An Olive Branch?

In his 2006 book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid", the former President accused Israel of creating an apartheid system in the West bank and Gaza. He states that Israel's policies in the Palestinian territories have established "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights."

In direct contradiction to his previous statements, in December 2009, Mr. Carter told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "We must recognize Israel's achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel". According to Fox news, Mr. Carter contradicted his controversial book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," saying Palestinians in the disputed West Bank are not suffering under apartheid." He also stated that he "never intended or wanted to stigmatize the nation of Israel."

In response, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League welcomed Mr.Carter's apologetic outreach to the Jewish community. Others were less convinced. This is likely due to the disclosures of Carter's extensive financial connections to Arab oil money, particularly from Saudi Arabia.

In the National Review, 2007, Claudia Rosett asked, "Did Jimmy Carter do it for the money? That's the question making the rounds about Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, an anti Israel screed recently written by the ex-president whose Carter Center has accepted millions in Arab funding". She goes on to suggest that "this book sets fresh standards of irresponsibility" and that "The hypocrisies are boundless, and include adoring praise of the deeply oppressive, religiously intolerant Saudi regime side by side with condemnations of democratic Israel."

Distinguished Harvard Professor, Alan Dershowitz, originally worked hard to elect Mr. Carter president. From Frontpagemag.com, Dershowitz said, "I immediately liked Jimmy Carter and saw him as a man of Integrity and principle." Dershowitz later recants: "The extent of Carter's financial support from, and even dependence on, dirty money is still not fully known. What we do know is deeply troubling. Carter and his Center have accepted millions of dollars from suspect sources, beginning with the bail-out of the Carter family peanut business in the late 1970s by BCCI, a now defunct and virulently anti-Israel bank indirectly controlled by the Saudi Royal family, and among whose principal investors is Carter's friend, Sheikh Zayed. Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder of the bank, gave Carter "$500,000 to help this former President establish his center…{and} more than $10,000,000 to Mr. Carter's different projects. Carter gladly accepted the money, though Abedi had called his bank, ostensibly the source of his funding, "the best way to fight the evil influence of the Zionists." BCCI isn't the only source, Saudi King Fahd contributed millions to the Carter Center" in 1993 alone…$7.6 million" as have other members of the Saudi Royal Family, as well as a $500,000 environmental award named for Sheikh Zayed, and paid for by the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates."

Dershowitz suggests that the Carter Center has been bought out, stating in 2007: "The bought quality of the Center's activities becomes even more clear, however, when reviewing the Center's human rights activities in other countries: essentially no human rights activities in China or in North Korea, or in Iran, Iraq, the Sudan, or Syria, but activity regarding Israel and its alleged abuses, according to the Center's website."

In a 2002 article, "Carter's Arab Funding May Color Israel Stance", by Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com. Eberhart said: "far from being neutral, Carter has a track record as a long-time critic of Israel who has often displayed pro-Arab sympathies" and that Mr. Carter "has been the recipient of tens of millions of dollars from Arab sources". Eberhart questioned "the financing behind Georgia's Carter Center and the Jimmy Carter Library". "NewsMax has reviewed annual reports that indicate millions of charitable dollars have flowed into the center from His Majesty Sultan Qaboss Bin Said Al Said of Oman, Jordan, from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and from the Govt. of the United Arab Emirates". He also cited large donations from Kuwait and Morocco.

The Carter Center's mission statement suggests nonpartisanship and neutrality in dispute- resolution activities. Considering the donors list, is that possible?

Given this history, former President Carter's apology statement, this December, represented a major reversal on Israel. In essence, he has suddenly shifted from a long period of singling out Israel as a primary impediment to peace in the Middle East, to implicitly defending her.

Though one should acknowledge a change of heart, there are other factors to be considered which are significant today. One factor being Saudi Arabia's increasing unease and conflict with the expanding influence of Iran, and its potential emergence as a belligerent nuclear power. Has this encouraged the Saudis to veer towards the Israeli camp? The Times Online reported in July, that "the Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia." Perhaps the Saudis "unease" has caused them to find other friends of common cause? The Saudis may now see Israel as a necessary strategic undercover ally against Iran, and against Iran supported, al Qaeda Shiite rebels, confronting them on the Saudi-Yemen border. Some Yemeni rebels have now occupied the Saudi border village of Al-Jabiri. Also, the Wall Street Journal reported, this past summer, that "a Yemen-based al Qaeda militant attempted to assassinate the Saudi deputy interior minister, a member of the ruling family."

There is a dictum which is often described as an Arab proverb, that states: the enemy of my enemies is my friend. Maybe steps are now being taken by Saudi Arabia to encourage her friends to soften or reverse public statements that would reflect negatively on a supportive Israel?