Seeming

I don't think that was "seeming."

Mr. Carter’s freelance diplomacy, which at times included outspoken criticism of U.S. policies, could provoke outrage. He angered Clinton in 1994 by thrusting himself into a dispute over U.N. inspections of North Korea’s nuclear facilities. In his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” (2006), Mr. Carter set off a storm of criticism by seeming to equate Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with the former apartheid regime in South Africa.

It is ommon (and maybe even somewhat appropriate) to downplay the negative actions of prominent public figure in their obituaries, but we can be a bit amused that this is the bad thing they are choosing to downplay.