Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (New York:Simon and Schuster, 2006), is a book byJimmy Carter.
The ultimate purpose of my book is to present facts about theMiddle East that are largely unknown inAmerica, to precipitate discussion and to help restart peace talks (now absent for six years) that can lead to permanent peace forIsrael and its neighbors. Another hope is thatJews and other Americans who share this same goal might be motivated to express their views, even publicly, and perhaps in concert. I would be glad to help with that effort.--Jimmy Carter[1]
There are two interrelated obstacles to permanent peace in theMiddle East:
- [1.] SomeIsraelis believe they have the right to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land and try to justify the sustained subjugation and persecution of increasingly hopeless and aggravatedPalestinians; and
- [2.] SomePalestinians react by honoring suicide bombers as martyrs to be rewarded in heaven and consider the killing of Israelis as victories. (Bullets added.)--Jimmy Carter[2]
These are the key requirements [to revitalize the peace process throughnegotiations betweenIsraelis andPalestinians and thus to implement theInternational Quartet'sRoadmap for Peace:]
- a. The security ofIsrael must be guaranteed. TheArabs must acknowledge openly and specifically that Israel is a reality and has a right to exist in peace, behind secure and recognized borders, and with a firm Arab pledge to terminate any further acts of violence against the legally constituted nation of Israel.
- b. The internal debate within Israel must be resolved in order to defineIsrael's permanent legal boundary. The unwavering official policy of the United States since Israel became a state has been that its borders must coincide with those prevailing from 1949 until 1967 (unless modified by mutually agreeable land swaps), specified in the unanimously adoptedU.N. Resolution 242, which mandates Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories. This obligation was reconfirmed by Israel's leaders in agreements negotiated in 1978 atCamp David and in 1993 atOslo, for which they received theNobel Peace Prize, and both of these commitments were officially ratified by the Israeli government. Also, as a member of theInternational Quartet that includes Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union, America supports theRoadmap for Peace, which espouses exactly the same requirements. Palestinian leaders unequivocally accepted this proposal, but Israel has officially rejected its key provisions with unacceptable caveats and prerequisites. (Bullets added.)--Jimmy Carter[3]
Some major points in the book are:
- Multiple deaths of innocent civilians have occurred on both sides, and this violence and all terrorism must cease.
- For 39 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian land, and has confiscated and colonized hundreds of choice sites.
- Often excluded from their former homes, land, and places of worship, protesting Palestinians have been severely dominated and oppressed. There is forced segregation between Israeli settlers and Palestine's citizens, with a complex pass system required for Arabs to traverse Israel's multiple checkpoints.
- An enormous wall snakes through populated areas of what is left of the West Bank, constructed on wide swaths of bulldozed trees and property of Arab families, obviously designed to acquire more territory and to protect the Israeli colonies already built. (Hamas declared a unilateral cease-fire in August 2004 as its candidates sought local and then national offices, which they claim is the reason for reductions in casualties to Israeli citizens.)
- Combined with this wall, Israeli control of the Jordan River Valley will completely enclose Palestinians in their shrunken and divided territory. Gaza is surrounded by a similar barrier with only two openings, still controlled by Israel. The crowded citizens have no free access to the outside world by air, sea, or land.
- The Palestinian people are now being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42 percent voted forHamas candidates in this year's election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees cannot be paid, and the UN has reported food supplies in Gaza equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa, with half the families surviving on one meal a day.
- Mahmoud Abbas, first as prime minister and now as president of the Palestinian National Authority and leader of the PLO, has sought to negotiate with Israel for almost six years, without success.Hamas leaders support such negotiations, promising to accept the results if approved by a Palestinian referendum.
- UN Resolutions, theCamp David Accords of 1978, theOslo Agreement of 1993, official US Policy, and the InternationalRoadmap for Peace are all based on the premise that Israel withdraw fromoccupied territories. Also, Palestinians must accept the same commitment made by the 23 Arab nations in 2002: to recognize Israel's right to live in peace within its legal borders. These are the two keys to peace. (Bullets added.)--Jimmy Carter[4]
Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from its neighbors’ land and to permit thePalestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights. As indicated in theGeneva Accords, announced in November 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland—I was there and made the keynote speech—this “green line,” or eastern border of Israel, can be modified with negotiated land swaps to let approximately half of the Israeli settlers remain in their highly subsidized homes east of the internationally recognized border. These homes remaining would be very close to the so-called “green line.” The premise of getting peace in exchange for Palestinian territory that is adequate for a viable and contiguous state has been acceptable for several decades to a substantial majority of Israelis— (I’ve observed and studied those public opinion polls very closely. They always have 60 percent or so.)—but not to a minority of the more conservative leaders, who are unfortunately supported by most of the vocal American Jewish community, throughAIPAC’s influence. And I don’t criticize it.... The current policies are leading toward an immoral outcome that is undermining Israel’s standing in the world and is not bringing security to the people of Israel.... These same premises, of recognizing Israel, acceptance of all past agreements, and the rejection of violence, will have to be accepted byHamas and any government that represents the Palestinians. The long-term prospects are not discouraging. In fact, a poll last month, in December, by the Harry S. Truman Institute at theHebrew University of Jerusalem, found that 81 percent of citizens in theoccupied territories approved and 63 percent approval among Israelis. So you see, an overwhelming majority of Palestinians and Israelis support peace for Israel based on the acceptance of Israel of its international borders with some modifications, with justice and peace for the Palestinians. An early exchange of the three Israeli soldiers for some of the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners will expedite the peace process. --Jimmy Carter,Brandeis University,January 23,2007.[5]
The book is causing an uproar among those in America who consider themselves as "friends of Israel," for one thing because of its title: "Palestine - Peace Not Apartheid." .... Predictably, some are accusing Carter ofanti-Semitism. Carter is closely following the responses, including on the Internet, and responding to his critics. He is prepared to lecture for free about his views –– but Jews don't want to hear, he complains. An Israeli reader won't find anything more in the book than is written in the newspapers here every day.... One reason the book is outraging "friends of Israel" in America is that it requires them to reformulate their friendship: If they truly want what's good for Israel, they must call on it to rid itself of the territories. People don't like to admit that they've erred; therefore, they're angry at Carter.--Tom Segev[8]
[A] good, strong read by the only American president approaching sainthood.... Needless to say, the American press and television largely ignored the appearance of this eminently sensible book - until the usualIsraeli lobbyists began to scream abuse at poor oldJimmy Carter, albeit that he was the architect of the longest lasting peace treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbour - Egypt - secured with the famous 1978Camp David accords.--Robert Fisk[9]
President Carter has done what few American politicians have dared to do: speak frankly about theIsrael-Palestine conflict. He has done this nation, and the cause of peace, an enormous service by focusing attention on what he calls "the abominable oppression and persecution in theoccupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between Palestine's citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank."--Ali Abunimah
I have read his book, and I could not help but agree — however agonizingly so — with most if its contents. Where I disagreed was mostly with the choice of language, including his choice of the word “apartheid.” But if we are to be fair, and as any reading of the book makes clear, Carter’s use of the word “apartheid” is first and foremost metaphorical.... What Carter says in his book about the Israeli occupation and our treatment of Palestinians in theoccupied territories — and perhaps no less important, how he says it — is entirely harmonious with the kind of criticism that Israelis themselves voice about their own country. There is nothing in the criticism that Carter has for Israel that has not been said by Israelis themselves.--Yossi Beilin[17]
President Carter, in my judgement [sic], is correct in fearing that the absence of a fair and mutually acceptable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is likely to produce a situation which de facto will resembleapartheid: i.e., two communities living side by side but repressively separated, with one enjoying prosperity and seizing the lands of the other, and the other living in poverty and deprivation. That is an outcome which must be avoided and I interpret his book as a strong plea for accommodation, which needs to be actively promoted by morally responsible engagement especially by America.--Zbigniew Brzezinski[20]
Carter'sapartheid charge rings true.... Israel maintains two sets of rules and regulations in the West Bank: one for Jews, one for non-Jews. The only thing wrong with using the word 'apartheid' to describe such a repugnant system is that theSouth African version of institutionalized discrimination was never as elaborate as its Israeli counterpart--nor did it have such a vocal chorus of defenders among otherwise liberal Americans.--Saree Makdisi[21]
Israeli action in theTerritories corrupts theZionist dream, and is no better thanapartheid.... I have not been a leftist for years, because I do not believe the Arabs would agree to share this country with us, and I believe in the Jews' right to a home and a state in our historic homeland. Yet what we have been doing in the territories borders on the criminal. When President Carter, who was never a friend of Israel, writes that what we are doing in the territories is similar to apartheid, everyone cries out in protest. Yet he wasn't far off from reality: our behavior is worse thanthat prevalent in South Africa at the time. It's unpleasant to say this, but this is the way it is.--Yoram Kanyuk[25]
[I]f Carter is so innocent as to be unaware of the resonance that term [apartheid] has, [then] he is not the expert on theMiddle East or world affairs he purports to be.... Sadly, Israelis andPalestinians do not enjoy the kind of harmony the Israeli Declaration of Independence envisioned. Carter and his comrades use "Apartheid" as shorthand to condemn some of the security measures improvised recently....Israel built a security fence to protect its citizens and separate Palestinian enclaves from Israeli cities. Ironically, that barrier marks Israel’s most dramatic recognition of Palestinian aspirations to independence since Israel signed theOslo Accords in 1993.... Applying theApartheid label tries to ostracize Israel by misrepresenting some of the difficult decisions Israel has felt forced to make in fighting Palestinian terror.--Gil Troy[51]
If you want The Carter Center to survive and thrive independently in the future, you must take prompt and decisive steps to separate the Center from President Carter's now irrevocably tarnished legacy. You must make it clear on your web site and in appropriately circulated press releases that President Carter does not speak for The Carter Center on the subject of theMiddle East conflict or the political role of the American Jewish community. If you do not do this, then President Carter's damage to his own effectiveness as a mediator, not to mention to his reputation and legacy will extend, far more tragically in my view, to The Carter Center and all its activities.--Melvin Konner[53]
Carter has repeatedly fallen back -- possibly unconsciously -- on traditionalanti-Semitic canards.... Perhaps unused to being criticized, Carter reflexively fell back on this kind of innuendo about Jewish control of the media and government. Even if unconscious, such stereotyping from a man of his stature is noteworthy. WhenDavid Duke spouts it, I yawn. WhenJimmy Carter does, I shudder.... Others can enumerate the many factual errors in this book. A man who has done much good and who wants to bring peace has not only failed to move the process forward but has given refuge to scoundrels.--Deborah Lipstadt[54]
When a former president of the United States [Carter] writes a book on theIsraeli-Palestian crisis and writes a chronology at the beginning of the book in order to help them understand the emergence of the situation and in that chronology lists nothing of importance between1939 and1947, that is soft-core denial [of the Holocaust].--Deborah Lipstadt[55]
Book reviews in the mainstream media have been written mostly by representatives ofJewish organizations who would be unlikely to visit the occupied territories, and their primary criticism is that the book is anti-Israel. Two members of Congress have been publicly critical. Incoming HouseSpeakerNancy Pelosi for instance, issued a statement (before the book was published) saying that "he does not speak for theDemocratic Party onIsrael." Some reviews posted onAmazon.com call me "anti-Semitic," and others accuse the book of "lies" and "distortions." A formerCarter Center fellow has taken issue with it, andAlan Dershowitz called the book's title "indecent." .... Out in the real world, however, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've signed books in five stores, with more than 1,000 buyers at each site. I've had one negative remark — that I should be tried for treason — and one caller onC-SPAN said that I was ananti-Semite. My most troubling experience has been the rejection of my offers to speak, for free, about the book on university campuses with high Jewish enrollment and to answer questions from students and professors. I have been most encouraged by prominent Jewish citizens and members of Congress who have thanked me privately for presenting the facts and some new ideas.--Jimmy Carter[1][56]
Jimmy Carter: The book is aboutPalestine, theoccupied territories, and not aboutIsrael. Forced segregation in theWest Bank and terrible oppression of thePalestinians 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.--"An Interview with PresidentJimmy Carter"[57]
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