LA Times: Carter: AIPAC's "extraordinary lobbying efforts"
NOMOREWAR...@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:44:28 -0800
Subject: LA Times: Carter: AIPAC's "extraordinary lobbying efforts"
"For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe
restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. 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."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-carter8dec08,1,5841111.story
Speaking frankly about Israel and Palestine
Jimmy Carter says his recent book is drawing knee-jerk accusations of
anti-Israel bias.
By Jimmy Carter
the 39th president of the United States. His newest book is "Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid," published last month. He is scheduled to sign
books Monday at Vroman's in Pasadena.
December 8, 2006
I signed a contract with Simon & Schuster two years ago to write a book
about the Middle East, based on my personal observations as the Carter
Center monitored three elections in Palestine and on my consultations
with Israeli political leaders and peace activists.
We covered every Palestinian community in 1996, 2005 and 2006, when
Yasser Arafat and later Mahmoud Abbas were elected president and
members of parliament were chosen. The elections were almost flawless,
and turnout was very high - except in East Jerusalem, where, under
severe Israeli restraints, only about 2% of registered voters managed
to cast ballots.
The 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. For the last 30 years,
I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and
balanced discussion of the facts. 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.
It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to
espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest
that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of
justice or human rights for Palestinians. Very few would ever deign to
visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or
even Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents. What is even more
difficult to comprehend is why the editorial pages of the major
newspapers and magazines in the United States exercise similar
self-restraint, quite contrary to private assessments expressed quite
forcefully by their correspondents in the Holy Land.
With some degree of reluctance and some uncertainty about the reception
my book would receive, I used maps, text and documents to describe the
situation accurately and to analyze the only possible path to peace:
Israelis and Palestinians living side by side within their own
internationally recognized boundaries. These options are consistent
with key U.N. resolutions supported by the U.S. and Israel, official
American policy since 1967, agreements consummated by Israeli leaders
and their governments in 1978 and 1993 (for which they earned Nobel
Peace Prizes), the Arab League's offer to recognize Israel in 2002 and
the International Quartet's "Roadmap for Peace," which has been
accepted by the PLO and largely rejected by Israel.
The book is devoted to circumstances and events in Palestine and not in
Israel, where democracy prevails and citizens live together and are
legally guaranteed equal status.
Although I have spent only a week or so on a book tour so far, it is
already possible to judge public and media reaction. Sales are brisk,
and I have had interesting interviews on TV, including "Larry King
Live," "Hardball," "Meet the Press," "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,"
the "Charlie Rose" show, C-SPAN and others. But I have seen few news
stories in major newspapers about what I have written.
Book reviews in the mainstream media 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. Two members of Congress have been publicly critical.
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for instance, issued a statement
(before the book was published) saying that "he does not speak for the
Democratic Party on Israel." Some reviews posted on Amazon.com call me
"anti-Semitic," and others accuse the book of "lies" and "distortions."
A former Carter Center fellow has taken issue with it, and Alan
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 on C-SPAN said that I was an
anti-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.
The book describes the abominable oppression and persecution in the
occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required
passes and strict segregation between Palestine's citizens and Jewish
settlers in the West Bank. An enormous imprisonment wall is now under
construction, snaking through what is left of Palestine to encompass
more and more land for Israeli settlers. In many ways, this is more
oppressive than what blacks lived under in South Africa during
apartheid. I have made it clear that the motivation is not racism but
the desire of a minority of Israelis to confiscate and colonize choice
sites in Palestine, and then to forcefully suppress any objections from
the displaced citizens. Obviously, I condemn any acts of terrorism or
violence against innocent civilians, and I present information about
the terrible casualties on both sides.
The ultimate purpose of my book is 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. Another hope is that Jews
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.
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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-letters9.5dec09,1,2751557.story
LETTERS
He's got guts
December 9, 2006
JIMMY CARTER may be the most courageous public figure in America
["Carter's Frontal Attack," by Josh Getlin, Dec. 4]. He has accurately
described media coverage of the "Israel-Palestine" conflict as
"abominable" and the U.S. government's pro-Israel bias as unequivocal.
It is the ultimate irony that in a country that prizes its open
democracy, no politician of any party is willing to risk his future by
addressing this elephant in the room.
FRANCIS SARGUIS
Santa Barbara
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Caller asks President Carter about AIPAC and other pressure groups
within the US.
President Carter reveals the intense pressures used to prevent public
discussion of the facts concerning Israel. He admits that some
Universities have actually turned him away, telling him that discussing
Israel was "too controversial!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBJgaBe5NgM
Carter answers a question about the paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S.
Foreign Policy" by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Mearsheimer
and Walt's paper discusses groups like AIPAC and the influence on the
US political system and the support of Israel.
PolicySpy
> Jimmy Carter says his recent book is drawing knee-jerk accusations of
> anti-Israel bias.
> By Jimmy Carter
> the 39th president of the United States. His newest book is "Palestine:
> Peace Not Apartheid," published last month. He is scheduled to sign
> books Monday at Vroman's in Pasadena.
> December 8, 2006
> I signed a contract with Simon & Schuster two years ago to write a book
> about the Middle East, based on my personal observations as the Carter
> Center monitored three elections in Palestine and on my consultations
> with Israeli political leaders and peace activists.
> We covered every Palestinian community in 1996, 2005 and 2006, when
The Republicans support Israel to have a strategic ally in the Middle East.
The Democrats support Israel because most U.S. Jewish people are Democrats.
We all support Israel because it is a rich and impressive society.
But...Jewish immigration to Israel is recognizable as another page in the
long history of European colonialism.
And the historical pattern of colonialism is that the colonists improve
infrastructure, social systems, and markets...and then face pressure from
local or regional demographics.
Of course the creation of the Jewish state by the UN was one of the
solutions to the end of WWII...