Carter Counteracts the Lobby

Those of us who have been paying attention and doing our homework know that the core cause of Muslim anti-American hatred, which became manifest on 9/11, is Israel's occupation of Palestine. (See previous blogs "Why They Hate Us" Parts 1-4, January 5-8, 2006) Of course, the Israel Lobby would have us believe that Muslims blow themselves up in order to convert us to Islam---hardly a persuasive form of religious advertising. Although the rest of the world is well aware of the tragic circumstances of the Palestinian people, Americans are kept in the dark by the Israel Lobby-controlled media, while the Lobby is busily re-writing history. In his new book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," President Jimmy Carter sets the record straight. For instance, on page xiii. there is a hard-to-find map of the 1947 UN partition of Palestine. "A Jewish state was to include 55 percent of this territory, Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be internationalized as holy sites, and the remainder of the land was to constitute an Arab state." (p. 57) Yet Israel today occupies all the land and won't even relinquish 22% (the 1967 border) for a Palestinian state. Another little known fact in the US is the fact that President Carter's 1978 peace negotiations between Egypt and Israel included Israel's promise to withdraw from occupied territory. "It is to be remembered that the Camp David Accords, signed by [Egypt's President] Sadat and [Israel's Prime Minister] Begin and officially ratified by both governments, reconfirmed a specific commitment to honor U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which prohibit acquisition of land by force and call for Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories." (p. 48) Also, Carter debunks Lobby myths surrounding Palestinian President Arafat's peace negotiations in 2000. The Lobby's main talking point is that Arafat turned down a wonderful deal. Carter describes the offer "This honeycomb of [Israeli] settlements and their interconnecting conduits effectively divide the West Bank into at least two noncontiguous areas and multiple fragments, often uninhabitable or even unreachable.." (p.151) "There was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms and survive, but official statements from Washington and Jerusalem were successful in placing the entire onus for the failure on YassirArafat." (p.152) "...it was later claimed that the Palestinians rejected a 'generous offer' [at Taba] put forward by Prime Minister Barak with Israel keeping only 5 percent of the West Bank. The fact is that no such offers were ever made." (p.152) Speaking with David Shuster (11/28/06) on MSNBC's "Hardball," President Carter said, "There is no doubt that within the occupied territories, Palestinian land, that there is a horrendous example of apartheid." "The persecution of the Palestinians now in the occupied territories, under occupied forces, is one of the worst examples of human rights deprivation that I know."