AMAZON.COM SURRENDERS TO JIMMY CARTER

Petition: Call on Amazon to Reverse Surrender to the 'Free Palestine' Powerful 'Jimmy Carter Lobby' (NYSun)
While Jimmy Carter may complain that the "Jewish Lobby" is limiting the debate his book gets, it turns out that the Jimmy Carter lobby is pretty powerful. It's intimidated Amazon to post a fawning blurb about Carter, and an interview with Carter, above the "criticial" (it's still too soft in our view) review of the book by Jeffrey Golberg (printed in the Washington Post) that was previously the only review of the book on the site.

As the Web blog Judeosphere notes (via Soccer Dad), the petition threatens:

Accordingly, if you do not, by Jan. 22, remove the Goldberg review, move it to the more appropriate "See all Editorial Reviews" page, or restore a semblance of balance by giving comparable space and prominence to a more positive evaluation of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, we the undersigned pledge to:

1. Stop shopping at Amazon.com;
2. Completely close our accounts on your service; and
3. Encourage our friends, family, and associates to do likewise.

And they succeeded in intimating Amazon. As they note now on the top of their petition:

SUCCESS?!? I delivered the petition and 16,000+ signatures to Bezos on Jan. 19; on Jan. 20, Amazon posted an interview with Jimmy Carter on the page, ahead of the Goldberg review! Spread the word! Free Palestine!

Indeed, Amazon has moved down the Goldberg review and instead prints a blurb praising Carter "for his decades of work for peace, human rights, and international development."

And then there's the interview with Carter, where he spouts his usual anti-Israel rhetoric, detailing the desire of some Israelis to "confiscate and colonize Palestinian land" and so on.

If Amazon is going for balance, how about mentioning that Carter interceded on behalf of a member of the Waffen SS? That might give readers a new perspective on his attacks on the Jewish state. (For a review of what Carter has to say about Israel, we comment here.) Amazon has not yet returned our calls asking for comment.

We ask Amazon to reverse its surrender to the Carter lobby and to restore the Goldberg review to the top spot. If they wish to add fawning interviews with Jimmy Carter that can go below. If this doesn't happen we will:
1: Look to other companies to purchase books,
2: Encourage our friends and family to do the same.

Feel free to add your signature below if you support this move.

Update: Director of communications at Amazon, Patty Smith, said that Amazon was "not reacting to petitions" and said that they always seek interviews with authors. When asked whether Amazon was aware of the petition, she said they were aware but their "actions had nothing to do with the petition." We repeatedly asked whether it was "just a coincidence" that the petition made a threat and Amazon changed it's page. No direct answer was given.