Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Cover showing the author, left, and protesters at the Israeli West Bank barrier, right
Author	Jimmy Carter
Cover artist	Michael Accordino
Language	English
Subject	Political Science
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	14 November 2006
Publication place	United States of America
Media type	Hardback
Pages	264
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-7432-8502-5
Preceded by	Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid is a book written by Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. Carter believes that "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land."

The book states that Israel's current policies in the Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid, 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."

Carter said that his purpose in writing the book was to "present facts about the Middle East that are largely unknown in America, to precipitate discussion and to help restart peace talks (now absent for six years) that can lead to permanent peace for Israel and its neighbors."

Summary of contents

Carter identifies two main obstacles to peace:

1. Some Israelis believe they have the right to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land and try to justify the sustained subjugation and persecution of increasingly hopeless and aggravated Palestinians; and
2. Some Palestinians react by honoring suicide bombers as martyrs to be rewarded in heaven and consider the killing of Israelis as victories.

To bring an end to "this continuing tragedy", Carter insisted the peace process must be revitalized. Carter identifies the following key requirements:

• The security of Israel must be guaranteed. [...] There is little doubt that accommodation with Palestinians can bring full Arab recognition of Israel.

• The internal debate within Israel must be resolved in order to define Israel'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 adopted U.N. Resolution 242, which mandates Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories. [...] Also, as a member of the International Quartet that includes Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union, America supports the Roadmap 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.

• The sovereignty of all Middle East nations and sanctity of international borders must be honored. [...] In order to perpetuate the occupation, Israeli forces have deprived their unwilling subjects of basic human rights. No objective person could personally observe existing conditions in the West Bank and dispute these statements.

Praise

In The Toronto Sun, columnist Sid Ryan writes (12-15-06), "Former U.S. president Carter is just the latest world figure to openly challenge the policies of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. He joins Rev. Desmond Tutu, another Nobel Prize winner. Each time a trade union or church group or world leader steps forward to break the cone of silence around this issue, the more difficult it becomes for the lobby groups to spew their propaganda."

In The Middle East Online, Ben Tanosborn writes (12-15-06) "Let’s have for the first time ever in this country a thorough and honest debate on the issues that create this conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and make America part of the solution instead of being the lion’s share of the problem." He praises President Carter and calls him "Saint James of Plains."

In an article in The Nation, Michael F. Brown characterized the book's title as "extraordinarily bold--and apt" and suggested that "Perhaps President Carter should send copies of his book to members of Congress [...] they might learn a thing or two about the long-festering conflict at the heart of so many of our current troubles in the region."

Writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Dugard says that Carter's book "is igniting controversy for its allegation that Israel practices a form of apartheid." Dugard supports Carter's analysis, arguing that "Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid."

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, in a piece published by the Institute for Middle East Understanding, wrote that Carter's book "eloquently describes the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip [...] his book challenges Americans to see the conflict with eyes wide open."

Sherri Muzher, founder of Michigan Media Watch, wrote that "Nobody expects instant miracles to come from Carter’s book, but hopefully, it will spark the sort of robust discussions that even Israeli society and media already engage in".

Brad Hooper, writing for the American Library Association, said Carter "posits that the stumbling blocks to a lasting cessation of armed conflict are to be found within two contexts: Israel's unwillingness to comply with international law and honor its previous peace commitments, and Arab nations' refusal to openly acknowledge Israel's right to live undisturbed" and describes Carter's approach as representing "a personal point of view, but one that is certainly grounded in both knowledge and wisdom."

Rabbi Michael Lerner in Berkeley, California, calls Carter "the only president to have actually delivered for the Jewish people an agreement (the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt) that has stood the test of time" and continues "We know that critique is often an essential part of love and caring. That is precisely what Jimmy Carter is trying to do for Israel and the Jewish people in his new book". He further stresses that "Carter does not claim that Israel is an apartheid state. What he does claim is that the West Bank will be a de facto apartheid situation if the current dynamics [...] continue."

