We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jimmy Carter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1439140634 | ISBN-13: 978-1439140635 | Publication Date: January 20, 2009

President Carter has been a student of the biblical Holy Land all his life. For the last three decades, as president of the United States and as founder of The Carter Center, he has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region's conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them. He knows the leaders of all factions in the region who will need to play key roles, and he sees encouraging signs among them. Carter describes the history of previous peace efforts and why they fell short. He argues persuasively that the road to a peace agreement is now open and that it has broad international and regional support. Most of all, since there will be no progress without courageous and sustained U.S. leadership, he says the time for progress is now. President Barack Obama is committed to a personal effort to exert that leadership, starting early in his administration. This is President Carter's call for action, and he lays out a practical and doable path to peace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The former president's audio edition of his latest title has an enhanced CD featuring downloadable, helpful maps and relevant historical documents. The maps, in particular, add valuable context and demonstrate the volatile overlapping of cultures and faiths in a relatively small sliver of land. As an added bonus, the package also contains a sample CD from Bringing Peace to a Changing World, the third volume in Carter's acclaimed Sunday Mornings in Plains Bible study series. Perhaps comparing a straightup audio book adaptation with recordings of Carter in a dynamic and spontaneous teaching environment is unfair, but listeners will notice the stark contrast between Carter's competent but stilted delivery in We Can Have Peace and the animated and engaging speaking style of Sunday Mornings in Plains. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (reviewed online). (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Carter is illuminating and inspiring in this knowledgeable insider’s history.”

—Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439140634
• ISBN-13: 978-1439140635
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Law > International Law > International Disputes
  • #36 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( C ) > Carter, Jimmy

More About the Author

Jimmy Carter was born in Plains, Georgia, and served as thirty-ninth President of the United States. He and his wife, Rosalynn, founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization that prevents and resolves conflicts, enhances freedom and democracy, and improves health around the world. He is the author of numerous books, including Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, An Hour Before Daylight and Our Endangered Values. He received a "Best Spoken Word" Grammy Award for his recording of Our Endangered Values. All of President Carter's proceeds from this series will go to the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains, Georgia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A non-partisan review of this book., February 17, 2009

By 

Cory Geurts (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (Hardcover)

Too many of the reviews here are politically motivated. My goal here is to step back and write an objective review about the book only, politics aside.

This book is genuine, intelligently written, and has a well-thought out premise backed by Jimmy Carter's decades of experience working with key leaders on all sides of the Middle-East peace process. The political tide in the United States has turned, and the timing of this book is no mistake: Carter is hoping take advantage of the change to encourage another attempt of peace in the Holy Land.

The main body of the text provides a relevant history of peace efforts in the Middle-East. I found this review to be quite helpful. It reads much easier and more interesting than "The Blood of Abraham," Carter's 1985 detailed history of the various groups involved in the Middle-East. The reason I rated this book as 4 stars instead of 5 is because there really isn't a lot of new information or ideas for those who are well-read on Carter. But I can still highly recommend this book since most people out there haven't read lots of Carter.

Carter recounts the trial-and-error Camp David negotiation process that he used as President in 1978. He reminds us of the bickering and accusations made by both sides, but also the compromises they were ultimately able to agree upon. Carter's role was to lay down and enforce some rules, be willing to ad lib, be determined, and to act as friend and intermediary to both sides.

Carter is not getting any younger, and I think the take-home message is clear. This is an urgent issue that still requires a lot of hard work. Too many lives are being lost everyday on all sides. The Camp David Accords, the Oslo Accords, and other agreements were ground-breaking in their day, but time marches on. It's up to our generation and our country to go to work and use our influence in the pursuit of peace. The process will be difficult and may seem impossible at times. With this book, Carter urges us to try.

84 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Plain Old Truth Hurts, February 13, 2009

By 

M. Himed (Oakland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (Hardcover)

I have never seen so many 1 star reviews for a book. People are giving us their opinion of Jimmy Carter and publishing it as a review and many of them are one sentence reviews. Then we have Michael Evans who wrote his review to promote his own book. Michael has praised Sean Hanitty and Bill Orielly with 5 star reviews for their books and he was friends with Menachem Begin who is quoted in the book as the "most notorious terrorist in the region." Begin is the former leader of the Irgun terrorist group which killed many innocent civilians and bombed the King David Hotel which involved the murder of dozens of people. If bombing a hotel does not qualify someone as a terrorist, regardless of what they did afterwards, than I would like Mr. Evans or anyone to explain why.

