Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
Palestine: Peace Not ApartheidAmazon.com Review
The crowning achievement of Jimmy Carters presidency was the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, and he has continued his public and private diplomacy ever since, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work for peace, human rights, and international development. He has been a tireless author since then as well, writing bestselling books on his childhood, his faith, and American history and politics, but in
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, he has returned to the Middle East and to the question of Israels peace with its neighbors--in particular, how Israeli sovereignty and security can coexist permanently and peacefully with Palestinian nationhood.
Its a rare honor to ask questions of a former president, and we are grateful that President Carter was able to take the time in between his work with his wife, Rosalynn, for the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity and his many writing projects to speak with us about his hopes for the region and his thoughts on the book.
A big thank you to President Carter for granting our request for an interview.
An Interview with President Jimmy Carter 
Q: What has been the importance of your own faith in your continued interest in peace in the Middle East?
A: As a Christian, I worship the Prince of Peace. One of my preeminent commitments has been to bring peace to the people who live in the Holy Land. I made my best efforts as president and still have this as a high priority.
Q: A common theme in your years of Middle East diplomacy has been that leaders on both sides have often been more open to discussion and change in private than in public. Do you think thats still the case?
A: Yes. This is why private and intense negotiations can be successful. More accurately, however, my premise has been that the general public (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) are more eager for peace than their political leaders. For instance, a recent poll done by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem showed that 58% of Israelis and 81% of the Palestinians favor a comprehensive settlement similar to the Roadmap for Peace or the Saudi proposal adopted by all 23 Arab nations and recently promoted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Tragically, there have been no substantive peace talks during the past six years.
Q: How have the war in Iraq and the increased strength of Iran (and the declarations of their leaders against Israel) changed the conditions of the Israel-Palestine question?
A: Other existing or threatened conflicts in the region greatly increase the importance of Israels having peace agreements with its neighbors, to minimize overall Arab animosity toward both Israel and the United States and reduce the threat of a broader conflict.
Q: Your use of the term "apartheid" has been a lightning rod in the response to your book. Could you explain your choice? Were you surprised by the reaction?
A: The book is about Palestine, the occupied territories, and not about Israel. Forced segregation in the West Bank and terrible oppression of the Palestinians create a situation accurately described by the word. I made it plain in the text that this abuse is not based on racism, but on the desire of a minority of Israelis to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land. This violates the basic humanitarian premises on which the nation of Israel was founded. My surprise is that most critics of the book have ignored the facts about Palestinian persecution and its proposals for future peace and resorted to personal attacks on the author. No one could visit the occupied territories and deny that the book is accurate.
Q: You write in the book that "the peace process does not have a life of its own it is not self-sustaining." What would you recommend that the next American president do to revive it?
A: I would not want to wait two more years. It is encouraging that President George W. Bush has announced that peace in the Holy Land will be a high priority for his administration during the next two years. On her January trip to the region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for early U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. She has recommended the 2002 offer of the Arab nations as a foundation for peace: full recognition of Israel based on a return to its internationally recognized borders. This offer is compatible with official U.S. Government policy, previous agreements approved by Israeli governments in 1978 and 1993, and with the International Quartets "roadmap for peace." My book proposes that, through negotiated land swaps, this "green line" border be modified to permit a substantial number of Israelis settlers to remain in Palestine. With strong U.S. pressure, backed by the U.N., Russia, and the European Community, Israelis and Palestinians would have to come to the negotiating table.
1/18/2007
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From Publishers WeeklyThe term "good-faith" is almost inappropriate when applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a bloody struggle interrupted every so often by negotiations that turn out to be anything but honest. Nonetheless, thirty years after his first trip to the Mideast, former President Jimmy Carter still has hope for a peaceful, comprehensive solution to the regions troubles, delivering this informed and readable chronicle as an offering to the cause. An engineer of the 1978 Camp David Accords and 2002 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Carter would seem to be a perfect emissary in the Middle East, an impartial and uniting diplomatic force in a fractured land. Not entirely so. Throughout his work, Carter assigns ultimate blame to Israel, arguing that the countrys leadership has routinely undermined the peace process through its obstinate, aggressive and illegal occupation of territories seized in 1967. Hes decidedly less critical of Arab leaders, accepting their concern for the Palestinian cause at face value, and including their anti-Israel rhetoric as a matter of course, without much in the way of counter-argument. Carters book provides a fine overview for those unfamiliar with the history of the conflict and lays out an internationally accepted blueprint for peace.
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Product Description
PRESIDENT CARTERS COURAGEOUS ASSESSMENT OF WHAT MUST BE DONE TO BRING PERMANENT PEACE TO ISRAEL WITH DIGNITY AND JUSTICE TO PALESTINE
Rate Points :4.0
Binding :Paperback
Label :Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer :Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup :Book
Studio :Simon & Schuster
Publisher :Simon & Schuster
EAN :9780743285032
Price :$15.00USD
Lowest Price :$3.93USD
Customer ReviewsLopsided struggle in the worlds anger cauldron Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0 Tireless peacemaker Jimmy Carter promised while running for president before 1976 to work for peace in the Middle East, and long after his presidency ended he has been consistently keeping his promise. By reaching out, by meeting with top leaders and players to this recurring Middle Eastern drama, by speaking with common people including Palestinians, by his steadfast and unwavering diplomatic efforts, and by writing this tough, fair, open-minded and heart wrenching book, he has demonstrated repeatedly his commitment to peace. He is a peacemaker extraordinaire.
That three continents join in a dangerous intersection practically guarantees conflict. Palestine is caught between two cradles of civilization -- the Nile and the Tigris/Euphrates regions -- has seen plenty of bloodshed throughout history, and will probably continue to do so as long as mankind roams the planet. Various groups have fought over this land since time immemorial. And today it is still a war cauldron, an "incubator of terrorism" as the former president writes, in which Israelis hunger for Arab land, and Palestinians hate Israelis. There are no easy solutions. Nevertheless, Jimmy Carter believes large swaths of both peoples hunger for peace, and he advocates a blueprint: (1) Israels right to exist must be acknowledged within recognized borders (he prefers the 1949-1967 border lines) (2) stop killing of noncombatants (3) Palestinians must live in peace and dignity in their own land. Jimmy Carter wants peace through international law, free speech, self-determination, equal treatment, freedom from military domination.
Jimmy Carter outlines the history of the conflict, even back to biblical times, but focuses on the last half century. He recounts meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, as well as with important players throughout the region.
His account is a strong indictment of US foreign policy which has been inconsistent, sometimes hypocritical, ineffective, and has aroused strong anger throughout the Arab region while achieving little benefit. He criticizes "...Washingtons strange policy that dialog on controversial issues is a privilege to be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and withheld from those who reject US demands". The Bush II administration practically abandoned a peace effort which Jimmy Carter clearly views as a mistake. He outlines the dispute in terms of numbers, major agreements, setbacks, and important events. Israel has two main factions -- a hardline, militant, expansionist group (Likud party), and a peace-loving, treaty-abiding, more affluent group (Labor party).
But the undeniable picture that emerges is a pattern of consistent bullying by Israelis. Its a lopsided struggle. Palestinians have few rights, are denied permits to travel and work, are treated collectively as terrorists, have scant access to Israeli lawyers or courts. Their homes are bulldozed, confiscated. Their fruit trucks are blocked at entry points for days until the cargo perishes. Their olive trees are cut down in droves, their water diverted, their schools & universities closed, their grounds covered in untreated sewage, their library books are censored. And the pattern is increased expansion of Israeli settlements and a consistent policy of harassment of Palestinians who are treated as foreigners in their own land.
A case could be made that Gaza, a small strip of Palestinian land on the Mediterranean, is the worlds largest prison, as reporter Bob Simon said recently. Per capita income in Gaza has declined 40% during the past three years 70% live in poverty workers are prevented from going to outside jobs police and teachers are deprived of salaries. Gaza is extremely crowded with over 3,700 people per square kilometer. The most recent Israeli hostility has been to build a huge, meandering wall in the West Bank which cuts off many Palestinians from each other the Palestinian town of Bethlehem is practically encircled. A UN court in July 2004 determined the wall was "illegal" but it is still being built under the pretext of keeping out suicide bombers. What will happen? "It is obvious that the Palestinians will be left with no territory to establish a viable state, but completely enclosed within the barrier and the occupied Jordan valley", he writes. It also cuts off 200,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem from their relatives. His word is apt: apartheid.
Coverage in US media tends to be highly skewed in favor of Israel. Most of the Israeli abuse goes under the radar, while the occasional Arab suicide bomber makes headlines. For example, in July 2006, Hamas militants captured an Israeli soldier, and the massive bombardment and re-invasion by Israels military was a lopsided response to this aggression. So most Americans who arent paying attention may easily conclude that the fighting in the Middle East is balanced, shrug their shoulders, and return to a state of cluelessness. He writes "...most American citizens are unaware of circumstances in the occupied territories". And America, indirectly, supports much of this atrocity by siding with Israel in international bodies such as the United Nations as well as providing aid.
As an American, I see Jimmy Carters book as confirmation that American democracy is broken, dysfunctional, distorted. That American foreign policy has been so unthinking over such a long time suggests that the flaw isnt with one or two errant administrations, but that the foreign policy architecture itself is flawed. I think the flaws are deep, systemic, structural. Americans are not really citizens anymore clearly, in this instance, Americans are not paying attention. The only political participation is voting for president (see Dana D. Nelsons excellent "Bad for Democracy"). Congress is corrupt over 90% of incumbents win re-election. And the federal system has broken down, since Washington has usurped the power of individual state governments to regulate their respective economies. The only solution, in my view, is to craft an alternative Constitution. So I have summoned over 100 of Americas brightest and most knowledgeable thinkers as well as persons with the power, celebrity, and media savvy to cause change, to Independence Hall in Philadelphia beginning July 4, 2009, to craft an alternative Constitution, based on the current one, to fix flaws including the foreign policy function, and for this document to be voted on by the public at a later date.
Jimmy Carter has shown time and again that he is one of the most enlightened, caring, and intelligent Americans, and I am inviting him to be a delegate to this Convention, and I hope he decides to attend. Last, I offer a solution to the problem of terrorism in my book (below) and challenge every thinker to debate the merits of my proposed, non-partisan strategy.
Thomas W. Sulcer
author of "Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism" (Amazon)
the real thing Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0 its just to tell you the real thing about how hard to have peace when the Israeli act this way
lies Rating Point :1 Helpful Point :0 Heres a classical example of how pure antisemitic views turn to history rewriting. Pure anti Israeli and anti Jewish propaganda. Too bad people believe these lies (if they really want to). Carter does not justifies his claims, nor does he give a realistic perspective of the Palestinian problem. Read Mike Evans, Joan Peters for a historical approach to the problem.
A brilliant mind offers a solution Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :1 What an incredible man. His vision needs to be looked at with great circumspection. He isnt prejudiced against any country. He offers
a solution,with compassion and heart,but also with practicality.
Excellent book.
HOW SHOULD A PRESIDENT THINK Rating Point :2 Helpful Point :0 I have no particular opinion on the situation in the Middle East. I read this book several times. It is highly disturbing to me: Not because of any favoritism toward any group in the region, but because he states and evidently believes whole-heartedly that human actions can impact natural law.
The notion that any action of any sort by any president can be based at all on the notion that the economy of the universe is going to be altered is frightening. Having Alexander I Czar of Russia with all sorts of mystical notions does not endanger the survival of mankind. Having a president of the US with such a notion and the control of the H-Bomb does.
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