Unbelievably, Jimmy Carter returns for round two in his debate in the Washington Post with Elliott Abrams. Having already been eviscerated in round one, Carter can’t resist the urge to go back for more. He pleads that Abrams is arguing that Palestinians enjoy “halcyon days.” (He did? No, but Carter isn’t a stickler for facts.) And Carter again argues that those settlements are really Israel’s “worst mistake.” Not much of a retort, is it?

Certainly Carter should have quit while he was behind. Abrams responds that “Jimmy Carter continues his practice of assuming that his travelogues constitute evidence and dismissing data that contradict his claims. This will persuade few people. I did not suggest that life was wonderful in the West Bank, only that it is not getting worse.” Abrams then rather bluntly makes the key argument, one consistently overlooked not only by Carter but also by the J Street crowd, and at least for now by the Obama administration:

What puts Carter’s goal of a two-state solution at risk is not settlements, but terrorism. It is terrorism that prevents Israel from leaving the West Bank entirely in Palestinian hands today, for Israelis learned a lesson after leaving Gaza and South Lebanon. A negotiated settlement is still possible, and it does not require a settlement freeze; instead it requires that Palestinian terrorists stop trying to kill Israelis, or that a Palestinian government be in place that is ready, willing, and able to prevent them from succeeding.

Perhaps Carter and Abrams can go on tour to continue their debate. It would be quite illuminating. And then J Street can explain to us that it’s just a “myth” that they harbor the same anti-Israel animus and disdain for facts as the ex-president.