‘Root of anti-Israel Woke culture’ – Israeli leaders give mixed responses to Carter’s legacy

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israeli leaders responded to the passing of former American President Jimmy Carter with mixed messages Monday, with the Israeli president and premier both emphasizing Carter’s role in the historic Camp David Accords and subsequent peace treaty with Egypt, while overlooking his sharp criticism of the settlement movement and the accusations in his later life of Israeli apartheid in Judea and Samaria.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office Monday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences to the family of the 39th president, and lauded his role in brokering peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

“The government of Israel sends its condolences to the Carter family and the American people upon the passing of President Jimmy Carter.”

“We will always remember President Carter’s role in forging the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty signed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, a peace treaty that has held for nearly half a century and offers hope for future generations.”

Israel’s head of state, President Isaac Herzog, echoed Netanyahu’s comments, hailing Carter as a “brave leader” who forged the first Arab-Israel peace treaty.

“Today the world says goodbye to a brave leader: the 39th President of the United States of America, Jimmy Carter.”

“In recent years I had the pleasure of calling him and thanking him for his historic efforts to bring together two great leaders, Begin and Sadat, and forging a peace between Israel and Egypt that remains an anchor of stability throughout the Middle East and North Africa many decades later. His legacy will be defined by his deep commitment to forging peace between nations.”

“On behalf of the Israeli people, I send my condolences to his family, his loved ones, and to t the American people.”

Both Herzog and Netanyahu carefully avoided mention of Carter’s sharp disagreements with Israel while in office, including his adamant opposition to the settlement movement and the expansion of Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan Heights.

In his later years, Carter became a prominent critic of the Jewish state, accusing Israel of “worse…apartheid…than we witnessed even in South Africa.”

“When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa,” Carter wrote in his controversial 2006 New York Times bestseller, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

A member of the ruling Israeli coalition, however, did highlight Carter’s anti-Israel rhetoric, and criticized Israeli leaders for eulogizing the late former president.

“There is no mitzvah to emotionally eulogize those who were aligned with Israel’s enemies,” tweeted MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party).

Chairman of the Knesset’s powerful Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Rothman is one of the two primary architects of the government’s judicial reform.

In his tweet Monday, Rothman claimed that Carter was largely to blame for the rise of anti-Israel sentiment in the American progressive Left.

“The legitimacy that Carter granted to the worst of Israel’s enemies and America’s enemies, which intensified in his later years, must not be forgotten.”

“The roots of the Woke culture and anti-Israel sentiment grew significantly during Carter’s time. The man who met with Hamas leaders and called Israel an apartheid state is not worthy of a eulogy like this from the President of Israel.”

Underneath his post, Rothman included a photograph of Carter meeting with then-Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, during a visit to Gaza City in 2009.

“In 2015, the then-President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rightly refused to meet Carter. May his memory serve as a turning point in the world’s approach to terror and its supporters. May we learn from him what should not be done and how we should not act in the face of global jihad.