Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
by Jimmy Carter
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Book Reviews of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
Book Review: The Writing is Too Tedious to Make Up For the Factual Inaccuracies
Summary: 1 Stars
Yeah, I know, I have done precious few reviews and all, thus far, have been tongue-in-cheek.
Fortunately, this book is a difficult enough one to try and finish that the only way to avoid the constant bouts of unconsciousness that the leaden prose inflicted upon me is to not take this all that seriously.
I mean, when it is all said and done, we are talking about Jimmy Carter. We are not discussing somebody of ACTUAL historical relevance. You know, like Carrot Top.
Anyway, one of the major problems in a review of a book like this is the desire to avoid turning this into a simple laundry list of inaccuracies as 1) I am not convinced the Amazon servers have the storage capacity necessary to handle a TOTAL list of all of the factual inaccuracies in this unintentionally comically tragic absurdity and 2) there is always this fear that one will actually MISS one. Lord knows I am a completist in these things and would so THOROUGHLY hate missing a major factual inaccuracy amidst the crushing undercurrent of minor factual inaccuracies.
Let us first examine the writing. I feel it is a worthwhile subject considering that this, technically, is supposed to be a readable book. It is, to be gentle, horrendous. Carter was never exactly a compelling wordsmith and, sadly, time has not improved that aspect of his personality. He almost seems to house a psychotic glee in punishing you with prose that is --- and, trust me, it is not easy to imagine this until you read it --- even WORSE than the sentence that preceeded it. Reading this is like running a marathon in barefeet while a person in front of you drops glass in front of you...and then barbed wire...and then a wolverine...and so on.
Now, when a book is written in a manner that makes one question if "boring drivel" is ACTUALLY a legitimate language, it needs SOMETHING to alleviate attention from the shockingly bad writing and Carter seems to have opted for the consistently factually incorrect route. Truly a daring decision, but one Carter has embraced and written what might well serve as the end-all, be-all of bad books about the Middle East written by guys who really, REALLY do not have the first clue what in the world they are writing about. It is not too dissimilar from hearing Mike Tyson discuss the concept of cold fusion AFTER getting his head bludgeoned for twelve rounds.
Sure, the errors have been mentioned frequently and in some detail. Sure, Jimmy invented conversations out of nothing. Sure Jimmy ignores the difficulty in achieving peace when one side wants peace and the other side simply wants to engulf the original side. It's like blaming the Czechs for not making peace with Hitler --- or, to use a more modern example, it's like blaming a moonpie for not making peace with Rosie. You can't really claim moral equivalence if you are being intellectually honest --- which Jimmy overcomes by being intellectually dishonest. And profoundly so. The only other time I have seen a man so willing to adopt lies and believe them to be truth is the time Ben Affleck was told he could act. Now, as then, it is the audience who have to be the victims of this.
Amidst the numerous interviews on network television, Jimmy has reminded us of how difficult it is to get the Palestinian view in front of the media which is controlled by Jews. Yes, Americans have just been left in the dark about the plight of the poor Palestinians. Which is why non-events such as "Jenin" are known by a large swath of the populace and, sadly, believed to have been real. Heck, Anderson Cooper said, openly, that the Lebanese were staging news footage for the international press and CNN WOULD THEN GO ALONG AND REPEAT PRECISELY WHAT HEZBOLLAH WANTED.
Yeah, that "Jew-run" media sure gives Israel all of the benefit of the doubt, doesn't it? Has ANY conflict gotten the sheer carpet coverage that this conflict has received? Feel free to name a major slaughter in, say, the Sudanese genocide --- which has only killed MANY times more people in a much shorter timespan. And then remind me of how the press has blacked out this story. I'm fascinated by this. Truly, I am.
Now, I am willing to entertain that Carter isn't an anti-Semite. He might just be easily bought and sold. I suppose that's preferrable to some people.
But in a pursuit of truth, reality must be faced. And, Jimmy, you have done reality a disservice. The Camp David Accords had nothing to do with you. Egypt wanted peace and knew you'd be enough of a sucker to give them billions regardless. They could've signed the same agreement in, say, my basement and it would have just as much to do with your participation. This "shining achievement", though, masks a LENGTHY stretch of opposition to Israel, which began in, roughly, March 1977 and never abated. Forgive me if I don't really trust you when you say how much you want peace.
There are many good titles on the Middle East. This, however, is not one of them.
Book Review: The Israel Lobby Attacks...Again
Summary: 5 Stars
President Carter has written a balanced assesment of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, spreading blame around with proportion and respect. He denounces those Arabs who refuse to recognize the Jewish state and details how the Jewish settlements in occupied territory are not only immoral but impediments to peace. His proposal for ending the conflict is both uncontroversial and universally recognized: Israel must withdraw to its pre1967 borders. The Palestinians must recognize Israel. The Palestinians must give up 'right of return'. And on and on. Everyone knows what the final deal will look like.
