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The Cautionary Tale of Jimmy Carter
Former US President Jimmy Carter attends an interview with Reuters in Cairo, Egypt, January 12, 2012. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
H.L. Mencken, the twentieth-century American journalist, satirist, and cultural critic, noted that “for every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” His pithy observation prophetically described President Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100.
Although he lived for more than a century, Carter’s legacy is unlikely to last nearly as long — because time and again, when faced with complex problems, he reached for clear and simple solutions that turned out to be disastrously wrong.
History’s verdict on Carter is hardly mixed—it leans heavily toward disaster, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. While he may have meant well, his penchant for moralizing in a way that bordered on patronizing, and his insistence on prioritizing ideals over reality, made him a pioneer of the kind of weakness that Barack Obama later perfected with his “leading from behind” doctrine. Carter’s America didn’t lead from behind—it just didn’t lead at all.
The fallout? A Middle East that’s been on fire ever since.
Carter’s most consequential failure was Iran. By abandoning the Shah and allowing Ayatollah Khomeini to step through the front door with his fanatical Islamic revolution, Carter handed the world over to radical Islamists. Khomeini didn’t just take over Iran—he ignited a revolutionary flame that still burns today.
October 7th, the deliberate and eagerly executed Hamas massacre of 1,200 innocent Israelis in Southern Israel, an evil atrocity that sent shockwaves through Israel and across the world, is just one link in the chain of chaos that Jimmy Carter helped to forge. Iran’s terror tentacles—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis—all trace their origins to the regime Carter allowed to flourish.
The vile Assad regime in Syria, now deposed, with as yet unknown chaos following in its wake, also owed its longevity to support from the regime that came into being as a result of Carter’s inadequate response when he could have cut it off before it took root.
In a 2014 interview on CNBC, Carter admitted, “I could have been re-elected if I had taken military action against Iran. It would have shown that I was strong and resolute and manly… I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had. But in the process, a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages.”
What an admission! Look how many innocent people have died and been repressed as a result of his ivory tower moral stance. As Churchill said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.”
Many commentators have pointed to the fact that Carter presided over the historic Camp David Accords, but let’s be clear: while he played a significant role as a facilitator, the deal ultimately succeeded because Sadat and Begin were pragmatic men who understood their people needed peace more than platitudes.
Carter’s vision leaned heavily toward Palestinian autonomy, and had he gotten his way, Israel might have faced greater pressure to concede to PLO demands. Instead, the actual treaty focused on Israel-Egypt relations, and Carter, despite his moralizing, was fortunate to share credit for a deal rooted in the leaders’ pragmatism rather than his ideology.
And, as former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren put it in his article about Carter’s legacy, “No sooner were the Camp David Accords signed in 1979 than Carter embarked on a 40-year smear campaign against Israel.”
And in his post-presidency, things only got worse. Instead of acting as a neutral go-between and peace facilitator for Israel and the Palestinians, Carter transformed himself into the elder statesman of global finger-wagging. He seemed determined to lecture Israel at every opportunity, portraying it as the primary obstacle to peace, while cozying up to arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat—a man whose organization, the PLO, had the blood of countless Israelis on its hands.
Carter didn’t stop there. In 2008, he went out of his way to meet in Syria with leaders of Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by both the U.S. and Israel. Carter defended the visit as an attempt at peace-building, but in reality, it gave Hamas a veneer of legitimacy it neither earned nor deserved.
Carter compounded his betrayal of Israel by introducing the word “Apartheid” to describe Israel’s treatment of Arabs—an obscene accusation with no basis in reality, and one he surely knew was both false and inflammatory.
Rather than contributing to peace, Carter’s self-proclaimed moral high ground quickly eroded into a moral swamp, enabling some of the world’s most dangerous actors while undermining America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Instead of securing his place in history as a peacemaker, Carter’s post-presidency cast him as a sanctimonious meddler whose actions deepened divides rather than bridging them.
There was undoubtedly a good side to Carter—his Habitat for Humanity project, which built thousands of affordable homes for Americans who couldn’t afford expensive property, showed that he genuinely cared about people. He was willing to roll up his sleeves—literally!—and get to work for those in need. It was a touching example of his personal decency and desire to make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
Carter wasn’t a bad man—he was just a bad president. Idealism, while admirable, often walks hand-in-hand with naivety. And naivety, especially in leadership, allows evil to flourish—even when the intentions are noble. Carter believed deeply in human rights, but he had no idea how to protect them. He believed in peace—which all good people do—but he mistook appeasement for diplomacy. Worst of all, he failed to grasp a harsh truth: giving bad people slack doesn’t make them better—it just gives them room to harm the innocent.
And that’s the crux of the problem. The world Carter left us is more dangerous, not less, because he gave evil a foothold—and then had the audacity to call it progress.
