How Carter Can Get Forgiveness
Ha’aretz reports that Former President Jimmy Carter has asked American Jews for forgiveness for “stigmatizing Israel”:
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has apologized to the American Jewish community for ‘stigmatizing Israel’ and asked for forgiveness for his actions, the JTA reported on Monday.
“We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,” Carter wrote in a letter to the JTA.
“As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so,” Carter wrote, referring to the prayer said on Yom Kippur in which Jews ask God for forgiveness for any sins.
According to the Jewish concept of repentance, words are not enough. A change in behavior is also essential in order to receive forgiveness. And he has not done this. When CAMERA provided detailed documentation from United Nations and Arab sources disproving President Carter’s claims in the International Herald Tribune last month about destroyed homes and homeless in the Gaza Strip, among other falsehoods, the former president refused to back down. The paper, without providing any documentation to substantiate Carter’s erroneous claims, refused to correct.
One small step in the direction of repentance would be acknowledging to IHT editors that he had wronged and he would like to correct the record.
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