Carter was captivated. He was slain. He was addicted to trying to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli and the Arab-Israeli conflict

because he thought he could, he thought he should, and he thought he was not given the chance to do so because he lost to Ronald Reagan.

I can't tell you how many times he said to me, at least half a dozen, throughout the

1980s, if they'd only give me a chance, I can do this. I said, what do you mean? He said,

if they only give me a chance to get back in the mediation, I can make a difference. I said,

Mr. President, Arrafat is not Sadat, and the West Bank is not Sinai. And he'd go, oh, come on, Ken, this can be done.

So when he comes out with Palestine Peace, not apartheid,

he had evolved into this frustration that his successors had not done what he had done.

But successors didn't have a bagan in Sadat.

Carter did.

It's 7 o'clock p.m. on Thursday, January 9th here in New York City. It's 2 o'clock a.m. on Friday, January 10th, in Israel, as Israelis transition to a new day.

Earlier today in Washington, D.C., at the National Cathedral, was the funeral service for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

In a recent episode of this podcast, I provided some pretty tough, although in my view,

well-deserved commentary and criticism on President Carter's post-presidential legacy's impact

on today's Middle East. He was the first

national leader of his stature to openly embrace Hamas and accuse Israel of apartheid and

legitimize Hamas's slaughtering of Jews through suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism

during and after the second Intifada.

In that commentary in one of our episodes a couple weeks ago, I did say that we would return

to President Carter's legacy in the Middle East. Alon thought I was a little too harsh on President

Carter and we needed to provide the full spectrum of his legacy.

So I said we'd come back and give his record a more fulsome analysis.

...