PROVIDENT IT WAS UNFINISHED:

Jimmy Carter's Jewish Problem (Jason Maoz, November 22, 2006, Jewish Press)

In The Unfinished Presidency, his book about Carter's post-White House activities, the liberal historian Douglas Brinkley provides a detailed account of the former president's obsession with helping Palestinian terror chief Yasir Arafat polish his image. Carter, according to Brinkley, regularly advised Arafat on how to shape his message for Western journalists and even wrote some speeches for him.

Carter was also a vocal critic of Israeli policies and "view[ed] the unarmed young Palestinians who stood up against thousands of Israel soldiers as 'instant heroes,' " wrote Brinkley. "Buoyed by the intifada, Carter passed on to the Palestinians, through Arafat, his congratulations."

Former New York mayor Ed Koch, in his 1984 bestseller Mayor, recounted a conversation he had shortly before the 1980 election with Cyrus Vance, who'd recently resigned as Carter's secretary of state. Koch told Vance that many Jews would not be voting for Carter because they feared "that if he is reelected he will sell them out."

"Vance," recalled Koch, "nodded and said, 'He will.' "

In Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship, Andrew and Leslie Cockburn revealed that during a March 1980 meeting with his senior political advisers, Carter, discussing his fading reelection prospects and his sinking approval rating in the Jewish community, snapped, "If I get back in, I'm going to [expletive] the Jews."