Palestine by Jimmy Carter

Listened to this via Audible. I was really surprised by this diatribe and frankly lost much of the respect I had for President Carter.

The book clearly states that pretty much everything that is going wrong in the Middle East today is Israel’s fault. According to the book, Arafat was a well meaning saint. And almost all Israelis except Shimon Peres have lost their way. And, of course, the US Media is controlled by Israeli sympathizers.

It was just too one-sided.

One of the most telling tales in the book is an anecdote about Carter meeting Golda Meir in 1973 (before he ran for President). Carter had just spent a week in Israel and was concerned that the country was not sufficiently religious (Carter is a deep born-again Christian). His foreign policy insight was to ask Prime Minister Meir if she was worried that every time the Jews in the bible were not sufficiently religious, God punished them.

Overall I was disappointed and surprised by the book and it calls into question any hint of impartiality that Carter has.