It is most troubling but of course predictable that he has been attacked by the organized Israel Lobby and its vast army of media shrills and op-ed soldiers. Abraham Foxman has accused this former president of peddling anti-semitic canards. Alan Dershowitz cranked out a predictable hit piece review. The New York Times ran a few stories that failed to respectfully discuss the content of Carter's book and instead focused on the Israel Lobby created controversy. "Carter Book Causes Outrage" and "Carter Aide Resigns Over Book" were the headlines in The New York Times. The Washington Post assigned a Zionist and former soldier in the Israeli Army to review the book. The Baltimore Sun assigned its review to an associate from the American Enterprise Institue, the intellectual nest that is home to neoconservative Israel loyalists like Richard Perele and William Kristol and the Kagan Brothers. The Anti-Defamation League has taken out full page ads in national newspapers with an aim to discredit this Nobel Peace Prize winning former president.
All of this of course, ironically, proves President Carter's point: that it's impossible to have an honest debate in America on the Israel issue because of the very powerful Israel Lobby (AIPAC, ADL, etc). It is truly an extraordinary thing to watch. President Carter has spent the last 30 years of his life promoting justice and peace and human rights. He has built houses for impoverished people in all corners of the world. He has mediated elections in countries far and near. He was won a Nobel Peace Prize and is still the only president to negotiate a lasting peace between Israel and one of its neighbors. And they still descend like vultures and attack him -- without concern for the truth, without concern for America's interests, without concern for justice. Without concern for what is right.
Which brings us to the real question...
Why in the world would a man who has dedicated his entire life to improving the lives of less fortunate human beings write an anti-semetic book? President Carter's reputation is umblemished. His devotion to human rights and peace and justice is unrivaled. He is a devoutly religous man who teaches Sunday school and lives modestly in rural Georgia. These charges of anti-semetism simply don't pass the smell test. How does the Israel Lobby expect Americans to believe the slanderous junk they're peddling in the mainstream press? Do they really think we're going to buy this dirty bucket of lies? It's simply both amazing and deeply troubling to watch The Lobby at work. They will literally attack anyone who does not fall in line and express complete and unquestioning support of Israel.
But here is the reality.
If you put down your New York Times and Washington Post and turn away from the mainstream media (full of gatekeepers, Zionists and easliy intimidated hacks) and train your attention to the only democratic media outlets in America (blogs, Amazon.com reviews, chat rooms, etc) you will find widespread and overwhelming support of President Carter's book. The reviews here on this site are easliy 15 to 1 supportive (4 1/2 stars overall). The same is true with Powells.com or Barnesandnoble.com. As well, the blogs and feedback sections of major newspapers are filled with complaints about the Israel Lobby and the unpatriotioc grip it holds on the mainstream media. In short, there is a massive disconnect between the American citizens and the national media.
Therefore...
I predict the Israel Lobby is losing its influence over the American media and government. I predict The Lobby is beginning its swift decline into irrelevance. I believe its nefarious tactics and unpatriotic bulllying will be exposed. The signs are everywhere. The neoconservative Israel first war is a grand failure. Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's essay (The Israel Lobby) proves that The Lobby is dangerous for America. The PNAC paper is available on the internet. The AIPAC spying scandal is well known. It goes on and on.
That is why President Carter's book is so important and so timely. His contribution to this needed debate should be applauded. His willingness to write such a book is quite simply a 'profile in courage.' And his bravery in speaking truth to power is truly patriotic.
Book Review: Truth is the only thing that will save us
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: carter's book
Summary: 5 Stars
OUR NATION IS GRATEFUL TO JIMMY CARTER
A H ALWAN
PALESTINE PEACE NOT APARTHEID. By Jimmy Carter. Simon & Shuster. 264 pp. $27.
Though Carter should be highly commended for delving into a topic which hardly anyone in the US would dare to go into, the immense furor over the book was to a high degree uncalled for. The ramifications of issues related to the Mideast, Palestine & peace are vigorously debated in Israel itself & all over the world, but hardly in the US. This phenomenon may have adversely contributed to lack of knowledge about a vital issue of our time among the Americans, who represent a leading democracy of the Western nations, & its negative impact on world peace & security.
A similar uproar had been experienced by professors John Mersheimer & Stephen Walt in early 2006, who have written a study entitled "The Israel Lobby." Unlike Carter's book the two professors were unable to locate a publisher at home & their article first appeared in the London Review of Books, March 23, 2006. Hardly any positive comments on the study did appear in the US media, but the Israeli liberal daily Haaretz published an editorial in March 2006, under the heading 'A warning from America' & among other things it suggested "... the Israeli government must understand that the world will not wait forever for Israel to withdraw from the territories, & that the opinion expressed in the article could take root in American politics if Israel does not change the political reality quickly."
