By Stan Goodenough
Dec 17, 2006
Former US President Jimmy Carter, under withering fire for the inaccuracies, plagiarism and blatantly anti-Israel message contained in his new book, “Peace not apartheid,” said Friday the primary reason for the absence of Middle East peace was because of American Christian bias in favor of Israel.
Carter, a strong pro-Arab activist, was reacting to charges of antisemitism, specifically that in his book he wheeled out the age-old canard about American Jewry controlling the press.
In “a letter to Jewish citizens of America,” aimed at stopping calls for Jews not to buy his book, the aging peanut farmer asserted that he had been raised “to honor and protect God’s chosen people.”
Clearly it was this belief, as communicated in Carter’s letter, which was responsible for the world’s failure to secure a peaceful settlement in the Middle East.
"I have never claimed that American Jews control the news media, but reiterated that the overwhelming bias for Israel comes from among Christians like me who have been taught since childhood to honor and protect God's chosen people from among whom came our own savior, Jesus Christ.”