committed Jew, served as issues director of the Carter campaign, was Carter’s Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House, and would go on to become Special Advisor for Holocaust Issues for Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden. Robert Lipshutz was Carter’s campaign treasurer and would go on to serve as White House Counsel and as a back channel between President Carter and the Jewish community.
In that election, Carter received 71% of the Jewish vote. He carried New York with 52% of the vote. New York’s 41 Electoral Votes were decisive in Carter’s 297 to 240 Electoral College victory over President Ford. The Jews of New York effectively made Jimmy Carter the President. I was invited to – and I attended – President Carter’s inauguration. A short time later, I was at the White House to meet with Robert Lipshutz and to interview him for the YU radio station.
An early focus of the Carter administration was the energy crisis. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries embargoed the sale of oil to the United States in retaliation for the US airlift of military supplies to Israel. The embargo and the later skyrocketing of oil prices led to rationing of gasoline and rampant inflation and unemployment in the United States. Dependence on Arab oil undermined US support for Israel and had a devastating impact on the US economy. President Carter proclaimed the energy crisis “the moral equivalent of war.” He called for cutting oil imports from 16 million to 6 million barrels a day. The key to his plan was conservation. He installed solar panels on the White House and encouraged Americans to wear sweaters indoors and lower their thermostats to 65 degrees in the winter. Had President Cater developed a plan to exploit America’s ample resources of fossil fuels while transitioning to cleaner forms of energy, he could have helped America achieve energy independence and combat climate change 50 years ago. Instead, our dependence on Arab oil increased while the price soared from $8 to $32 a barrel on his watch. The result was double-digit inflation and rising unemployment.
Zbigniew Brezinski, the National Security Advisor, convinced President Carter that to keep the flow of oil from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries coming, there needed to be a comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East, to be negotiated at the Geneva Conference with the participation of the Soviet Union and the PLO, resulting in an Israeli withdrawal from Jerusalem.
On October 1, 1977, The United States and the Soviet Union issued a Joint Statement on the Middle East calling for a Geneva Conference to reach an agreement that would include “withdrawal of Israeli Armed Forces from territories occupied in the 1967 conflict” and “insuring the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” It was effectively calling for the US and the Soviet Union to impose a settlement on Israel.
Unknown to President Carter, Israeli and Egyptian negotiators had met two weeks earlier to discuss Israeli withdrawal from Sinai and a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Egypt’s primary concern was to erase the humiliation of the 1967 Six-Day War by regaining Sinai. The last thing the Egyptians wanted was to have the future of Sinai caught up in negotiations over a comprehensive settlement that would require solving far more complex issues. This led to President Anwar Sadat’s historic decision to travel to Jerusalem and extend his hand in peace to the people of Israel.
After the initial euphoria of Sadat’s visit wore off, negotiations between Israel and Egypt stalled. President Carter invited President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to Camp David. What followed was 17 days of intense negotiations that would lead to the Camp David Accords and the eventual peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The treaty provided for full peace between Israel and Egypt in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from Sinai.
While President Sadat was focused on regaining Sinai, he showed little interest in the Palestinian issue. It was left to President Carter to espouse the Palestinian position in negotiations with Prime Minister Begin that led to an agreement on Palestinian autonomy.
The peace treaty took the largest Arab army out of the equation of the Israeli-Arab conflict. It effectively took the other Arab armies out of the equation as well. In wars since 1979, the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian armies remained on the sidelines. Prime Minister Begin and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan both praised President Carter’s role in bringing about the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The treaty is an accomplishment on par with President Harry S. Truman’s decision to recognize Israel, and President Richard M. Nixon’s airlift of supplies during the Yom Kippur War. Had Jimmy Carter’s record on Israel ended with the signing of the peace treaty on the White House lawn, he would have deserved recognition as having done more for Israel’s security then any other American President.
Unfortunately, his efforts did not end there. President Carter continued to press for a comprehensive settlement that would include the Palestinians and blamed Begin and Israel for the failure to achieve such a settlement.
President Carter had other positive achievements for the Jewish community as well. He was an outspoken supporter of Soviet Jewry and was the first President to send a representative, Robert Lipshutz, to Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jewry. He supported and signed the 1979 law barring American companies from participating in the Arab boycott of Israel. His agreement with President Hafez El Assad of Syria provided for American Jews to “marry” Syrian Jewish girls, who would then be allowed to leave Syria to join their “husbands.” During the Iranian Revolution, he was instrumental in bringing 25,000 Iranian Jewish refugees to America. The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, was started by President Carter.
During the summer of 1979, President Carter convened a “domestic summit” at Camp David. He emerged to make a speech in which he proclaimed that America suffered from “a crisis of confidence.” The speech was eloquent and most of it could still be delivered today. The initial response from the public was positive. President Carter was correct in diagnosing the problem. More than a decade of political assassinations, the war in Vietnam, Watergate, the energy crisis, and economic decline caused Americans to loose trust in government and the institutions that are critical to a stable society.
