Mass Resignations at Carter Center

1693 Views 45 Replies 15 Participants Last post by LANMaster, Jan 26, 2007

sy2

Discussion Starter · Jan 11, 2007

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116852889902273906.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

ATLANTA -- Fourteen members of an advisory board at the Carter Center resigned today, concluding they could "no longer in good conscience continue to serve" following publication of former President Jimmy Carter's controversial book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."

You need a WSJ account to read the full article, but another site (digg.com) has this up and someone in the comments section posted the letter from the article:

"Dear President Carter,

As members of the Board of Councilors each one of us has been proud to be associated with the Carter Center in its noble struggle to repair the world. However, in light of the publication of your latest book Palestine; Peace Not Apartheid and your subsequent comments made in promoting the book, we can no longer in good conscience continue to serve the Center as members of the Board of Councilors.

In its work in conflict resolution the Carter Center has always played the useful and constructive role of honest broker and mediator between warring parties. In your book, which portrays the conflict between Israel and her neighbors as a purely one-sided affair with Israel holding all of the responsibility for resolving the conflict, you have clearly abandoned your historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side."

*EDIT: The end of the letter, from the LGF site:

"It seems that you have turned to a world of advocacy, including even malicious advocacy," the board members wrote in a letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "We can no longer endorse your strident and uncompromising position. This is not the Carter Center or Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support. Therefore it is with sadness and regret that we hereby tender our resignation from the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center effective immediately."

Little Green Footballs has this up here along with a related article:

Melvin Konner, physician and professor at Emory University, declined an invitation to be part of a group advising President Carter and The Carter Center on Carter's recent book on the Mideast. Konner notes especially that "President Carter has proved capable of distorting the truth about such meetings and consultations in public remarks following them. In particular, he mischaracterized the meeting he had with the executive committee of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, saying he and they had positive interactions and prayed together, when in fact others present stated that the meeting was highly confrontational and that the prayer was merely a pro forma closing invocation." Konner says also that "in television interviews I have seen over the past week, President Carter has revealed himself to be so rigid and inflexible in his views that he seems to me no longer capable of dialogue."

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compushlep

· #41 · Jan 23, 2007

Fidelista said:
Yes I read #1 post, and comments by all.
I have also read the book .
What do you think of the book overall???. Any agreement, anywhere???
I am not interested in what a "Dershowitz " says , or a group of rabbi's.
Interested in what people here think -- not what someone tells them to think. >f

The fact that you read the book puts you head and shoulders above anyone who, instead of doing the same, resorts to sniping in order to try to discredit the author. I can't comment on the book yet, so instead I'll let Carter explain his side

A New Chance for Peace?
By Jimmy Carter
LINK

01/18/07 "Washington Post" - --- I am concerned that public discussion of my book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" has been diverted from the book's basic proposals: that peace talks be resumed after six years of delay and that the tragic persecution of Palestinians be ended.

Although most critics have not seriously disputed or even mentioned the facts and suggestions about these two issues, an apparently concerted campaign has been focused on the book's title, combined with allegations that I am anti-Israel. This is not good for any of us who are committed to Israel's status as a peaceful nation living in harmony with its neighbors.

The excerpt is all he says to address his detractors, the rest of his article deals with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Anyway, what's wrong with proposing to restart peace talks?

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TooBad

· #42 · Jan 23, 2007

compushlep said:
The fact that you read the book puts you head and shoulders above anyone who, instead of doing the same, resorts to sniping in order to try to discredit the author. I can't comment on the book yet, so instead I'll let Carter explain his side

A New Chance for Peace?
By Jimmy Carter
LINK

The excerpt is all he says to address his detractors, the rest of his article deals with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Anyway, what's wrong with proposing to restart peace talks?

You ask what is wrong to start peace talks? Where have you been for the past 50 years, the palestinians and their allies are not interested in peace and will only lie in negotiations to obtain an advantage. There is nothing to discuss with cut-throat murderers.

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Fidelista

· #43 · Jan 24, 2007

TooBad said:
You ask what is wrong to start peace talks? Where have you been for the past 50 years, the palestinians and their allies are not interested in peace and will only lie in negotiations to obtain an advantage. There is nothing to discuss with cut-throat murderers.

Well, somebody told you to think that way ---just as somebody told me to think my way.
All I suggest is read what the man has to say , and then trash it -all or some , if you disagree.
I refuse to form opinion on some things -without investigation on my own , then I have REAL OPINION -right or wrong.
I have been BS'ed by liberals ----and right-wing nutcases have tried enough over years , that I like to make up own mind.
Not interested in paid lobby's or Rabbi's in this case.
I found much creditable in book. I am almost SURE that others would too.
If someone were to say that entire book --all points were lie ---I would think them a fool.
Of course , as its Carters book , it will shine bright on him >f

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GoneForNow

· #44 · Jan 25, 2007

Fidelista said:
I have been BS'ed by liberals ----and right-wing nutcases have tried enough over years , that I like to make up own mind.

Do you realize what a straight line this is for me? Do realize how hard I had to restraint myself with this perfectly thrown waist high in the middle of the plate slow ball?

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Fidelista

· #45 · Jan 25, 2007

gbrumb said:
Do you realize what a straight line this is for me? Do realize how hard I had to restraint myself with this perfectly thrown waist high in the middle of the plate slow ball?

I should be more careful!!!!

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LANMaster

· #46 · Jan 26, 2007

Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council

Former president also rejected Christian historian because name sounded 'too Jewish'

TEL AVIV Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman, the council's former executive director, told WND in an exclusive interview.

Freedman, who served on the council during Carter's term as president, also revealed a noted Holocaust scholar who was a Presbyterian Christian was rejected from the council's board by Carter's office because the scholar's name "sounded too Jewish."

Freedman, now a professor of law at Hofstra University, was picked by the council's chairman, author Elie Weisel, to serve as executive director in 1980. The council, created by the Carter White House, went on to establish the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Freedman says he was tasked with creating a board for the council and with making recommendations to the White House on how best to memorialize the Holocaust.

He told WND he sent a memo to Carter's office containing recommendations for council board members.

He said his memo was returned with a note on the upper right hand corner that stated, "Too many Jews."

The note, Freedman said, was written in Carter's handwriting and was initialed by Carter.

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