Jimmy Carter, who served as US president from 1977 to 1981, died on Sunday at 100 years old.
His desire to focus his presidency’s foreign policy on Middle East politics inevitably involved balancing relations with Israel and its Arab neighbors in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Carter considered the 1978 Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between then-Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat and former prime minister Menachem Begin, to be a major achievement. The agreement led Sadat and Begin to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and secured a peace that has remained stable for 46 years.
While it received fierce opposition at the time in Israeli society and still remains heavily criticized by the Egyptian populace, this agreement made peace between Israel and the country, which, until then, had played the role of Israel’s most militarily and politically influential antagonist.
Nevertheless, Carter remained a controversial figure in Israeli and American Jewish society.
Criticism of Israel's Palestinian policies
This is highlighted most by his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which received heavy criticism due to its comparisons between Israel and Apartheid South Africa’s policies.
Inside, Carter expressed his opinion that Israel would not have peace until it agreed to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, adding, “The greatest commitment in my life has been trying to bring peace to Israel.”
This was furthered in a 2010 book titled We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land, in which Carter cited Israel’s unwillingness to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank as the primary obstacles to peace in the Middle East.
Carter also held friendly meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and then-president of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh.
Wider Middle East foreign policy moves took place on his watch, such as the Iran Hostage Crisis, when Iranian protesters broke into the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and held 53 US diplomats and citizens hostage until their eventual release on January 20, 1981.
The date of the hostage’s release is widely considered to be a statement by the Islamic Republic denouncing Carter’s policies due to the concurrent inauguration of his successor, Ronald Reagan.
This highlighted Carter’s likely mismanagement of the rise to power of the Islamic Republic’s regime throughout the last two years of his tenure as president, which has led to a growing regional power that targets Israel politically and militarily via its axis, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
Carter also met with Palestinian Liberation Organization officials in Egypt in 1983 as a former president and, therefore, continued to receive criticism for the long-lasting effects on Israel’s geopolitical position.
Regardless, Carter insisted on his continued support for Israel, even if he disagreed with Jerusalem’s domestic and foreign policies. Others would disagree.