Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Is Carter "Bought and Paid for by Arabs?"
Thursday, January 11, 2007

A wave of news, and, I'm afraid, a setback on the Carter front today. For newcomers to the site, Feiler Faster has been writing about the controversy surrounding Jimmy Carter's new book for some time now -- first criticizing the hysteria among Jews who deride a book by a well-known Arabist as, well, sympathetic to the Arabs; then, complimenting the much more interesting second-wave of commentary on the book that shows how Carter is actually going against decades of Christian thought on Israel. Helpful hint: Lambasting a Christian for being anti-Christian is much more newsworthy than lambasting him for being anti-Jewish.

So, first the news today: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today that 14 members of a Carter Center advisory board quite in protest of the book, which they view as being critical of Israel.

In a letter to Carter, the members of the Board of Councilors wrote that the former president had clearly abandoned your historic role of broker, in favor of becoming an advocate for one side."

"I wish the Carter Center continued success, but they they also have to traffic in truth and fact," said developer Steve Berman, one of the 14.

Fair enough. This was an advisory group that met infrequently, apparently, and if they don't like the book, fine. I wonder if some on the group would have resigned had he become an "advocate" for Israel, which is pretty standard for U.S. presidents and pretty much expected by many Jews. I doubt it. But then again, their behavior is more evidence that the topic of this book has gone from rational to irrational for many Jews very, very quickly.

To wit: Alan Dershowitz has fired yet another missile at Carter, responding to Carter's criticism that many in the U.S. media are bought and paid for by Jews by saying that Carter is bought and paid for by Arabs. Here's his opening salvo:

It now turns out that Jimmy Carter--who is accusing the Jews of buying thesilence of the media and politicians regarding criticism of Israel--has beenbought and paid for by Arab money. In his recent book tour to promote Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Carter has been peddling a particularly nasty bit of bigotry. The canard is that Jews own and control the media,and prevent newspapers and the broadcast media from presenting an objective assessment of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that Jews have bought and paidfor every single member of Congress so as to prevent any of them fromespousing a balanced position. How else can anyone understand Carter's claims that it is impossible for the media and politicians to speak freelyabout Israel and the Middle East? The only explanation - and one thatCarter tap dances around, but won't come out and say directly - is that Jewscontrol the media and buy politicians. Carter then presents himself as thesole heroic figure in American public life who is free of financial constraints to discuss Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israelis.

The heart of his attack is here:

It now turns out that the shoe is precisely on the other foot. Recent disclosures prove that it is Carter who has been bought and paid for by anti-Israel Arab and Islamic money.
Journalist Jacob Laksin has documented the tens of millions of dollars that the Carter Center has accepted from Saudi Arabian royalty and assorted other Middle Eastern sultans, who, in return, Carter dutifully praised as peaceful and tolerant (no matter how despotic the regime). And these are only the confirmed, public donations.
Carter has also accepted half a million dollars and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who “were the people who killed the Jews in Europe” during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11.
Another journalist, Rachel Ehrenfeld, in a thorough and devastating article on "Carter’s Arab Financiers," meticulously catalogues Carter’s ties to Arab moneymen, from a Saudi bailout of his peanut farm in 1976, to funding for Carter’s presidential library, to continued support for all manner of Carter’s post-presidential activities.

I consider this attack to be way over the top. Some of this money might be problematic, as Dershowitz points out. I don't know a lot of the details. But it's the broad brush here that grates. Since when is taking money from Muslims considered inherently anti-Jewish? Since when is working closely with Arabs considered anti-Israel? If either of these were true, Jews would not exist and Israel would not exist. Period. It's clear that the Carter Center, for instance, had many Jews on its board and advisory board who knew about these donations before today. If not, how could so many resign! It was fine with them before today, why today is it all suddenly suspect?

Meanwhile, one can presume that some of them gave money to the Center. Why list only the Arab and/or Muslim money and not list the Jewish money? It's okay for Jews to give money to support Carter's work but not Muslims and Arabs? This is Muslim-bating, pure and simple, and Jews in particular should be careful of this path.

The letter from the 14 who resigned accused Carter of no longer being a broker, of being an advocate. If we set the standard for involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and involvement in Jewish-Muslim relations, that parties can only talk with one side and take money from one side then we are going to have an awfully one-sided conversation. We'll be the only ones in the room.

Labels: Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 4:49 PM
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