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Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

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The constant attempts to denigrate Carter's Presidency (as though the long lines at that shrine to American privilege, the gas pump, and our foreign presence preceding the Iranian hostage crisis were of the President's making and, moreover, of greater consequence than the Iraq debacle) are belied once again by this uncommon man's common sense and clarity of vision, which is mirrored by the measured lucidity of his prose. Someone had to write this book, and better it be Carter, with his personal, and largely effective, negotiations with the principal players in the desperate power struggles of the middle East, than anyone else.

Carter's staunch opposition to the invasion of Iraq is a matter he no longer talked about once the "mission" became reality. His efforts are directed toward future solutions, not righteous reminders of the past or self-justifications, lest he risk mirroring the very narrow, self-serving interests he seeks to confront and redress through proposals based on negotiated peace, mutual respect, shared rights and, above all, on genuine human and religious (including Judeo-Christian) values.

The negative reactions to the book, I'm afraid, prove its importance. Many Americans remained "passively" approving of the Iraq war--despite not just its blatant imperialist aggressiveness but its sheer irrationality and absurdity--because of the perception that somehow America's "holy war," with its pageantry of "shock and awe," was in the interests of Israel. Although Carter's warnings, criticisms, and prescriptions in "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" require as much of the Palestinians as the Israelis, the criticisms he has received come from narrow, defensive Americans who are incapable of rising to anything resembling an impartial, broad-based understanding of the "human community"--of the "family of man," as it was once called.

This is not a particularly hard-hitting account (its author is, after all, an ingenuous man of peace and good will). So the mean-spirited "hits" the book has been taking should in themselves be seen as a wake-up call--not just to Israelis and Palestinians but to Americans of every religion, ethnicity, class, and political stripe. If we "can't get along together," and if we can't model for the world a tradition-blind, color-blind melting pot instead of viewing that metallic vessel as a grenade, we can hardly pretend to be surprised the next time it blows up in our faces.

For a people that have experienced so much persecution, it seems improper to criticize Israel's actions. Jimmy Carter has highlighted uncomfortable issues for American Jews (I am also one) to address. It was an important step forward that a well respected personality such as Carter wrote this book. Israel's 'realpolitik' towards the Palestinians is morally unsupportable. Terror has many tactics; it can come from government policies & tanks as well as suicide bombers.
My view is that it is time for American Jews to take the 'blue' pill, wake up and see the reality as it is, not what they wanted or were told it is. It's not a comfortable process to put into question assumptions that were taught since childhood. But blind devotion to a state is dangerous.
As we have seen with the Iraq war, a hard-right government can do things that its people realize is wrong. As is happening now in the US, we need to speak out in favor of a dramatic new course for Israel that may improve the chances for peace. It is high time that American Jews stop giving Israel (their hard-right gov't) a blank check of support irrespective of their actions and begin to treat Israel as the separate state that it is. The extreme right is the enemy of all peace loving people.

I have just finished Jimmy's Carter's new book Palestine, Peace not Apartheid. It documents the truth about the Israeli expropriation of Palestine and brutalization of the Palestinian people. This is not new to anyone who has been paying attention and has the moral consciousness to care. What is unique about this book is its perspective. The story is told from the personal and naive view of a devote Christian, who has witnessed first hand the events and been a part of them. All the same facts are there, confiscations, jailing, group punishment, economic strangulation, systematic colonization, extraordinary PR, expulsions, killing, land theft, water theft, religious fanaticism, gradual take over of the whole country, etc., but the tone leaves the conclusions implicit, though inescapable. So if you want a measured gentle view of the theft of a country and expulsion of its people, this is your book.

Of course, the pro-Israel Lobby will not agree, as is evident from some of the other reviews.

For most Americans, this book will be one of the following: 1) a disappointment because it's not pro-Israel, 2) a good thing because it's not automatically pro-Israel, or 3) a surprise because it's different from accepted American conventional wisdom.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter is a worthwhile read, especially for Americans who are largely ignorant (by design) of the plight of the Palestinians. Except for the USA and Israel, just about every country in the world has some compassion for these displaced people. The truth is, Israel is not completely benevolent and has made (and is making) some atrocious mistakes, especially with regard to its treatment of the previous inhabitants of the land that is now called Israel. This book gives a decent overview and is a good introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but further reading is encouraged if this subject really interests you.