A few days later, President Carter asked for the resignations of his entire Cabinet and top aides. This created the impression of a panicked President rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The value of the dollar plummeted. Little was accomplished and the “crisis of confidence” speech would become known as the “malaise” speech, in which the President blamed the public for the failures of government.
As the 1980 Presidential election approached, President Carter was challenged for the Democratic nomination by Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who had a significant lead in the polls. Believing at the time that President Carter’s efforts to achieve peace between Israel and Egypt outweighed other considerations initially supported President Carter.
On November 4, 1979, “students” loyal to the Iranian dictator, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, overran the US Embassy in Teheran, taking 52 hostages and demanding that the US send the former Shah of Iran, who was in the United States for medical treatment, back to Iran to be executed. The hostages were held for 444 days as negotiations were fruitless and a rescue attempt was a humiliating failure.
Shortly afterwards, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The initial response of the public was to rally around the President in a time of crisis. President Carter won decisive victories over Senator Kennedy in Iowa and New Hampshire and seemed headed for victory in New York. It was widely believed that Senator Kennedy would withdraw from the race after losing the New York Primary.
On March 1, 1980, the UN Security Council, with US support, unanimously adopted a resolution that deplored Israeli activity in “areas occupied in the 1967 war including Jerusalem.” The reaction in the Jewish community was furious. The White House issued a statement that the vote was a mistake. President Carter told Mayor Ed Koch that he had not read the full resolution and was trying to help Israel by “reducing Arab antipathy.” Former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance later told Mayor Koch that President Carter had read and understood every word of the resolution, had underestimated the impact it would have on US politics, and was planning to sell out Israel in a second term.
Like many American Jews, I switched my alliance to Senator Kennedy. On March 25, Senator Kennedy received 80% of the vote in the New York Primary and won the primary with 59% of the vote. The victory in New York enabled Senator Kennedy to continue his campaign down to the wire. President Carter hung on to win the nomination, but the Democratic Party was divided.
On June 30, 1980, the United States abstained, allowing UN Resolution 476, condemning Israel’s “occupation” of Jerusalem to pass.
With President Carter as the Democratic nominee, I actively campaigned for his opponent, former California Governor Ronald Reagan. As Election Day approached, polls showed a tight race, with President Carter slightly ahead in New York. In the only debate between the two, Reagan, in his closing statement, looked straight into the camera and asked Americans, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
The answer on Election Day was loud and clear. President Carter received only 45% of the Jewish vote, which is still the lowest percentage for any Democratic candidate since 1928. In New York, President Carter fared even worse with 37% of the Jewish vote, a key factor in Reagan carrying the state narrowly.
Nationwide, President Carter received 41% of the vote, still the lowest percentage for any incumbent President since 1912. The vote in the Electoral College was 489 for Reagan to 49 for Carter.
In subsequent years, Carter would rail against American Jews for being ungrateful for all that he had done for them. He claimed that had he been re-elected he would have negotiated peace between Israel and its neighbors, and he blamed Jews for his defeat.
The claim is ridiculous. Carter received 45% of the Jewish vote, compared to 41% of the total vote. He actually received more support from Jews than from non-Jews. The popular vote was 51% for Reagan to 41% for Carter. Jews are only 3% of the voting public. If every American Jew had voted for Carter, he would have carried New York, but he would have still lost the election by a clear margin. The truth is that Carter lost the election because the majority of Americans – Jews and otherwise – considered him a failed President.
Carter did much good in his post-presidential years, building housing for the poor and working to cure disease in Africa. But he often infuriated his successors by undermining American interests. On some occasions, he even lobbied other countries to vote against the US at the United Nations.
Carter would spend much of the rest of his life taking revenge against the Jews who supposedly caused his defeat. In 2006, he released Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, squarely placing the entire blame for the failure to achieve peace in the Middle East on Israel. Professor Kenneth Stein, who worked at the Carter Center, called the book “replete with factual errors and completely invented segments.” Even The New York Times called the book “tone deaf” and “distorted.”
By using a loaded term from a conflict elsewhere in the world, Carter helped redefine the Middle East conflict from being one about plucky little Israel fighting for survival against a host of Arab enemies to one about an Israel of White colonialist oppressors putting down the aspirations of the long-suffering Palestinians for peace, freedom, and dignity.
Another passage from the book stated, “It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the ‘road map for peace’ are accepted by Israel.” Carter effectively stated that killing Jews is legitimate so long as Israel does not accept Carter’s version of what peace should look like. This no doubt endeared him to the leaders of Hamas, including Ismail Haniyeh, with whom he met.
Carter did not invent the canard that Israel is an “apartheid state” or that terrorism against Jews is justified. But as a former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and architect of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, he gave them legitimacy in academia, the media, and elsewhere. He can fairly be said to have laid the intellectual underpinnings for the anti-Semitic violence taking place on college campuses and elsewhere.
It is a painful conclusion to reach. In his post-presidential years, Jimmy Carter was an anti-Semite.
By Manny Behar
