January 19, 2007
By Michael Jacobs

Obsession. It made for a bad series of Calvin Klein perfume commercials years ago, and it generally doesn't make for a good newspaper.

So I have to acknowledge concern about what could be considered the obsession of the Jewish Times the past two months: Jimmy Carter's book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.

We have published a book's worth of articles about the Carter calamity since I first reviewed it Nov. 17, and as this issue shows - from the editorial on this page to Emory professor Kenneth Stein's deconstruction of Carter's portrayal of Hamas to the mass resignation of members of the advisory board to the Carter Center - we haven't slowed down.

Even though I hear about the Carter book everywhere I go, even though the letters and guest columns keep pouring in, I hit a point recently when I figured we'd had enough. How much new could we say about the book? How much more would you read?

Then I got a phone call Jan. 12 from a sweet, sincere, earnest, 65-year-old Christian woman.

She asked whether I had seen the documentary The Iron Wall, a pro-Palestinian take on the Israeli settlements and the security barrier. Carter has said the film delivers "the best description of the barrier, its routing and impact."

I said I had not seen it, and the woman informed me of how much I could learn about what was going on in "Palestine," where "the Jews" are systematically ruining any chance for a viable nation by stealing land, surrounding it with a 20-foot concrete wall and linking the "colonies" with Jew-only roads.

Without getting the least bit emotional, the caller proceeded to grill me on why Israel is so evil, although she assured me that she believes Israel has a right to exist.

She asked how I would feel if I had been born Palestinian and saw someone chop down my olive trees, knock down my house and seize my land. I told her I wouldn't like it, but I'm sure I wouldn't blow up buses, pizza restaurants and Passover seders.

She explained that Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 not to give the Palestinians a shot at true self-government, but to get all of the Jews out of the way before the tanks rolled in and crushed the Gaza residents.

"Do you really think Israel is that devious and cynical?" I asked.

Her response was chilling: Israel has become that evil and now is treating the Palestinians just like the Nazis treated the Jews.

She asked me why the "Jewish government" is committing any number of atrocities, from destroying the Palestinian economy to killing women and children, and why "all American Jews" support everything Israel does. I told her about the Brit Tzedek v'Shalom peace event I had attended earlier in the week, but she wasn't settling for anything less than a full confession.

I felt as if I were talking to the human embodiment of the Carter book. Every false charge and misinterpretation, backed by every nasty assumption and conclusion, came from this ever-so-pleasant woman, just as Carter himself is always smiling when he talks about his book and presents everything in the guise of someone who believes in Israel and just wants a fair peace.

And just like Carter, she refused to let the facts get in her way. She conceded that the Israeli government isn't, in fact, the Jewish government, but I don't think she believed it. And she's certain that all Jews think alike and exert control on the U.S. government and media to protect Israel from the truth.

It was a frustrating and frightening 20 minutes, and it reminded me of why the Carter book is so dangerous. So we'll keep trying to expose the book, and I hope you'll keep reading to be prepared to answer all those Americans as misinformed as my caller.