Michael asks the question; "Could it be that Jimmy Carter's ideals are formulated by the number of zeros before the decimal on the contributions to the Carter Center by oil-rich Gulf States?" I counter this by asking; Could it be that Jimmy Carter is actually telling the truth and giving us the facts which are hard to swallow?

People condemn Carter for being too critical of Israel and not blaming the Palestinians enough. Only two months after taking office back in 1976, Carter said in answer to reporters question that Israel needs to be "recognized by the Palestinians" and the desire to destroy Israel must change. He says in the book that "the same answer can be given today."
He starts the book off by telling us his early fascination of the Middle East region as a kid and then gives us a brief overview of all the death and destruction that Israel and her neighbors have done to each other. The next chapter includes the awful truth of the illegal settlements and how every President since Lyndon B. Johnson has considered the settlements in the occupied territory to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

The settlements are the main issue that has blocked peace efforts and in chapter 11, Carter explains to us the insanity of the Israeli government in regards to this issue. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once said while she was in Jerusalem that she was "very concerned" about the continual building of settlements at a time when we are trying to "build confidence." The response by Israel was to build 1300 new homes in the West Bank and projected 40,000 more during the next decade." Israel has metaphorically given the middle finger to President Bush and every U.S. president of the last 30 years who has ever tried to stop the building of settlements on Palestinian land. This is the root of the conflict.

In chapter 12, Carter talks about the frightening scenario of the Palestinians being absorbed into Israel in a one state solution. Prime Minister Ehud Olemert is quoted twice in interviews with Jewish newspapers Yediot Aharanot and the Haaretz as having said that if Palestinians ever demand the right to vote as citizens of Israel, "we will lose everything." He also said if a two state solution does not work, we will "face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights." You can find this all on page 164.

He ends the book by saying the blood of Abraham continues to run through the veins of Jews, Christians, and Arabs and "too much of it has been spilled" in the holy land. He shows a poll which has the majority of Israel wanting peace, but he says that it is the minority conservative leaders in Israel that have done everything to avoid peace and these leaders and have been backed by powerful American Jewish organizations such as AIPAC. Please read the Israel Lobby for more on this.

The final solutions that Mr. Carter suggests are summed up as: A demilitarized Palestinian state, a withdrawal of all settlers from the West Bank except from Jerusalem (which should be a capital of both states), the right of the Palestinians to return to the West Bank and Gaza, an international peacekeeping force at the borders, and a commitment from both states to recognize their right to live side by side. These resolutions are reasonable and fair, but the removal of all settlers from the West Bank is something that is difficult to imagine considering the stubbornness of the Israeli government and the unwillingness of the U.S. government to have a backbone. Only time will tell if President Obama may finally be the man to say to Israel; remove the settlements, or else.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pragmatic Approach to a Complicated Issue, June 9, 2009

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To Be Simple - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

First off, anyone who says Jimmy Carter is an extremist for either Israelis or Palestinians is just plain wrong. In light of the current situation and Carter's stance on that situation it is fairly obvious to an objective observer that Carter is a moderate.

"We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land," by Jimmy Carter is a relatively short book that brings the reader up to speed on the history of events in the Holy and, then proposes a solution that requires give and take from both sides. Carter has studied and directly dealt with this region for several decades now as both President of the United States and through the Carter Center. He has a profound understanding of both the Israeli and Palestinian views.

Something I particularly like about this book is that, unlike some other books on this tricky issue, it filters out much of the propaganda spewed out from both sides, a lot of times in the popular media. Carter deals in the facts of the situation, as opposed to the machinations of folks on both sides who have an unworkable agenda.

While I learned a certain amount from this book, and recommend it to people with an interest in the region, I feel that Carter goes a bit far in patting himself on the back throughout the book. He certainly has done a lot of work in the region and definitely knows his stuff, so there is no need to do so much patting of oneself on the back. All in all, though, it does not detract significantly from Carter's core message and plan.