[Salon] Jimmy Carter's Legacy at 100

Jimmy Carter's Legacy at 100

We'd like to honor President Jimmy Carter and celebrate his 100th birthday tomorrow! In our May 2023 issue, as the former president entered hospice care, the Washington Report reflected on his legacy, especially as it relates to Iran, Palestine and Israel.

Walter L. Hixson noted that while Carter was unable to fully overcome the power of the Israel lobby, he did more during his lifetime (especially after office) than any other president to advocate for Palestinian human rights. On the Iran front, we republished an excerpt from historian Kai Bird’s book about Carter, which shows how Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign worked covertly to prevent American hostages from being released from Iran in order to undermine Carter’s bid for reelection.

Happy birthday, President Carter. If other presidents had your heart, perhaps we could have brought peace to the Middle East and prevented thousands of needless deaths.

Carter’s Mediation Produced a Separate Peace with Egypt and Broken Promises from Israel
By Walter L. Hixson

"Rivaled only by Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H. W. Bush in their willingness to challenge Israel, Carter strove for a just settlement of the Palestine issue, but like all American presidents since 1948 he was rebuffed by the Zionists and their lobby. Think about that for a moment: every American president since 1948 has succumbed to Israel and the lobby, which has kept the United States Congress in its pocket for 75 years."

Jewish Community Smears Carter With Charges of Anti-Semitism
By Allan C. Brownfeld

"It is important to remember the brutal assault former President Jimmy Carter faced from militant supporters of Israel and the number of times there were attempts to silence him, claiming he was 'anti-Semitic,' the usual tactic used to silence criticism of Israel.

Yet Carter was repaid for his success and for his commitment to both Israeli security and Palestinian rights with a consistent campaign of vilification by American Jewish leaders. Most of them never forgave him for the tenacity with which he pursued his vision of an evenhanded Middle East peace."

Jimmy Carter is Our Greatest Former President
By James Zogby

"I took personal note of the news of Jimmy Carter’s decision to enter hospice and was reminded of a quote from a talk he gave to his church in 2019: 'I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death.'

This is the legacy of Jimmy Carter: a great former president who taught us how to live a life for others, and, as he approaches his end, is teaching us how to die with grace."

Carter’s Stumbles Tripped into Conflict With Iran
By Mohammad Javad Mousavizadeh

"Some analysts believe that Carter’s costly mistakes in Iran played a significant role in the tensions between the two countries that have continued for decades.

The Carter administration’s policies toward Iran were contradictory. While revolutionaries protested against the Pahlavi regime and President Carter publicly called for reform in Iran, his administration continued to sell weapons to Iran’s government, further enraging anti-American sentiment."

Excerpt from The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter
By Kai Bird

"Bill Casey, 67, was managing the Reagan campaign from his corner office on the 53rd floor of the Pan Am building in Midtown Manhattan. Casey soon put in motion a media strategy to inoculate the electorate, planting the suspicion that President Carter was 'playing politics' with the hostages. If the hostages were suddenly released, he wanted voters to think that perhaps Carter had paid too high a price. At the same time, Casey sent a private message to the Iranians that they could get a better deal from a Reagan presidency.

Casey was dabbling in off-the-books private diplomacy. Sending messages to the Iranians through intermediaries like the PLO was a gray area—not exactly kosher. Taking a meeting with a representative of the Ayatollah Khomeini to discuss the hostage crisis would fall into an entirely different category of behavior. Indeed, it could be deemed a blatant violation of the 1799 Logan Act prohibiting private citizens from negotiating disputes with foreign powers.

The Casey story is a disturbing and enduring mystery. President Carter at the time knew nothing of Casey’s backdoor diplomacy."

Relevant Books:

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