Jimmy Carter wore a button-down shirt in Khartoum. It was a sweltering morning, the sun shining on the Nile and the bustling city coming to life. Carter was in Sudan’s capital to oversee the 2010 election that ensured the extension of the rule of dictator Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, who has been indicted on international charges of crimes against humanity.
Carter was undaunted. He believed that the first multiparty elections in decades, however flawed, would move the war-scarred country closer to democracy. The former president, a wanderer with sparkling blue eyes and compressed pants, accustomed to the cruel and harsh hardships of the planet, served coffee and pastries in his hotel room. Although he was optimistic, he was well aware of what happens when a leader with extraordinary ambition takes control of a saint or an army.
I was in town doing an interview for the Times and got a call from a representative from the Carter Center inviting me to breakfast.
Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, was president when I was a teenager. I knew him well from television–the swoopy hair, the Southern accent, the post-Watergate gas lines, the inflation, the Iran hostage crisis, the disarming voice that confronted the sense that America was adrift. Make a decision. His presidency was much maligned. But his second stint as a humanitarian, home builder, guinea worm exterminator and Nobel Peace Prize winner was a portrait of perseverance and grace.
Carter, who attended the 1976 Democratic National Convention with his wife, Rosalyn, was much maligned for coming to office during multiple crises, but continued to shine as a humanitarian.
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When I entered my hotel room, my aide greeted me. She disappeared silently. Carter came in and sat down on the small couch. Coffee was poured. The danish slipped onto the plate and was accompanied by a bit of fruit. Fishing boats buzzed in the stream below, and tea attendants in colorful feather headdresses lit fires under dark kettles in the corners.
Mr. Carter spoke about Sudan, its potential and dangers, and the fact that the southern part of the country, which has vast oil reserves, will hold an independence referendum in the coming months on whether to secede from the northern part of the country. Will Mr. Bashir give up the South to let it be ruled by a former enemy in a cowboy hat who rules a territory with less than 160 miles of paved roads and an 80 percent illiterate population?
Carter knew personalities and pitfalls, egos and secrets, maps and ledgers. He was traveling through Sudan. A few years ago, he had brokered a truce in the civil war. He always went to the source, to the places of refugees, poverty, disease and despair. Like his Bible school teacher, he returned to Plains, Georgia to witness and testify. I didn’t know what was going to happen. But he had hope.
The sun rose high in the midnight sky. The room became quiet.
“You’re based in Cairo,” he said.
“yes.”
He huddled closer.
“Tell me about things,” he said. “what’s happening?”
I felt like I was being questioned by a man who had read countless documents and knew the rise and fall of power. It was both intimidating and intimidating at the same time.
The restlessness and anger in the Arab world is nearing a breaking point and will explode in the coming months. Nationwide protests will erupt in Tunisia. An uprising in Egypt would overthrow President Hosni Mubarak. The tremors will spread from Syria and Yemen, and from Libya to Bahrain. When we met, with little inkling of what was to come, the Middle East that Carter had spent so much time navigating was about to collapse once again.
He primarily wanted to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the possibility of progress toward reconciliation on that front, no matter how remote. In 1978, Carter met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at Camp David, leading to a historic peace treaty. Mr. Carter believed at the time that the deal would bring about broader regional stability, although he was clearly wrong given the problems ahead. And he hoped it would one day lead to a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr. Carter celebrates with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (right) after signing the peace treaty that Mr. Carter helped bring to an agreement between the two countries in 1979.
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Mr. Carter would later come under criticism for his views on the issue. Many Jews and others were outraged by his 2006 book, “Palestinian Peace, Not Apartheid,” which they deemed to portray Israel as an aggressor and to be overly sympathetic to Palestinians. Mr. Carter defended the book and his talks with Hamas, which critics say elevated the status of the extremist group, which the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization. Carter later told a Cairo audience that apartheid was “an accurate representation of what’s happening in Palestine right now.”
But his vision remained focused and his commitment to peace unwavering. Three years later, Mr. Carter wrote in his book, “We Can Bring Peace to the Holy Land.” Everyone must overcome the presence of hatred and fanaticism, as well as the memory of terrible tragedies. Everyone has to face tough choices and failures in negotiations. Still, I believe the time is ripe for peace in this region. ”
That was the question at the time, but now it doesn’t seem so simple.
Carter had been in hospice care since before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people. Israel has retaliated with continued shelling of the Gaza Strip, with Gaza health authorities saying more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The Carter Center issued the following statement late last year: “The violence must stop now. There is no military solution to this crisis, but one that recognizes the common humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians, respects the human rights of all, and allows both societies to coexist in peace.” There is only a political solution that creates a path.”
It would have been nice to hear Carter’s own voice, his Southern determination, and the wisdom of a traveler.
What impressed me most in that hotel room in Khartoum was his empathy and insatiable thirst for knowledge. He pursued relentlessly, following leads and developing scenarios, following large-scale operations to get where he needed to go. For example, to Sudan, where it landed several years ago to end fighting between Bashir’s forces and rebels who later rose up. To seize power in a new country. President Bashir was overthrown in 2019, and Sudan is once again in turmoil.
It is difficult to repair the harsh corners of the world. To find justice in the stain of sin. Carter’s talent was the ability to wonder. Knowing the bitter truth and imagining something better.
