During the November 29 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show, co-host Craig Silverman said misleadingly of former Democratic President Jimmy Carter that he is “making the rounds of all the national shows, talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany.” In fact, in recent interviews Carter has been comparing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with the way South Africa oppressed its black majority population under its former system of apartheid.

Silverman had been discussing with co-host Dan Caplis and a caller an open letter to the American people from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Caplis had said that the intent of the letter was to convince the United States to "[a]bandon Israel or die." Silverman added that Carter was “out supporting him [Ahmadinejad]” by “talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany” on “all the national shows”:

CAPLIS: What I'd suggest to you, my friend, is read, read his [Ahmadinejad's] letter today, because that's not what he's talkin' about. What he's talkin' about is real simple: Israel. Abandon Israel or die. I think that's the clear message to take from this letter. So he's not talkin' about Shah this, and he throws in some Iraq. But it's really all about, as he calls it, the Zionists.

SILVERMAN: Well, yeah, and, and it's scary, especially when you have Jimmy Carter out supporting him. Jimmy Carter making the rounds of all the national shows, talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany.

In fact, in recent interviews about his latest book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster, November 2006), Carter has compared Israel's treatment of the Palestinians not to Nazi Germany, but to South Africa's treatment of its black population under its previous system of apartheid. According to a November 28 online CBS News article, “The title of [Carter's] book has angered many Israel sympathizers because of the use of the word 'apartheid,' the South African system once used to disenfranchise and oppress the black majority and empower the country's white minority.” The article reports Carter making the comparison to South African apartheid:

“It's based on a minority of Israelis occupying, confiscating and colonizing land that belongs to the Palestinians,” Carter told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. “When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank and connects 200 or so settlements (to) each other with a road and prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, in many cases even crossing the road -- this perpetrates even worse instances of ... apartheid than we witnessed in South Africa.”

Likewise, during the November 28 broadcast of Hardball with Chris Matthews, Carter stated that Israel's administration of the Palestinian territories amounts to “one of the worst examples of human rights deprivation that I know.”

[T]here's no doubt that within the occupied territories, Palestinian land, that there is a horrendous example of apartheid -- the occupation of Palestinian land, the confiscation of that land that doesn't belong to Israel, the building of settlements on it, the colonization of that land, and then the connection of those isolated but multiple settlements, more than 200 of them, with each other by highways on which Palestinians can't travel and quite often where Palestinians cannot even cross.

So the persecution of the Palestinians now in the occupied territories, under the occupation forces, is one of the worst examples of human rights deprivation that I know.

From the November 29 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

CAPLIS: We have to take him [Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] at his word that he intends to wipe Israel off the face of the map and the other things he's had to say. Certainly didn't retract that in his letter to the American people today. So I think he is a much more immediate threat.

CALLER: Oh, there is no doubt we have to -- we have to take him in at least, in a conventional sense. But, you know, I believe our biggest challenge is to get past the ill feeling that many Iranians and people in the Arab world have about our previous manipulations of national policy in that country. Our, our adventure with the Shah turned out to be disastrous.

CAPLIS: What I'd suggest to you, my friend, is read, read his letter today, because that's not what he's talkin' about. What he's talkin' about is real simple: Israel. Abandon Israel or die. I think that's the clear message to take from this letter. So he's not talkin' about Shah this, and he throws in some Iraq. But it's really all about, as he calls it, the Zionists.

SILVERMAN: Well, yeah, and, and it's scary, especially when you have Jimmy Carter out supporting him. Jimmy Carter making the rounds of all the national shows, talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany. I just can't believe what's goin' on. But -- and that's not to say that Israel is a perfect country by any stretch. Nor are we.