Jimmy Carter Book:palestine Peace Not Apartheid/traitor Dual Ziojews Attack

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Will Other Democrats Listen to Carter on Palestine?

Jimmy Carter and the "A" Word

 

 

President Jimmy Carter's latest book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon and Schuster 2006), released yesterday, has been primed for controversy. Weeks before it hit the bookshelves, election-hungry Democrats were disavowing it because it used the word "apartheid" to describe the discrimination against Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. House Representative and soon-to-be Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote: "It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously." But does the President's book really warrant the swift condemnation leveled against it by his own party?

 

To put the name "apartheid" to Israeli policies is nothing new. Hendrik Verwoerd, South African Prime Minister and architect of apartheid did so in 1961. Israeli academic Uri Davis made the claim in 1987, as did Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu in 1989 and again in 2002. What makes Jimmy Carter unique is that he is the first U.S. President to make that comparison. Unlike the others, Carter's description is carefully qualified. He writes: "The driving purpose of the separation of the two peoples is unlike that in South Africa not racism but the acquisition of land" (189-190). What's more, Carter's assessment of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians contradicts the observations he catalogues in his own text. He writes that "There has been a determined and remarkably effective effort to isolate settlers from Palestinians, so that a Jewish family can commute from Jerusalem to their highly subsidized home deep in the West Bank on roads from which others are excluded, without ever coming in contact with any facet of Arab life" (190).

 

In his failed effort not to offend, Carter overlooks several critical aspects of Israeli policy. Since its inception, Israel has striven to establish a strong Jewish majority within the state, treating the ratio of Jews to non-Jews as a national security issue. Numerous Israeli policies from the expulsion of three quarters of a million Palestinians in Israel's founding years to the route of Israel's current "security barrier" are designed to preserve Jewish demographic predominance. Palestinians citizens of the state of Israel face a catalogue of over 20 discriminatory laws, based solely on their identity as non-Jewish citizens, including the Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, but denies that same right to native Palestinians.

 

Carter's book eloquently describes the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and it is here that Israel exhibits its strongest parallels to apartheid. He writes about the extensive road system that crisscrosses the West Bank but which Palestinians are forbidden to use. Palestinians in the West Bank often require permission simply to travel from one village to the next, and pass through numerous Israeli military checkpoints, reminiscent of South Africa's infamous "pass system" which controlled the movement of blacks. Carter also levels a strong criticism against "the wall," which secures Israel's control of confiscated Palestinian lands and separates Palestinian communities from each other. He quotes Father Claudio Ghiraldi, the priest of the Santa Marta Monastery in Bethany: "Countering Israeli arguments that the wall is to keep Palestinian suicide bombers from Israel, Father Claudio adds...'The Wall is not separating Palestinians from Jews; rather Palestinians from Palestinians'" (194).

 

Faced with such overwhelming evidence, it is difficult to imagine how the label of apartheid has not been used more frequently to describe Israeli policies, and without any qualifications. But Jimmy Carter, though he remains the elder statesman of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East, writes within the narrow confines of the American policy tradition in the region, a tradition that has, for decades, favored virtually unconditional financial, military, diplomatic and emotional support for Israel.

 

Carter falls short of a full critique of Israel's treatment of non-Jews under its rule, but his book challenges Americans to see the conflict with eyes wide open. He places the blame on "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land" as "the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land" and he places equal blame on the United States for "the condoning of illegal Israeli actions from a submissive White House and U.S. Congress in recent years."

 

Americans can only hope that the newly elected Congress, led by Ms. Pelosi and her fellow Democrats, will read beyond that title page and that one day, they too, will see the writing on the wall.

