Former president Jimmy Carter has spent a good portion of his post-White House years taking anti-Semitic stances on many issues but now he is suddenly apologizing for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community. "We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel," Carter said in a letter sent to a wire service for Jewish newspapers. "I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so." An Al Het is a prayer which signifies a plea for forgiveness.

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An aged scholar realizing the error of his ways? An old man attempting to atone for past transgressions before he meets his maker? Not a chance. This man wrote a book just three years ago entitled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid which compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa. Another insight from the book "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land."

As recently as 2008 Mr. Carter met with Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of the terrorist group Hamas and also laid a wreath on the grave of terrorist leader Yasser Arafat both sworn enemies of the Jewish State.

So why the sudden change of heart and apology draped in the Jewish religion? Mr. Carter's grandson Jason Carter is running for the Georgia state Senate in a March special election in the northeast Atlanta district. That district has a vocal Jewish population yet the younger Mr. Carter claimed his grandfather's letter was completely unrelated to his campaign while hailing it as a "great step towards reconciliation." (source)

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a vocal critic of Carter's views on Israel has welcomed the apology saying, "When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness, it's incumbent of us to accept it." But he added, "To what extent this is an epiphany, only time will tell." Mr. Focman's graciousness aside, the timing of this apology makes it seem more like political expediency than an epiphany.