Jimmy Carter's New Book

Until George W. Bush came along, I thought Jimmy Carter was the worst president in my lifetime -- yes, worse than Richard Nixon who opened the door to China, managed the economy well and approved major environmental legislation. Of course, he engaged in illegal acts that were the product of his paranoia. Strange bird, Nixon. I knew him slightly while he was vice president. Carter's redeeming qualities as president were few. He presided over the worst period of inflation in recent history, accomplished next to nothing and received credit he was not due for the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. People have conveniently forgotten that when Anwar Sadat suggested bilateral negotiations between Israel and Egypt, the first reaction of the Carter Administration was to oppose them. Carter and his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezsinski, wanted multilateral negotiations that would have brought Russia to the table. Egypt, of course, was struggling hard under Sadat to escape the Soviet orbit, and Sadat understood, though Carter/Brzezinski did not, that including Russia would have been a dreadful mistake. It is true, to pay the Georgia simpleton his due, that once Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat began talking, he played a useful mediating role. But Carter (and Brzezinski) never understood Israel's problems, and Carter's current book demonstrates conclusively that he has no grasp whatsoever of the situation upon which he so freely pronounces. Of all the outrages in this book, the worst is his assertion that he knows better than Bill Clinton what went on in the three-way discussions between Arafat, Barak and Clinton. Dennis Ross, who was in the middle of the negotiations, has conclusively rebutted Carter's assertions. Carter has an undeserved reputation as a statesman. It is certainly true that he is a better ex-president than he was as president -- and I have sometimes been willing to concede that he is well-meaning. But in this case, he is neither informed nor well-meaning. His notions about the situation between Israel and its Arab neighbors are both ill-informed and, in my view, malicious.