In the end, Carter’s legacy is a cautionary tale. Good intentions aren’t enough. Leadership means knowing when to stand firm, when to draw red lines, and when to stop pretending that the world’s villains can be reasoned with. Carter never learned that lesson. And the world is still paying the price.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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Jewish Synagogue, Holocaust Memorial Vandalized in Poland After Politician Denies Holocaust
An antisemitic slur spray-painted on the ruins of a former synagogue in Dukla, Poland. Photo: World Jewish Restitution Organization
Two Jewish sites in Dukla, Poland, were vandalized over the weekend mere days after Polish member of the European Parliament (MEP) Grzegorz Braun claimed gas chambers at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were fake and repeated an antisemitic blood libel in a live radio interview.
Vandals spray-painted the word “F–k” followed by a Star of David on the ruins of a former synagogue that was destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and a memorial commemorating Holocaust victims located at the entrance of the Jewish cemetery in Dukla was defaced with a swastika and the word “Palestine,” according to the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). The memorial honors Jews of Dukla and the surrounding areas who were murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust.
The two Jewish sites in Dukla are cared for by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ), which was established in 2002 by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland and the WJRO to protect and commemorate Poland’s Jewish heritage sites.
“These hateful acts are not only antisemitic, but they are also attempts to erase Jewish history and desecrate memory,” said WJRO President Gideon Taylor in a released statement on Tuesday. “Polish authorities must take swift and serious action to identify the perpetrators and ensure the protection of Jewish heritage sites in Dukla and across the country.”
“The vandalism of Jewish sites in Dukla—with swastikas and anti-Israel slurs—is not an isolated act,” insisted Jack Simony, director general of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF), in a statement to The Algemeiner. The nonprofit focuses on preserving the memory of the Jewish community in Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and maintains the Auschwitz Jewish Center, the last remaining synagogue in town.
“While we cannot say definitively that it [the vandalism] was sparked by Grzegorz Braun’s Holocaust denial, his rhetoric contributes to an atmosphere where hatred is emboldened and truth is under assault,” added Simony. “Braun’s lies are not harmless — they are dangerous. Holocaust denial fuels antisemitism and, too often, violence. This is why Holocaust education matters … because when we fail to confront lies, we invite their consequences. Memory must be defended, not only for the sake of the past, but for the safety of our future.”
On July 10, a ceremony was held commemorating the 84th anniversary of the 1941 Jedwabne massacre, when hundreds of Polish Jews were massacred – mostly by their neighbors – in the northeastern town in German-occupied Poland. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries and faith leaders including Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and Israeli Deputy Ambassador Bosmat Baruch. Groups of anti-Israel and far-right activists — including MEP Braun and his supporters – tried to disrupt the event by holding banners with antisemitic slogans and blocking the vehicles of the attendees, according to Polish radio.
Hours later, during a live radio broadcast, Braun falsely claimed the Auschwitz gas chambers were “a lie” and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum was promoting “pseudo-history.” He also claimed that Jewish “ritual murder is a fact.” Polish prosecutors launched an investigation into Braun’s comments, they announced that same day. Under Article 55 of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Poland.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum issued a swift condemnation of Braun’s remarks and said it intents to pursue legal action. The Institute of National Remembrance — which is the largest research, educational and archival institution in Poland – also denounced Braun’s remarks, saying there is “well-documented” evidence supporting the existence of gas chambers. His comments were also condemned by the Embassy of Israel in Poland, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and the US Embassy in Warsaw, which said that his actions “distort history, desecrate memory, or spread antisemitism.” AJCF called on the European Parliament to consider disciplinary measures against Braun, including potential censure or expulsion.
Auschwitz Jewish Center Director Tomek Kuncewicz said Braun’s comments are “an act of violence against truth, against survivors, and against the legacy of our shared humanity.” AJCF Chairman Simon Bergson called the politician’s remarks “blatant and baseless lies,” while Simony described them as “a calculated act of antisemitic incitement” that “must be met with legal consequences and universal moral condemnation.”
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Coalition of 400 Jewish Orgs and Synagogues Urge Teachers Union to Reverse Decision Cutting Ties with ADL
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Photo Credit: ADL.
Following a vote by the National Education Association (NEA) on July 6 to end its relationship with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 400 Jewish communal groups, education organizations, and religious institutions have come together to call for the influential teachers union to change course.
“We are writing to express our deep concerns about the growing level of antisemitic activity within teachers’ unions, particularly since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023,” the letter to NEA President Becky Pringle stated. “Passage of New Business Item (NBI) 39 at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly this past weekend, which shockingly calls for the boycott of the Anti-Defamation League, is just the latest example of open hostility toward Jewish educators, students and families coming from national and local teachers’ unions and their members.”
In addition to the ADL, signatories of the letter included American Jewish Committee (AJC), Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Federations of North America, #EndJewHatred, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith International, CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting & Analysis), Combat Antisemitism Movement, Democratic Majority for Israel, StandWithUs, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Zioness Movement, and Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
The group told Pringle that “we have heard directly from NEA members who have shared their experiences ranging from explicit and implicit antisemitism within the union to a broader pattern of insensitivity toward legitimate concerns of Jewish members – including at the recently concluded Representative Assembly. We are also deeply troubled by a broader pattern of union activity over the past 20 months that has targeted or alienated Jewish members and the wider Jewish community.”
