Obama camp: Carter won't be talking foreign policy at convention

Former president will be speaking "via a special video tape message from New Orleans," says Obama convention spokesperson Jenny Backus.

Jimmy Carter 88 224 (photo credit: AP [file])
Jimmy Carter 88 224
(photo credit: AP [file])
Jimmy Carter will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention, but he won't be in Denver and won't be talking about Israel. The former president will be speaking "via a special video tape message from New Orleans," said Obama convention spokesperson Jenny Backus via e-mail.
He will talk "about Americans coming together to help their neighbors and friends, fitting our theme of one nation" and "discuss programs that we can do together to make America stronger." Backus added that Carter "is not discussing foreign relations."
Carter also spoke at the 2004 convention, but that was before the publication of his controversial book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
The Republican Jewish Coalition has called for his removal from the scheduled because of "troubling anti-Israel bias."
A top Jewish leader, though, believes a Carter speech in Denver is unavoidable. Anti-Defamation League national president Abraham Foxman said in a phone interview that he wished Carter wasn't speaking, but "I don't think there's an option not to provide a platform for a former president." He hoped the "Democratic leadership would use the opportunity [of Carter's appearance] to distance themselves" from the former president's "biased view of the Arab-Israeli conflict."