Note that this book is a mostly balanced account of the conflict - it's not pro-Israel (nor is it anti-Israel) - and so many Americans are making the standard accusations: it's anti-Semitic; Palestinians don't, and never have, existed; all Muslims/Arabs are terrorists and cannot be trusted; Palestinians have had their chance and passed; and so on. The same accusations are dusted off and re-released every time someone is even remotely critical of or questions Israel and/or its policies. Do yourself a favor and learn another side to the story.

Apartheid: the second definition in my online dictionary is "segregation in other contexts [other than racial] : sexual apartheid." There is no doubt that the word apartheid can be and is correctly used as a segregation between Israelis and Palestinians within the Palestiniean territory (land occuppied and inhabited by Israel) as defined by the United Nations. This apartheid is formally established by a physical wall extending into Palestinian Territory.

President Carter is not talking about apartheid within the recognized (UN defined) territory of Israel but rather the apartheid that Israel has established by dividing Palestinian territory (UN defined) which he describes as Palestine into land for Israelis and land for Palestinians divided by a wall of apartheid based on a distiction between Israelis (in settlements)/Palestinians. When discussing language and semantics, one should be objective and actually acknowledge the definition as used by the author rather than interpret a word in a way other than as the author used it.

Please read this important book understanding what is actually meant by President Carter rather than the unfair and inaccurate description by those other than the author. (I will add that I spent over 20 years working in fields directly related to the interpretation of language and semantics in the development of international standards within the ISO. However, I've never learned to spell nor use proper sentence construction so please excuse any errors in these areas. Thanks.) READ THIS BOOK! Without addressing this aparheid as described by President Carter, there cannot be peace in the Middle East. U.S. Citezens need to discuss this issue because the discussion has not yet taken place and President Carter is asking us to have this discussion now.

President Jimmy Carter does not have a malicious bone in his body, and is one of the most intelligent Presidents we have ever had. His scholarship is NOT off the mark. What is off the mark is the dogmatic refusal of Zionist Jews to listen to reason.

See my reviews of Fog Facts : Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin (Nation Books) and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' for a sense of just how crazy all these people are that are claiming anti-semitism. I have nothing but disdain for the Jews that resigned, for they are disgracing themselves and America by showing so vividly their monstrous disrespect for the truth, for dialog, and for one of the finest Presidents this Nation has ever had (I say this as an estranged moderate Republican).

Reality is not easy. Reality is constantly obscured by corporate media owned by the corporations whose mis-deeds they dare not report, and whose relations with the 45 dictators of the world are beyond cozy--they are self-serving partnerships to loot the commonwealth of nations and leave all publics, not just the Palestinians, in the dirt. See Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025

Reality is also obscured by a US Congress that now has 43 Jews and only 1 Muslim, a Congress that until very recently abdicated its role as the FIRST branch of government and failed to balance the powers of an imperial presidency run amok (see my reviews of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy) and Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. America must be very alert to the dual hijacking of its government by corporations and by Zionist Jews who forget that they used terrorism to win their freedom from England, just as our American founders used terrorism to win the War of Independence.

Terrorism is a tactic. Anyone that does not understand that is either stupid (less likely) or maliciously deceptive (more likely).

It is my rare privilege to be the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction (#48 over-all), and it is on that foundation that I stand today in praise of Jimmy Carter, and in demand of the immediate resignation of Dick Cheney, or his impeachment (see my list on books relevant to evaluating Dick Cheney, and on impeachment for those who cannot wait).

Reality is tough. Lying to ourselves is as good as bullet in our heads. See my varied lists for the reality that is the context for this good book by a good man.

Note: the Arabs are just as despicable as the Jews, for they have treated the Palestinians the way India and Japan treat their untouchables. Nothing in this book, or in my review, should be contrued as forgiving of the Arabs. It is my personal view that the US should disengage from the Middle East and also withhold our support to Israel until such time as it will listen to Jimmy Carter's sound advice, and agree to a shared state without walls--partition, as with India and Pakistan, breeds on-going violence. It is only tolerance and a common commitment to creating shared wealth that works. The Saudi ruling royalty are EVIL. See See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism and Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude. For a more elegant view, see Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) had it right: Palestine is to the Palestinians as France is to the French. Contrary to the dogma and lies that the rabid Jews (as opposed to rational Jews taking the long view) spread, the land *was* occupied by the Palestinians, and the Jews are genociding them the way the early American settlers genocides the Native Americans. No one has clean hands here, but it helps no one at all to demean an honest author and good man, and to falsely claim that this book is anti-semitic. This book is anti-stupid, and I am anti-stupid.

