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August 29, 2008
Stein makes a stand
Speaker defends Israel and historic truth.
RON FRIEDMAN
Most people would think twice before tangling with a former U.S. president. But when Jimmy Carter released his book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid in November 2006, longtime adviser Kenneth Stein decided to make a stand in the name of historic accuracy. The Vancouver Jewish community will get a chance to hear all about Stein's point of view when he comes to town Sept. 7 as the guest speaker on the opening night of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver's annual campaign.
Stein had worked closely with Carter since the early '80s and was asked by Carter to become the executive director of the Carter Centre at Emory University. Shortly after the publication of the controversial book, Stein resigned from the centre in protest. His letter of resignation, which he sent to several media outlets in the United States, accused Carter of factual errors, omissions and plagiarism in the book.
"Being a former president does not give one a unique privilege to invent information or to unpack it with cuts, deftly slanted to provide a particular outlook," wrote Stein. Carter's book presents a history of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process beginning with his presidency and continuing to the present. The book is sharply critical of Israeli policies and places primary responsibility for the failure of the peace process on Israel.
In an interview with the Jewish Independent, Stein said that his chief concern about the book was that its distorted history would, in time, be treated as fact.
"When you deal with the Middle East, every word matters," said Stein, who is the author of five books and countless articles about Israel and the Middle East and who has taught courses on Middle East history and the Arab-Israeli conflict at three universities.
He worries that Carter's book will work its way into the curriculum of university courses, where students who don't know any better will accept his falsehoods as facts. Stein assured the Independent that his objections aren't to the politics.
"Everybody's entitled to their political views," he said. "People can turn the information any way they want; inventing information is something different."
Carter and Stein had a good relationship before the book was published; they even collaborated on Carter's first book about the Middle East, The Blood of Abraham (Haughton-Mifflin 1985). "Carter admired my work and my candor," said Stein. But things changed once Stein noticed that Carter had misquoted meetings where he was present and taking notes. In a 12-page essay titled, "My Problem with Jimmy Carter's Book," published in the Middle East Quarterly, Stein gives specific examples of what he sees as Carter's misinformation.
When asked what he though about the title of the book and Carter's use of the word apartheid in the Israeli context, Stein replied that Carter wasn't the first person to use the word and that it had been in use by Israeli writers since the 1990s. He also said that people today don't know very much about history and geography and that the term was often misused. "The word sends off negative adrenaline juices," said Stein.
This year's choice of guest speakers for Federation's annual campaign opening night is a continuation of a trend of bringing controversial speakers.
"In the past, we've looked at Hollywood stars and we've looked at people who are more academic," said campaign director David Berson. "While we realize that inviting Hollywood stars can often bring a lot of people, which is very important for us, we also want to provide people with food for thought."
Aside from the main ceremony, Stein will also be participating in a reception for the campaign's major donors and an event for the Ben Gurion Society earlier in the day. The Ben Gurion Society is made up of 150 members, all under 45, who donated more than $1,000.
This year's campaign is looking a lot at celebrating our accomplishments, said Berson of the theme “Live Generously – Together we do great things.”
"Oftentimes, we look only at our needs and don't talk about what has been done.
"The message we're trying to communicate is a very down-to-earth feeling of a community that can be proud of its accomplishments.
This year's opening night event will be held at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts, on the University of British Columbia campus, and is expected to draw between 700 and 900 people. Tickets cost $24.
For tickets, call 604-638-7281 or go to www.jewishvancouver.com. You can also purchase them by going online to www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 604-280-3311.
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