Was Carter the Best Ex President of the USA? (2)

Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100.  His one term Presidency ended on January 20th 1981. He is known as a humanitarian and for applying the word “apartheid” to Israel. There is no doubt about his commitment to humanity since he left the Presidency, eg building homes for the homeless and participating in The Elders Group started in 2007 by Nelson Mandela.

His record in office, however, was at best certainly a missed opportunity.  Here Mouin Rabbani, in a series of tweets, manages to outline US policy on Israel and Palestine before and during Carter’s Presidency.  This brief history lesson also touches on the role of the Soviet Union and Sadat, then President of Egypt.  The Israelis were still occupying the Sinai at that time.  It seems that Carter tried but US realpotik, to say nothing of the intransigence of then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, meant that things almost nowhere.

Today, the appalling treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank is, at least in part, a failure of even a US President who was, apparently, most focused on human rights.

LL