The letter to Pringle included an addendum providing examples of objectionable rhetoric. These named such incidents as the Oakland Education Association (OEA) putting out a statement calling for “an end to the occupation of Palestine” and the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) accusing Israel of genocide.
The coalition of 400 organizations urged the NEA to “take immediate action” and suggested such steps as rejecting NBI 39, issuing a “strong condemnation” of antisemitism within the union, drafting a plan to counter ongoing antisemitism in affiliate chapters, and opposing “any effort to use an educator’s support for the existence of Israel as a means to attack their identity.”
ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X that “Excluding @ADL’s educational resources from schools is not just an attack on our org, but on the entire Jewish community. We urge the @NEAToday Executive Committee to reverse this biased, fringe effort and reaffirm its commitment to supporting all Jewish students and educators.”
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Zohran Mamdani Won’t Condemn Calls for Violence Against Jews; Why Are Jewish Leaders Supporting Him?
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s surge in New York City politics, a disturbing trend has emerged: prominent Jewish leaders are being urged to join “Jews for Zohran,” a newly formed effort to legitimize a candidate whose record and rhetoric are alarmingly out of step with Jewish communal values.
In a city that’s home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel — and where antisemitic incidents are on the rise — this is a profound mistake.
Mamdani has refused to explicitly condemn the slogan “Globalize the Intifada,” which has been widely understood as a call to violence against Jews. His defenders insist it’s a symbolic plea for Palestinian rights. But nuance offers little comfort when the phrase glorifies violent uprisings, and is routinely chanted alongside calls for Israel’s destruction.
Institutions such as the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and watchdogs like StopAntisemitism.org have made it clear: attempts to sanitize violent language must be firmly rejected.
Mamdani’s vocal support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is equally troubling. BDS does not merely critique Israeli policy; it seeks to economically isolate and politically delegitimize the Jewish state. When a candidate stands against the most visible symbol of Jewish survival — Israel — while brushing off violent slogans as misunderstood metaphors, we must ask what message this sends to our communities.
The answer should be clear. Jewish New Yorkers were the targets of over half the city’s reported hate crimes last year. From Crown Heights to Midtown, visible Jews have been harassed, assaulted, and mocked. Mamdani was flagged by national antisemitism monitors in December for promoting material that mocked Hanukkah. This is not abstract. This is personal, present, and dangerous.
Yes, Mamdani has pledged to increase hate crime funding from $3 million to $26 million. But that’s not enough. The Jewish community — especially now — needs more than budgetary gestures. We require moral clarity, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel powerfully stated: “Morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself….”
Moral clarity demands more than financial promises, it requires principled rejection of rhetoric that endangers Jews. Belonging isn’t forged by slogans; it’s proven through sustained empathy, shared responsibility, and unwavering commitment to safety.
Calls for Jewish leaders to publicly support Mamdani, including those made to officials like Brad Lander and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), aim to provide political cover for a candidate whose worldview clashes with core Jewish values. These aren’t harmless endorsements. They’re symbols. And symbols matter.
Endorsing Mamdani sends a troubling signal: that political convenience or progressive branding outweighs communal safety and historical memory. When Jewish leaders align with someone who flirts with the delegitimization of Jewish statehood and refuses to condemn slogans rooted in violence, they are telling our adversaries that our moral lines are negotiable.
New York’s Jewish community has long been a moral compass in American politics. What happens here echoes across the nation. If our leaders can be cajoled into supporting a candidate like Mamdani, what message does that send to Jews in swing districts, smaller cities, and across college campuses? It normalizes equivocation. It emboldens the fringe. It tells the next generation that Jewish dignity is up for debate.
This is about more than Mamdani. It’s about whether Jewish pride and Jewish safety remain non-negotiable pillars of our political participation. Some have argued that this is simply politics as usual — that strategic alliances are part of coalition-building. But the Jewish people know better than most that what begins as a small compromise can metastasize into a much greater danger.
Former Democratic Councilman Rory Lancman said it best: “If ever there was a time to put principle over party, this is it.” He’s right. And that’s why this moment requires Jewish leaders to speak not just as political actors, but as moral stewards.
Jewish leaders are free to engage with any candidate they choose. But engagement is not endorsement. One can listen, challenge, and debate without aligning oneself publicly with a candidate whose positions cross communal red lines. Outreach does not require complicity.
If Jewish political figures join “Jews for Zohran,” they risk helping mainstream dangerous ideologies. They risk fracturing communal unity even further at a time when Jewish communal unity is our best defense. They risk allowing today’s ambiguity to become tomorrow’s regret.
Jewish history teaches us the cost of silence, of appeasement, and of looking away. We cannot afford those mistakes again — not in this city, not in this era; history is beginning to repeat itself and we cannot allow that to happen.
To every Jewish leader now weighing their public stance: choose principle. Choose safety. Choose the kind of moral leadership our tradition demands; reject the logic of “Jews for Zohran.” The stakes are too high — and the message matters.
Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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