President Carter has strongly repudiated his brother billy’s recent onti – Semitic remarks in a private teleports conversation with Presidential trade representative Robert Strauss which the President fully intended to be made public, the Washington Post reported today.
Strauss, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was quoted by Post staff writer Martin Schram as saying : “The President said this to me — and he knows I’m going to repeat it : ‘ I am terribly concerned with the whole situation of Billy , including his health. You know, Bob, I just totally disassociate myself from his comments. They are objectionable and foreign to every thing about the way we live our lives’.”
Schram wrote that “in this unusual and indirect way … the President has moved to end his controversial silence on the matter of brother Billy’s anti-Semitic remarks . ” He reported that “the President’s failure to rebuke his brother brought him under increasing criticism. White House officials say that a number of prominent American Jews had let them know that they regarded Carter’s silence as countenancing Billy’s comments.”
Billy Carter has been escorting a group of Libyan officials around the United States which in itself aroused the ire of the Jewish community. He justified his actions at one point by remarking that “There’s a hell of a lot more Arabians than there is Jews.” When a radio news reporter asked for his reaction to Jewish critics earlier this month, Billy Carter replied,”They can kiss my ass as far as I’m concerned now.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
