Amy Wilentz has a compelling piece on Jimmy Carter in New York Magazine that includes this ringing praise:
What’s most interesting about Carter at the age of 83 is… that his mind-set and his policies seem to jibe
so well with the attitudes of young people, students, and the
blogosphere. In many ways, Carter seems more relevant than George W.
Bush, his ideas more contemporary, his interests more outward-looking…. In
the news-grabbing drama of Carter’s single term in office, his
longer-lasting achievements were obscured, but they look today like a
blueprint for the future…
Most
characteristic of all was—and is—Carter’s fundamental belief that
parties who disagree must talk to each other, and that the higher the
stakes the more important such negotiations become. “One of the most
counterproductive things this administration has done,” Carter says,
“is abandon the U.S. commitment to have full-fledged discussions with
people who are crucial to the conversation if they won’t submit in
advance to our policies. This leads to isolation and makes it
impossible to reach agreements.” It is an argument the Obama campaign
has taken up and defended repeatedly.
Again
and again, the actions Carter takes that are most controversial are the
ones that place him at the vanguard of today’s politics.
Beautifully put. The problem with the article is that the reader is forced to crawl under the concertina wire of criticisms of Carter by Alan Dershowitz, Eli Lake, Zev Chafets and the like. Even Aaron David Miller, whose recent book demonstrates the incredible courage and persistence that Carter required to overcome the Israel lobby in American life and devote himself to justice in the Middle East, takes a shot at him. In that sense, the piece reflects the politics of the Jewish community. Because he has met with Hamas, because he used the A-word in the title of his book, Carter is compelled to run the gauntlet of conservative/ parochial Jewish opinion before Wilentz herself, who has written one of the finest books on the occupation, is allowed to give us the lowdown: the guy’s a prophet.