The critics of carter's book have single out the word 'apartheid' in the book's title rather than its contents. Yet, one would have wished to read Carter's views about Israeli legal system & its practices towards the non-Jews (Christians & Muslims) inside Israel. Such a study emanating from a man the stature of Carter who is known for his outstanding contribution to world peace, & the promotion of human rights would have enlighten the American readers. Instead, the former president's writing & commentary were mainly focused on the oppression & persecution of Palestinian inhabitants in the occupied territories. Yet it was suggested that the inclusion of discrimination of Palestinians (Israeli citizens) in the book would have hardly been acceptable to most publishers in America, taking into account the power of the Israeli lobby, & the clout of the American Jewish community on media, business, congress, the administration & other vital activities. This reasoning is perhaps based on the precedent of the denial of the publication of the professors' intellectual study in the US as a case in point.
However, several comparative studies have been carried out about the apartheid system of South Africa & the treatment of the indigenous people of Palestine inside Israel. The most authoritative account & generally admired by experts is the study conducted by Chris McGreal, the correspondent of British Guardian, a highly respected daily. McGreal covered apartheid South Africa for more than a decade from Johannesburg, & the last five years has been reporting on the Mideast from Jerusalem. The elaborate study was published in the Guardian in two-part special report on February 6 & 7, 2006. The first part dealt with the treatment of indigenous non-Jews by Israel under the heading "World apart." While the second, "Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria," covers the very close relations & cooperation between the two countries with special emphasis on the clandestine alliance, cemented with the ultimate gift of friendship by Israel, namely: -A- bomb technology to the apartheid regime.
The Israeli major preoccupation since its creation is centered around the question of how to dispossess the Palestinians from their ancestral land, with a view to ethnic cleansing them. The land confiscation process has been carried out either by force, the construction of the huge wall which runs inside the West Bank, or by not so subtle legislations such as the "law of expropriation for public purposes." This "law" has been applied inside Israel as well as in Jerusalem. Systematic land expropriation resulted in a major confrontation between a large crowd of palestinian demonstrators whose land had been confiscated & the army on Mach 31, 1972. The Israeli army fired live ammunitions on the Palestinian demonstrators killings several of them. Since the incident took place, March 31st has been designated as "The Land Day" & commemorated annually. It should be noted in this respect that any private land taken from Palestinians becomes 'state land' for the Jewish people & administered by a semi-governmental outfit, Jewish National Fund.
Book Review: Carter Fellow at Emory University Condemns the Book
Summary: 1 Stars
Before you buy this book, there is something important you should know. Professor Kenneth Stein, the first permanent executive director of the Carter Center, is resigning "effectively immediately, as Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center of Emory University." This book, "replete with factual errors," is the reason. His resignation letter follows. Note especially the third paragraph.
******
This note is to inform you that yesterday, I sent letters to President Jimmy Carter, Emory University President Jim Wagner, and Dr. John Hardman, Executive Director of the Carter Center resigning my position, effectively immediately, as Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center of Emory University. This ends my 23 year association with an institution that in some small way I helped shape and develop. My joint academic position in Emory College in the History and Political Science Departments, and, as Director of the Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel remains unchanged.
Many still believe that I have an active association with the Center and, act as an adviser to President Carter, neither is the case. President Carter has intermittently continued to come to the Arab-Israeli Conflict class I teach in Emory College. He gives undergraduate students a fine first hand recollection of the Begin-Sadat negotiations of the late 1970s. Since I left the Center physically thirteen years ago, the Middle East program of the Center has waned as has my status as a Carter Center Fellow. For the record, I had nothing to do with the research, preparation, writing, or review of President Carter's recent publication. Any material which he used from the book we did together in 1984, The Blood of Abraham, he used unilaterally.
President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analyses; 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. Falsehoods, if repeated often enough become meta-truths, and they then can become the erroneous baseline for shaping and reinforcing attitudes and for policy-making. The history and interpretation of the Arab-Israeli conflict is already drowning in half-truths, suppositions, and self-serving myths; more are not necessary. In due course, I shall detail these points and reflect on their origins.
The decade I spent at the Carter Center (1983-1993) as the first permanent Executive Director and as the first Fellow were intellectually enriching for Emory as an institution, the general public, the interns who learned with us, and for me professionally. Setting standards for rigorous interchange and careful analyses spilled out to the other programs that shaped the Center's early years. There was mutual respect for all views; we carefully avoided polemics or special pleading. This book does not hold to those standards. My continued association with the Center leaves the impression that I am sanctioning a series of egregious errors and polemical conclusions which appeared in President Carter's book. I can not allow that impression to stand.
Through Emory College, I have continued my professional commitment to inform students and the general public about the history and politics of Israel, the Middle East, and American policies toward the region. I have tried to remain true to a life-time devotion to scholarly excellence based upon unvarnished analyses and intellectual integrity. I hold fast to the notion that academic settings and those in positions of influence must teach and not preach. Through Emory College, in public lectures, and in OPED writings, I have adhered to the strong belief that history must presented in context, and understood the way it was, not the way we wish it to be.
In closing, let me thank you for your friendship, past and continuing support for ISMI, and to Emory College. Let me also wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season, and a healthy and productive new year.
As ever,
Ken
Dr. Kenneth W. Stein,
Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Political Science,
and Israeli Studies,
Director, Middle East Research Program and
Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel
Atlanta, Georgia