Jimmy Carter's foreign policy as president was based on fear. Carter was afraid of just about anything that moved. Carter was so afraid of getting in any sort of a fight (I'm not talking solely military here, I'm speaking diplomatically as well), that every two-bit thug and despot thought they could walk all over the United States -- and they could as long as Carter was in the oval office.

Well, it turns out that not much has changed in the 25+ years that have elapsed since Carter became an ex-president.

As Carter's been out hawking his anti-Israeli book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," he's been making the following hilarious claim:

The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations -- but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize policies of the Israeli government is due to the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee [sic] and the absence of any significant contrary voices.

Set aside the fact that Carter's laughable (I mean, fall-down-roll-on-floor-laugh-your-butt-off) claim that there's no debate about Israel and Palestine on American campuses. Heck, Carter can't even get the name of the ominous organization that has the power to stifle all debate on the issue -- it's the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Well, it appears as though AIPAC has managed to get to Carter too. Carter, who wants to debate, apparently doesn't want to debate a Jew.

"I don’t want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz," Carter said. ‘‘There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."

Geez, if that were true, then it would be a very easy debate to win. However, it's obvious that Carter knows Dershowitz would clean his clock. What a coward.

In other Carter news:

Professor Describes Carter 'Inaccuracies'

Carter Lies About ‘Prayer Meeting’