Jewish Groups Condemn Cardozo Award To Jimmy Carter -- And We Are Still Going To Sue Him

When the New York Times reported on the growing controversy over Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School giving an award to Jimmy Carter -- with the headline Law School Group Incites Fury With Choice to Honor Carter -- it became clear that this was no small disagreement among Jewish groups.

The anger is real, and the controversy and the history of Jimmy Carter's anti-Israel campaigns are the story.

Now Jewish groups are making their views known.

YnetNews reports that Young Israel Calls to Rescind Invite to Jimmy Carter:

"The National Council of Young Israel strongly urges Yeshiva University, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and the school's Journal of Conflict Resolution to do the right thing and rescind the invitation that has been issued to former President Carter," said Farley Weiss, the president of the National Council of Young Israel. "We believe that honoring President Carter as an International Advocate for Peace Award may be consistent with this organization's past of honoring another demonizer of Israel, Bishop Desmond Tutu, but it does not mean that bad decisions should be repeated over again; rather, they should learn from the past and honor those who truly deserve to be honored.

Meanwhile, The Algemeiner reports ADL, Simon Wiesenthal Center Blast Cardozo’s Jimmy Carter Honor

Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s National Director, told The Algemeiner: “The students were wrong – they are entitled to be wrong and inappropriate and we are entitled to say that honoring former President Carter is wrong, especially for a Jewish institution…and indeed for any institution. Desmond Tutu, who is more problematic than Jimmy Carter when it comes to issues relating to Israel, was also honored. I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t vote for it, I wouldn‘t support it. We need to do a better job educating – wrongly stigmatizing Israel does not help to resolve the problems. Hopefully if we instill those values, future mistakes like this will not be made.”

Foxman added that “the University responded properly,” to the controversy.

Likewise Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner that the students did not “exercise due diligence .”

“Had they done so,’ he added, “they would have discovered that Mr Carter has never resolved his conflict with the Jewish state. His serial bias against Israel is well-documented. That alone should have led tomorrow’s lawyers, whatever their ethnicity or religion, to conclude that President Carter should not receive such an honor.”

Jimmy Carter will nonetheless get his award.

Still, while the students will honor Carter, the Jewish community has had the opportunity to highlight Jimmy Carter's actual record, his hostility towards Israel and legitimization of terrorist groups like Hamas.

And one more thing: Jews Still Planning to Sue Jimmy Carter over Anti-Israel Book:

Asserting that no individual has done more than former President Jimmy Carter to defame Israel and to challenge its right to exist, a group of readers filed a class action suit against Carter and the Simon & Schuster publishing company, back in February, 2011, alleging that Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” contains numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised.

The suit, Unterberg et al. v. Jimmy Carter et.al (11 cv 0720), filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in February, 2011, sought compensatory and punitive damages against the defendants.

The five plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are seeking at least $5 million in compensation.

It's the least the Jewish community could do to let Jimmy Carter know what we really think of him.

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