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Carter Embellished His Role in Camp David Accords

(New York Sun) Novi Zhukovsky - Israeli Prof. Gerald Steinberg authored Menachem Begin & the Israel-Egypt Peace Process in 2019, based on Israeli documentation of the Camp David negotiations. Few of Carter's critics suggest that a peace deal could have been reached without American sponsorship, but Steinberg told the Sun in an interview that some of Carter's efforts at Camp David were "counterproductive" and actually delayed the agreements. This can be said of his emphasis on the Palestinian issue, which had already been settled between the two leaders. Steinberg said that Carter "very strongly embellished his role" in the negotiations. He added that the narrative that Carter pushed the proceedings through against the reluctance of Begin "is completely unsupported by the historical record" and that many of Carter's summaries of events "are very different than the way they are described in the Israeli notes." Steinberg also notes that in the years after his presidency, Carter's 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, "helped legitimize and propel this propaganda campaign and 21st century blood libel." "Carter embraced and propagated the Palestinian Arab victimhood narrative, joining in blaming Israel - rather than 100 years of rejectionism, wars, terror, incitement, etc. - for the conflict and suffering." Even though President Biden faces criticism for his policies on Israel from pro-Israel advocates, Steinberg says, "Biden still goes out of his way, even now, to say 'I am a Zionist. I support Israel.'" Carter, on the other hand, "never expressed himself in those kind of warm terms."
2025-01-02 00:00:00
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