Carter reviews the Iraelis/Palestinian problem with an honest viewpoint. Unfortunately, this is viewed as anti-Israeli because in the United States we haves such an skewed view due to our media treatment of the subject. Read this book to get the facts and to see the maps, which highlight the crux of the problem.

Carter has broken the sound barrier in this country by being the first President in recent US history to challenge AIPAC and its cronies, including a congress beholden to the Israeli lobby. This lobby has successfully silenced a fair and balanced debate and resolution to this tragedy in which many Palestinian and Israeli deaths have needlessly occurred. Since 1948, Palestinians have been dying a slow death from the Israeli conquest and ethnic cleansing campaign. Since 1967, this campaign has been moving forward into the last remaining vestibules of Palestinian territories know as the West Bank and Gaza, comprising only 22% of what was once Palestine, occupied by Palestinians for over one thousand years. The Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories is simply put, an apartheid like policy, only worse, since the final goal is to ethnically remove all the Palestinians and create a pure Jewish only state (hmmm, sound familiar? A "Finial Solution", Israeli style)!

Thank god that Carter has defied the Israeli lobby and dared speak out in defense of the Palestinians...hopefully it's not too late before the ethnic cleansing campaign has succeeded.

I know very well the terrain Jimmy Carter explores. Few Americans, Jewish or not, understand that there IS apartheid, ever more so, in Palestine from Israel.

Now I love living in Israel which I do half of every year. But I also know the Palestinians and that the American Congress cannot wrap their minds around the fact that we Jews do not have blinders on, that it is not moral to see "Israel, right or wrong" nor to look for anti-semitism everywhere, it's nuts.

Jimmy Carter is now going to be victim of Jewish fears. Jewish FEARS? We have had 60 years of Israel, a brilliant idea, with increasingly insane execution , and no one in our congress is ever going to budge on playing to Jewish voters by being pro-Israel. But many Jewish voters know this is wrong headed. We Jews are of many sensibilities, only the right wing has the money to howl against truth.

Pro-Israel is a misnomer. I'm pro-Israel. David Grossman who lost his 20 year old son Uri in last summer's Lebanon war is pro-Israel. Amos Oz is pro-Israel. Peace Now is pro-Israel. The Other Israel, a magazine, is pro-Israel. And on and on. We Jews are famously not of one sensibility. Most of the Jewish voters I know agree with Jimmy Carter both here and in Israel. Every Ha'aretz journalist who is also an Arabist (Danny Rubenstein, Amira Hass, Gidion Levy) are pro-Israel.) What we all have in common is a revulsion about Israel's actions, and Palestinian suffering which ensures Israeli suffering too.

So, Jewish readers, get with the program: We are not a nation to be proud of. We need peace even more than the Palestinians because we in Israel are suffering too, from deviating from Jewish morality. From living in crazy fear, when peace is surely attainable. Give the Palestinians their due. Don't drive them crazy.

As a Jewish woman, I know Jews look for anti-semitism everywhere and hate the Palestinians. This is due to propandga, fear of the Other, centuries of persecution, the Shoah.

And yet, we who are Jewish have enjoyed great joys in the last 60 years: The birth of Israel, non-descrimination, wealth of talent and wealth itself. Sure there will always be anti-semites but wake up: We are lucky and playing victim vis a vis Palestine is absurd. It is worse than absurd it is very very dangerous. Progressive Jews, where are you? Read Tikkun. Read Uri Avnery. Read The Other Israel. Do not have knee jerk reactions to the truth because if we don't have peace we won't, Israel won't, exist in 20 years. Choose Life, aka: Dialogue not F16's.

Last, aren't we the ones the Bible enjoins to "greet the stranger among you."?! And look at who we Israelis have become, rednecks. That is not Jewish. Read Martin Buber. Face facts as Jimmy Carter has. Stop lying to yourselves and stop giving money to the Likud. You know not what hate you are sowing. You know not what is the truth on the ground in Israel. Give up the ghost. The Holocaust happened alright, I was born into it. But the Jewish Holocaust is over, no one who hides behind to maintain victim status it is being fair to our current possible welcoming into the human community. We are playing with fire if we don't begin to learn what is true. Jimmy Carter knows.

It's funny how when a promising leader starts siding with the Palestinians, he's considered an anti-semite, bigot, racist, and many other different hateful terms.

Yet when a book about Israeli rights, freedom, and zionism is published, it's factual, true, and moving.

I say good job jimmy carter. continue to stand up for the true oppressed people of the middle east.