The Honorable Thing To Do

Anyone who has read Blue Crab Boulevard for any length of time knows that I have a very low opinion of Jimmy Carter, both as a president and as an thoroughly obnoxious former president. But I did not comment on his latest book even though a lot of others hammered his anti-Israel rant pretty darn hard. Scott Johnson over at Powerline has come into possession of an email written by Professor Kenneth Stein of Emory University. Professor Stein was also the first director of the Carter Center and had remained a fellow of that institution. That is, until he read Carter's latest screed.

Professor Stein is apparently terminating his association with the Carter Center, solely as a result of Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. The reaction of Professor Stein — a formerly close associate and collaborator of Carter — to Carter's new book is, as our reader thought it would be, of great interest to us:

This note is to inform you that yesterday, I sent letters to President Jimmy Carter, Emory University President Jim Wagner, and Dr. John Hardman, Executive Director of the Carter Center resigning my position, effectively immediately, as Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center of Emory University. This ends my 23 year association with an institution that in some small way I helped shape and develop. My joint academic position in Emory College in the History and Political Science Departments, and, as Director of the Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel remains unchanged.

Many still believe that I have an active association with the Center and, act as an adviser to President Carter, neither is the case. President Carter has intermittently continued to come to the Arab-Israeli Conflict class I teach in Emory College. He gives undergraduate students a fine first hand recollection of the Begin-Sadat negotiations of the late 1970s. Since I left the Center physically thirteen years ago, the Middle East program of the Center has waned as has my status as a Carter Center Fellow. For the record, I had nothing to do with the research, preparation, writing, or review of President Carter's recent publication. Any material which he used from the book we did together in 1984, The Blood of Abraham, he used unilaterally.

President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analyses; it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments. Aside from the one-sided nature of the book, meant to provoke, there are recollections cited from meetings where I was the third person in the room, and my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book. Being a former President does not give one a unique privilege to invent information or to unpack it with cuts, deftly slanted to provide a particular outlook. Having little access to Arabic and Hebrew sources, I believe, clearly handicapped his understanding and analyses of how history has unfolded over the last decade. Falsehoods, if repeated often enough become meta-truths, and they then can become the erroneous baseline for shaping and reinforcing attitudes and for policy-making. The history and interpretation of the Arab-Israeli conflict is already drowning in half-truths, suppositions, and self-serving myths; more are not necessary. In due course, I shall detail these points and reflect on their origins.

This is the action of a principled and honest man when confronted with an intolerable situation. It also says all you need to know about Carter himself and what depths he has descended to. Read the whole letter. It smokes Carter pretty thoroughly.

UPDATE: Gayle Miller: Phui!

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  By lawhawk, Wednesday, 6 December , 2006 @ 1:27 pm

  Congrats on being named a finalist in the 2006 Weblog Awards for best new blog. It’s recognition well deserved.

  http://2006.weblogawards.org/2006/12/the_2006_weblog_awards_finalists_announced.php

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  By Gaius, Wednesday, 6 December , 2006 @ 1:28 pm

  Thank you.

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  By Gayle Miller, Wednesday, 6 December , 2006 @ 2:44 pm

  The email letter of resignation is pretty strong; I have a feeling that what is to come (which the Professor promises) will be even more damning. I have been hectoring O’Reilly who insists on saying that Carter must be respected because he is a former president. I don’t agree and elucidate the reasons in a post today at my blog.

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » New York Times Takes Notice — Thursday, 7 December , 2006 @ 9:35 am