Carter Book Stirs Controversy

Though former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has written 23 books, none has stirred interest and ire as sharply as his latest, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster).

In the latest issue of Newsweek, Eleanor Clift spoke with Carter about the firestorm the book has ignited.

Clift writes that Carter’s book “has drawn fire for its use of the word ‘apartheid,’ and a former associate, Kenneth Stein, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Emory University, is raising questions about the book's accuracy.”

The Newsweek exchange between Clift and Carter is brief but to the point. “You’ve created quite a stir,” Clift says at one point. “I suspect it was partly intentional.”

Well, it was. But one of the purposes of the book was to provoke discussion, which is very rarely heard in this country, and to open up some possibility that we could rejuvenate or restart the peace talks in Israel that have been absent for six years.

You can read the whole exchange here.