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A note on the fires in Southern California: Today, so many people are fleeing their homes in southern California. So many memories are being engulfed in fire—and the result is an unimaginable landscape of destruction. We stand with our friends in Los Angeles and its surrounding communities today. We pray for their safety, and offer them our shoulder to lean on. From me and the entire NIF community: We are with you.
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Jimmy Carter, the man who brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, died just over a week ago. He was 100 years old. Today, after lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, he was given his final send off at the Washington National Cathedral in a funeral attended by every still-living president. Tomorrow, Carter will be buried afterward in a private graveside service, in a plot visible from the front porch of his home. 

This was an incredible man. In addition to ending the state of war between Israel and its most significant enemy—not to mention his many other and all-too-often ignored  accomplishments while in office—Carter was perhaps America’s greatest former president. Indeed, he reinvented that role, using it as a powerful bully pulpit to engage in tireless post-presidential diplomacy in pursuit of peace and in defense of democracy. 

In the quarter century since he left the White House, Carter devoted himself to the defense of the vulnerable and marginalized, and he championed human rights around the world. 

As he was during his presidency, Carter remained particularly focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, expressing compassion for the dispossessed Palestinian people and concern for the direction in which Israel was heading. He had a moral compass. He called out wrongs when he saw them. He was unafraid. And it made him a rare voice of moral courage and humanity. He will be sorely missed.

Throughout his presidency and post-presidency, Carter’s moral courage resulted in criticism from some self-appointed “defenders of Israel.” His book, “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid,” provoked a storm of criticism from some American Jewish leaders who were shocked by his comparison of the way Palestinians are treated in the West Bank to the way Black people were treated in South Africa. But Carter’s observations were correct, as was the warning inherent in the title of his book. 

Indeed, his core argument has become fully accepted by both the international and Israeli human rights communities and by the leaders of some of Israel’s most important allies: Israel’s ever-expanding West Bank settlement enterprise and the dual system of laws and policies that sustain it are not only unjust and unsustainable but are in fact some of the most significant obstacles to peaceful resolution of the conflict. Instead of this system, he urged another model—one supported by the international community and by the vast majority of American Jews: a two-state solution.

In his eulogy , President Joe Biden said that his friendship with Carter taught him that “strength of character is more than [the] title or the power we hold. It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect. That everyone—and I mean everyone—deserves an even shot.” We should all take this lesson to heart in these difficult days.

We at NIF will remain ever-grateful for Carter’s vision, commitment, and courage in pursuit of peace and human rights for all. We will take inspiration from his example, his life’s work, and his legacy. The world has lost a true hero, a rodef shalom—a seeker of peace. Rest in peace, President Carter.

The article has been updated. It was first published on December 30, 2024.