NEW YORK, March 28: Former American president Jimmy Carter secretly coached Yasser Arafat to improve his image at a time when the Palestinian leader was considered a diplomatic pariah by the United States government, according to an upcoming book.Carter drafted Arafat's public speeches and counselled other leaders of the Palestinian uprising in Israeli-occupied territories, according to excerpts of the book quoted by the Boston Globe newspaper.
Written by historian Douglas Brinkley, ``The unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's journey beyond the White House'' says, ``there was no world leader Jimmy Carter was more eager to know than Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.''
``Carter felt certain affinities with the Palestinian: a tendency towards hyperactivity and a workaholic disposition. Both men like modern bedouins, with airplanes instead of camels, always moving,'' says the book to be published in May.
The book, says the Globe, draws a protrait of Carter as messianic character, infused withrighteousness, working Arab back channels to change the Middle-East equation.
From their first meeting in 1990, the book says, Carter and Arafat ``stayed in constant touch''.
While Arafat agreed to ``distance himself'' from radical elements, Carter encouraged the PLO chairman to describe the Palestinian plight to the ``world community'' in speeches designed ``to secure maximum sympathy''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
