“Carter defends book in Pasadena appearance,” by Peter Y. Hong and Stuart Silverstein in the Los Angeles Times, with thanks to DFS:
Jimmy Carter staunchly defended his controversial Middle East book at an appearance in Pasadena on Monday night, saying “horrible, despicable human rights abuses” are occurring in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Yes, they are. But they are being committed by Palestinian jihadists.
The former president also asserted that pro-Israel lobbyists have stifled open debate in this country on the Israeli-Palestinian situation. “It’s impossible for any candidate for Congress to make a statement like ‘I favor balanced support of Israel and Palestine,’ ” he said.
Arrant nonsense, but in any case, such a statement is like saying “I favor balanced support of Poland and Nazi Germany.”
Carter made his remarks in a brief session with reporters before a book-signing appearance at a jammed Vromans bookstore, which attracted an overwhelmingly supportive crowd estimated at nearly 2,000.
The warm reception was a marked contrast to the heated criticism that the book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” has triggered since its publication last month. It has drawn fire from pro-Israel organizations and some scholars, including the former executive director of the Carter Center in Atlanta.
In an interview Monday, one of the leading critics, Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, took particular issue with Carter’s remarks that the Israeli-Palestinian situation cannot get a fair discussion in the U.S. media.
“This is an anti-Semitic canard, that Jews control media, that they control universities, Congress, etc. For a former president to engage in such a canard is shameful, shameless and irresponsible,” said Foxman, who also accused Carter of making “outrageous misrepresentations of Israel.”