Criticism

Politicians and lawmakers

Prior to the 2006 mid-term election and before the book was published, Democrats criticized the former Democratic President's book.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean wrote that, "While I have tremendous respect for former President Carter, I fundamentally disagree and do not support his analysis of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Dean's statement said, "On this issue President Carter speaks for himself, the opinions in his book are his own, they are not the views or position of the Democratic Party. I and other Democrats will continue to stand with Israel in its battle against terrorism and for a lasting peace with its neighbors."

Future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stated that the book does not represent the Democratic parties views on Israel, "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. With all due respect to former President Carter, he does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel."

U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. wrote, "I cannot agree with the book’s title and its implications about apartheid...I recently called the former president to express my concerns about the title of the book, and to request that the title be changed.” The title “does not serve the cause of peace and the use of it...is offensive and wrong,” says Conyers.

U.S. Representative Steve Israel wrote, "The reason for the Palestinian plight is the Palestinians. Their leadership has no regard for the quality of life for their people and no capability of providing security or enforcing peace, and they have no one to blame but themselves.” He also added that the "book clearly does not reflect the direction of the party; it reflects the opinion of one man."

U.S. Representatives Charlie Rangel and Jerrold Nadler also released statements critical of the book.

Academics

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, and author of several books on the Arab-Israeli conflict — including "The Case For Israel" — has written that Carter's book has been condemned as "moronic" (Slate), "anti-historical" (The Washington Post), "laughable" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "riddled with errors and bias in reviews across the country." Dershowitz wrotes that "[m]any of the reviews have been written by non-Jewish as well as Jewish critics, and not by 'representatives of Jewish organizations' as Carter has claimed."

Dershowitz argues that there are factual inaccuracies in Carter's book, including its statement that "Israel launche[d] preemptive attacks on Egypt, Syria, Iraq and then Jordan" in the 1967 Six-Day War. Dershowitz writes that: "Jordan attacked Israel first, Israel tried desperately to persuade Jordan to remain out of the war, and Israel counterattacked after the Jordanian army surrounded Jerusalem, firing missiles into the center of the city." Carter replied that the book was fact-checked by Carter Center staff as well as by an unnamed "distinguished" reporter. In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Carter wrote that "in the real world," the response to his book had been "overwhelmingly positive."

Dershowitz wrote in the New York Sun that Carter was not sufficiently forthcoming about qualifying a parallel to South African apartheid:

"[Carter's] use of the loaded word 'apartheid,' suggesting an analogy to the hated policies of South Africa, is especially outrageous, considering his acknowledgment buried near the end of his shallow and superficial book that what is going on in Israel today 'is unlike that in South Africa—not racism, but the acquisition of land'."

Dershowitz also criticized Carter for comparing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the situation in Rwanda. During an interview with David Shuster for MSNBC, Carter said: "[T]he persecution of the Palestinians now, under the occupying territories ... is one of the worst examples of human rights deprivation that I know." When asked whether he believed it to be "even worse ... than a place like Rwanda," Carter replied "yes," and clarified that he was referring to the situation in Rwanda now, and not what he called "ancient history."

Dershowitz called Carter's backing away from the analogy "disingenuous." He wrote: "Rwanda, when invoked in the context of a human rights discussion, stands for genocide, just like apartheid stands for the oppressive discriminatory and segregationist practices in pre-1990 South Africa. Everyone understands these symbols, and Carter recklessly traffics in them, until someone calls him out and he's forced to back-track." Dershowitz cited the interview as an example of Carter's and the far left's "obsessive focus" on Israel. The president of Brandeis University invited Carter to debate the issue with Dershowitz, but Carter declined, saying: "There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."

Kenneth Stein

Kenneth W. Stein, a professor of Middle Eastern history and Israeli studies at Emory University, the founder of the Middle East program at the Carter Center and its director until 1993, made the following remarks on the book in an open letter :

"President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analysis; it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments."