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New Book: "PALESTINE PEACE NOT APARTHEID", by Jimmy Carter, Simon and Schuster

 

 

 

Carter's book is a must-read

 

He brings experience to his summary of Mideast problems

 

By Dennis Lythgoe

Deseret Morning News

 

 

When Jimmy Carter became the 39th president of the United States in 1976, he had served one term as governor of Georgia and had been a naval officer and a peanut farmer. His presidency was difficult, complicated by the Iranian hostage crisis

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Board

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Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid...Jimmy Carter In His Own Words

 

 

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is accusing Israel of creating an apartheid system in the West Bank and Gaza. The charge comes in his new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." We play an address by Carter talking about the Palestine-Israel conflict, the role of the United States and much more. Carter says, "Palestinians are deprived of basic human rights, their land has been occupied, then confiscated, then colonized by the Israeli settlers." [includes rush transcript]

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is accusing Israel of creating an apartheid system in the West Bank and Gaza. The charge comes in his new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been deeply involved in Middle East policies for the past three decades. As president he negotiated the Camp David Accords - which secured a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt.

 

In his new book, Jimmy Carter writes, "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land."

 

Carter criticizes Israel for building what he describes as an imprisonment wall through the West Bank. He accuses Israel of strangling the residents of Gaza where the poverty rate has reached 70 percent and where the malnutrition rate mirrors countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. And Carter is critical of Washington's role. He writes, "The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories."

 

Some of the most vocal critics of Carter's book have been fellow Democrats. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously."

 

John Conyers, the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, urged Carter to change the title of the book, which he described as "offensive and wrong."

 

Meanwhile, the nation's newspapers have largely ignored Jimmy Carter's book since its publication two weeks ago. The book hasn't even been mentioned in the news pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe or Los Angeles Times.

 

Today on Democracy Now we are going to hear Jimmy Carter in his own words. On Tuesday night he discussed his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" at an event in Virginia.

 

 

Jimmy Carter, former U.S. President, speaking November 28th, 2006.

 

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RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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AMY GOODMAN: Today on Democracy Now!, we

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JIMMY CARTER: Although a clear majority of Israelis are persistently willing to accept terms that are tolerable to most of their Arab neighbors, it is clear that none of the options is attractive for all of the Israelis. And these are the three options. First one has been discussed quite extensively and most persistently by the present prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, who presented this thesis quite early in his career as a young member of the Israeli parliament -- he's now the prime minister -- a forceful annexation of Palestine and its legal absorption into Israel, which would give large numbers of non-Jewish citizens the right to vote and live as equals under the law. So, a large sectarian nation involving both Israelis and Palestinians is this option.

 

This would directly violate international standards and the Camp David Accords, which are the basis for peace with Egypt. At the same time, non-Jewish citizens would immediately make up a powerful swing vote if other Israelis were divided. In other words, if Israelis, who now have a majority, were divided 60-40 or 50-50, as you could see, then if the Palestinians voted as a bloc, they would prevail in establishing the basic policies of Israel, if other Israelis were divided.

 

It would also maybe constitute an outright majority in the new greater Israel. This is because of demographic trends. The Palestinians have a much higher birthrate than do the Israelis, the Israeli Jews. In fact, in Gaza, which I describe, the Palestinian birthrate is 4.7% annually, which is the highest in the world. And that means that in Gaza at this time, half their citizens are 15 years old or less. Israel would be further isolated and condemned by the international community. So I think within 20 years or less, in a combined Israel and Palestinian land, the Arabs would actually have a majority, more than the Jews.

 

Second, a system of apartheid -- this is, remember, in Palestine -- with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. This is a policy now being followed, although many citizens of Israel deride the racist connotation, which I certainly don

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AMY GOODMAN: Afterward President Jimmy Carter spoke on Tuesday about his book, Palestine: Apartheid Not Peace [sic], he took questions from the audience. He was asked to outline what a balanced US-Middle East policy would look like. Again, his book is called Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

 

JIMMY CARTER: Yeah, the word

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JIMMY CARTER: The whole title, I wanted to provoke discussion, debate, inquisitive analysis of the situation there, which is almost completely absent throughout the United States, but it's prevalent every day in Israel and in Europe. This is needed, I think, for our country to understand what's going on in the West Bank.

 

And I chose this title very carefully. It's Palestine, first of all. This is the Palestinians' territory, not Israel.

 

Secondly, the emphasis is on peace.

 

And the third thing is not apartheid. I don't want to see apartheid. And since now the entire peace process is completely dormant, there hasn't been one day for good faith substantive negotiations in the last six years to bring peace to Israel, I wanted to rejuvenate this process

 

JIMMY CARTER: Well, a sign of progress -- to talk to one side and then talk to the other is very nice. But I'm talking about there hasn't been a day of negotiation orchestrated or promoted by the United States between Israel and the Palestinians in six years.

 

And for all practical purposes, it is dormant. I don't mean that the United States has not visited Israel; I don't mean that the secretary of state hasn't talked to the Israelis and the Palestinians.

 

And let me get to the word "apartheid." Apartheid doesn't apply at all, as I made plain in my book, anything that relates to Israel to the nation. It doesn't imply anything as it relates to racism. This apartheid, which is prevalent throughout the occupied territories, the subjection of the Palestinians to horrible abuse, is caused by a minority of Israelis -- we're not talking about racism, but talking about their desire to acquire, to occupy, to confiscate, and then to colonize Palestinian land.

 

So the whole system is designed to separate through a ferocious system Israelis who live on Palestine territory and Palestinians who want to live on their own territory.

 

JIMMY CARTER: Sure, that's what you say, and that's the general consensus in the United States. The fact is that, when the Palestinians dug under the Israeli wall from Gaza and captured the Israeli soldier, one soldier, at that time, Israel was holding 9,200 Palestinians prisoner, including 300 children, almost 300, 293 children, some of them 12 years old, and holding almost 100 women prisoner.

 

And immediately, the Palestinians who took that soldier said, "We want to swap this soldier for some of our women and children." And the Israelis rejected that proposal and refused to swap at all with the Palestinians in the West Bank. That was the key to the issue.

 

So it's right that the Palestinians took a soldier, which they should release. But for Israel to keep 9,000 Palestinians and not release any of them is something that you don't mention in the question, and it's generally not even known in this country.

 

 

JIMMY CARTER: Well, we were there -- the Carter Center was there, and we monitored the election in January when Hamas did win a victory. They won 42 percent of the vote. It was an open, free, fair, safe election, as certified by the Carter Center, and National Democratic Institute, and the European Union observers. Nobody questioned the integrity of it.

 

That was an expression of will by the Palestinian people on whom they wanted to serve in their parliament. Well, at that time, I thought that this would be a matter of a unity government. But immediately, the United States and Israel said, "We will not accept a government that has Hamas leaders in it."

 

And so, as a result of that, all financial aid to the entire population of Palestine was cut off just because they expressed their will in a free vote. And as a matter of fact, Hamas, whom everyone criticizes -- the fact is that Hamas, since August of 2004, has not committed a single act of terrorism that cost an Israeli life, not a single one.

 

JIMMY CARTER: The day after the election, I went and met with Mahmoud Abbas, who is the leader of the Palestinians. He's their president. He's the head of the PLO, which is the only organization, by the way, that the United States or Israel recognizes, the PLO, in which there's not a single Hamas member. Hamas has nothing to do with the PLO.

 

And after I met with Abbas to talk about a unity government, which he rejected, then I met with a Hamas leader. He's a medical doctor who was elected. He's now in prison, by the way. But he said -- when I insisted that they recognize Israel, he said, "Mr. President, which Israel are you talking about? Are you talking about the Israel that's occupying our land? Are you talking about the Israel that has built a wall around our people? Are you talking about an Israel that deprives us of basic human rights to move from one place to another in our own land?" He said, "We can't recognize that Israel."

 

But later, the prime minister of the Hamas government, Haniyeh, said, "We are strongly in favor of direct talks between Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the PLO and the head of the government, and the prime minister of Israel, Olmert." And he said, "If they reach an agreement in their discussions that's acceptable to the Palestinian people, we will accept it, also. Hamas will."

 

Those things are not even known in this country; they're a matter of record.

 

JIMMY CARTER: There is no way to separate the two. President Bush is over there now trying to harness supporters among the moderate Arabs. He just was in Jordan, and in Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and others that I need not name right now.

 

To get them to support us enthusiastically in Iraq means that he's going to have to alleviate their deep concern and their animosity -- with less than 5 percent of Jordanians and Egyptians looking with favor on our government -- because the main obstacle for their full support of the United States now in Iraq and other places is because we have not shown any interest for the last six years in alleviating the horrible plight of the Palestinians.

 

We've made no effort in the last six years to bring peace to Israel or to their adjacent neighbors, the Palestinians.

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I'm astonished at how thoroughly brainwashed most Americans are by AIPAC and the mass media. Israel is a terrorist nation . The US has simply chosen a side in the conflict. The land that Israel now sits upon was stolen from the Palestinians . We pour billions of dollars into Israel, sell them state-of-the-art weapons, and defend every act of brutal violence they choose to perpetrate in the UN. And Americans wonder why the entire Islamic world hates us? Israel could not exist without outside support and are the world's greatest welfare state. Israel's problems are Israel's problems and we, as Americans, shouldn't be involved in their multi-millenia blood feud . I applaud President Carter for bringing these facts to light and, hopefully, helping Americans open their eyes to Israeli brutality.

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Here is the reality of the situation. almost all news media in the united states its controlled or owned by jewish american citizens. If anyone really wants to get to the bottom line of this problem it starts there. The fact of the matter is that every major news organization which shows you whats happening in the middle east is owned or controlled almost completly by jewish american citizens. across the world it is very well known the facts about what is REALLY going on. in the U.S if anyone dares to critize israel he is declared a anti-semite and his opinion and character is destroyed by media and anyone afraid of the same. Now im sure the same will be said about jimmy carter. they will say he is a anti semite and give no real debate to his book and views 1on any major news station in the U.S. the reason i saw this blog or whatever u want to call it is because i just saw on CNN what they had to say about the book, they gave it 30 secs of coverage and talked about a map he used in the book which they say was copied from another book, it had absolutly nothing to do with the material of the book. as im writing this right now about to see something about the book on cnn's wolf blitzer show, by the way if anyone wants to look it up you will see that the vast majority of news anchors or people that give there opinion on cnn are mostly jewish americans, talk about unbiased news huh? two guys named kenneth stein and dennis ross both came on the show to talk about there views of the book. Im very surprised to see after looking them up they are both jewish and so is wolf blitzer by the way.(note the sarcasm) Here is the bottom line untill the influences of the israel lobby or AIPAC can be stopped or untill the media that covers the situation, that includes all t.v news newspapers print and many various methods of spreading propaganda is no longer controlled by jewish americans you will never hear unbiased and fair news, it will always favor israel. I CHALLENGE ANYONE READING THIS TO REALLY LOOK INTO THE ISSUES OF WHO OWNS THE MEDIA AND THE INFLUENCES OF PRO ISRAELI LOBYISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. As long as the U.S and its presidents and congress are blindly is controlled by rich jewish americans who control the media therefore what is news to americans and the cash flow that fund political campaigns there will never be a end to this problem.

[hugo]

Jimmy Carter is a dumbass.

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Jimmy Carter... what can I say... smart man, but not a good leader...

[Phantom]

Jimmy Carter takes it up the ass... and likes it.

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Jimmy Carter takes it up the ass... and likes it.

ROFLMAO!

 

He's a Colon-Commando!

[Kryptonite Man]

ROFLMAO!

 

He's a Colon-Commando!

Kinda like Tomaust, eh?