Word: carterized
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Biblical scholars aside, few will find much reason to quibble with Carter's survey of the distant past. This is not true of his analysis of the present situation. For the most part, Carter succeeds in the difficult task of retaining objectivity while discussing the many facets of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its bloody spinoff, the Lebanese civil war. But, as is perhaps inevitable, he occasionally drops his guard...
...discussion of the region's long history of conflict over land and (move often) religion has quite a different flavor. With detail worthy of Plains. George's most famous Sunday school teacher, Carter devotes five pages in the book's introduction to a recap of the book of Genesis. Similarly, he describes how, during his first visit to Jerusalem he awoke before dawn to "catch a flavor" of the ancient city as if "might have been two thousands years earlier when Jesus strolled the same streets." For Carter juxtaposing ancient history and yesterday's news is essential. But for readers...
...first lapse comes early in the book, during Carter's discussion of the 1973 war. Discussing the response of Western European nations to the war, Carter praises them for maintaining their "balanced" attitude toward the conflict. The evidence for this assertion: the fact that "none of the European countries would permit the United States to refuel its aircraft taking supplies to Israel..." With balanced support like this, Israeli leaders are wont to note, who needs enemies...
While Israel's survival is a good deal more assured today than it was in 1973, this does not justify Carter's tendency to belittle Israeli fears about the ultimate aims of its neighbors. For example, neither he nor the academics (including Harvard Government Professor Nadav Safran) who helped him research the book call Yasir Arafat to account for his statement to Carter that "the PLO has never advocated the annihilation of Israel." A quick scan of the organization's charter, which rejects the notion that a Palestinian state can coexist with a Jewish one, would have refused this statement...
Although Arafat has changed for the better over the years, this does not excuse Carter's proclivity to give him the benefit of the doubt. It also reveals Carter's tendency to understate the fact that the assassination of two moderate Arab leaders has reduced Israel's faith in the durability of any potential peace agreement. The Killing of Sasat, like the murder of Jordan's King Abdullah in the early 1950's, has left a deep impression on Israelis of all political stripes, an impression Carter ignores in the book...