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Yesterday in Washington D.C., former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s funeral service was held at the National Cathedral. 

The former president’s post-presidential legacy has had a lasting impact on today’s Middle East. President Carter was known for brokering the Egypt-Israel peace treaty between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, which has lasted over four decades. However, he was also the first national leader of his stature to openly embrace Hamas, to accuse Israel of “apartheid”, and to legitimize Hamas’s slaughtering of Jews through suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism, during and following the Second Intifada. 

How did President Carter go from an engaged diplomat working for peace between Israel and Egypt to championing Hamas and its narrative of Israeli “apartheid”? 

To discuss the paradox of President Carter when it comes to Israel, and his impact on current day events in the Middle East, our guest is Ken Stein. 

Dr. Kenneth W. Stein is Emeritus Emory Professor of Middle Eastern History and Israel studies where he taught from 1977-2024.  Early in the 1980s, he led  the Middle East Program of the Carter Center, which included multiple trips to the region with the Carters, writing a book with him, and  providing monthly analyses to the former president. In 1998, Ken established the first Israel Studies Center in North America and founded the Center for Israel Education in 2008.

Pertinent to this interview, are his 1999 publication, Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin and the Quest for Arab-0Israeli Peace  and a personal collection of the hundreds of hours of conversations he had with Carter over a twenty year span.  He is also the author with Ambassador Samuel Lewis,  “Making Peace Among Arabs and Israelis: Lessons from Fifty Years of Negotiating Experience”,  https://www.amazon.com/Making-peace-among-Arabs-Israelis/dp/B002X78MGW [amazon.com]

Book discussed in this episode: https://tinyurl.com/4h7pmwzf

Recent article by Ken Stein: https://m.jpost.com/international/article-835320