"Aside from the one-sided nature of the book, meant to provoke, there are recollections cited from meetings where I was the third person in the room, and my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book."

"Being a former President does not give one a unique privilege to invent information or to unpack it with cuts, deftly slanted to provide a particular outlook. Having little access to Arabic and Hebrew sources, I believe, clearly handicapped his understanding and analyses of how history has unfolded over the last decade."

Stein has not yet provided a full outline of what he regards as factual errors.

Diplomatic personnel

Dennis Ross

Ambassador Dennis Ross, the United States' chief Middle East envoy during the Clinton administration, has said maps used in Carter's book were similar to maps published previously in his book, The Missing Peace. The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace, saying, "I looked at the maps and the maps he uses are maps that are drawn basically from my book. There's no other way they could -- even if he says they come from another place. They came originally from my book."

Ross went on to insist that Carter's interpretation of the maps was "just simply wrong." According to Ross, who played a key role in shaping the Clinton administration's efforts to bring peace to the region, Carter presented the maps as an "Israeli interpretation of the Clinton idea", when in fact the maps represented Clinton's proposals exactly. Responding to a question posed by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, Ross stated that Carter was also "wrong" to suggest that Israel had rejected the American proposals at Camp David, stating: "this is a matter of record. This is not a matter of interpretation."

Ross concluded by saying "President Carter made a major contribution to peace in the Middle East. That's the reality... I would like him to meet the same standard that he applied then to what he's doing now."

The author's responses to criticism

General response

Carter has responded to negative reviews in the mainstream media by saying that they have, "been written mostly by representatives of Jewish organizations who would be unlikely to visit the occupied territories, and their primary criticism is that the book is anti-Israel."

In response to criticism of the book's title, Carter states that "the first word in the title is 'Palestine,' not Israel", "the second word in the title is 'peace'", "and the last two words are 'not apartheid.'" He further states that he "never [has] alleged in the book or otherwise that Israel, as a nation, was guilty of apartheid. But there is a clear distinction between the policies within the nation of Israel and within the occupied territories that Israel controls..."

Carter has also said that debate on issues concerning Israel are silenced in the US media because of lobbying efforts by the pro-Israel Lobby, "many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States [...] This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices." He has said he hopes to tear down the, "impenetrable wall" that stops the American people from seeing the plight of Palestinians. Writing in the Boston Globe in December 2006, Carter rejected critics of his book as not actually having addressed the major points contained in it :

Not surprisingly, an examination of the book reviews and published comments reveals that these points have rarely if ever been mentioned by detractors of the book, much less denied or refuted. Instead, there has been a pattern of ad hominem statements, alleging that I am a liar, plagiarist, anti-Semite, racist, bigot, ignorant, etc. There are frequent denunciations of fabricated "straw man" accusations: that I have claimed that apartheid exists within Israel; that the system of apartheid in Palestine is based on racism; and that Jews control and manipulate the news media of America.

Response to Stein

In response to Professor Stein's criticisms, officials for the publisher, Simon & Schuster, said, "We haven't seen these allegations, we haven't seen any specifics, and I have no way of assessing anything he [Stein] has said…. This is all about nothing. We stand behind the book fully, and the fact that there has been a divided reaction to it is not surprising."

Carter has said that Stein's role in the Center was from "ancient times" and that his recent position was only "honorary" According to Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley, Stein and Carter have a "passionate, up-and-down relationship", and Stein has criticized statements Carter has made about Israel in the past.

Response to Ross

In response to criticisms from Dennis Ross, Carter stated he had "never seen" Ross' book and that the maps "came from an atlas that's publicly available." Specifically, he noted their origin in an atlas from the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem.

See also

• Allegations of Israeli apartheid

Reviews

• Goldberg, Jeffrey (2006-12-10). "What Would Jimmy Do?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-12-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Excerpt via abcnews.go.com
• Newsweek interview with President Carter regarding Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid