December
29, 2006
Jimmy Carter Exposes Oppression & Apartheid
by Israel
The latest book -‘Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid’- of former President,
Jimmy Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the architect
of Camp David accords, with a personal interest
in the holy land (being a bible teacher), and whose
knowledge of its people and problems gained through
several visits, intense studies and personal monitoring
of all elections since early 1970s, excoriates the
segregation imposed on the Palestinians in West
Bank.
The pro-Israel lobbies in the US have created a
well-orchestrated din of condemnation of Carter’s
critique of the Middle East issue. I could not avoid
gaining this impression while researching the reactions
to the book. He has been labeled an anti-Semite,
a biased Christian, and even a liar.
In an op-ed piece carried on December 8 by the L.A.
Times and some other papers, he deplores the fact
that while the issue of Palestine is intensely debated
in Israel itself and almost all other countries,
it is regarded as a taboo by the US media. He explains,
“For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and
experienced the severe restrains 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
(AIPAC) and the absence of any significant contrary
voices.”
One recalls here the findings of Prof. John Mearsheimer
of Chicago University and Stephen Walt of Harvard
University in their combined research paper on ‘The
Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy’.
“The centerpiece of US Middle East Policy”,
they contend, “is the intimate relationship
with Israel…the U.S. commitment to Israel
is due primarily to the activities of the Israel
lobby.” The paper has not yet been published,
to the best of my knowledge, for fear of the wrath
of the lobby.
Similarly, media coverage was almost negligible
of the report of the UN-sponsored group called the
Alliance of Civilization, comprising 19 eminent
academics, intellectuals and prominent officials
from as many countries. They had to find ways to
bridge the growing divide between Muslim and Western
societies. Their consensus was that the conflict
over Israel and the Palestinian territories was
the central driver in global tensions. While the
Jewish lobbies have been playing up Huntington’s
thesis on the inevitability of a clash of civilization,
this UN report challenges its validity and recommends,
inter alia, that the international community prepare
a white paper to analyze the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and convene an international conference
to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process lying
dormant for over 6 years.
A survey by the prestigious PEW Center in June last
found that Muslim opinions about the West had worsened
drastically with the Israel-Palestinian issue having
become the principal fault line in the World.
Mr. Carter too pleads, like the UN report, for the
renewal of the peace process and the Roadmap. A
high-minded and scrupulous person, Carter has been
consistent in advocating the settlement of all disputes
through dialogues and abhors the route of war, which
has already proved to be counterproductive in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Lebanon.
“The current US policy”, he wrote in
his best-selling earlier work ‘Our Endangered
Values’, “is threatening the effectiveness
of international agreements that have been laboriously
negotiated by almost all previous Presidents”
The policy of preemptive war negates international
laws that we have pledged to honor. The Iraq war
may have reduced the imminent threat to Israel but
it is serving as an incentive to potential anti-US
Jehadists by providing them with a cause. He deplores
in the above-mentioned book that the US, which used
to be seen as an ideal society and state in the
Muslim countries is now touching lowest levels of
popularity. Last year approval ratings were a mere
2 percent in Egypt, 4% in Saudi Arabia, 11 percent
in Morocco, 14 percent in the UAE and 15% in Jordan.
The last two chapters of his book on Palestine carry
the crux of his message. In chapter 16 “The
Wall as a Prison” he contends that, in their
search for security against suicide bombers’
infiltrations, Israeli leaders “are imposing
a system of partial withdrawal, encapsulation, and
apartheid on Muslim and Christian citizens of the
occupied territories.” In July 2004, the International
Court of Justice determined that “the Israeli
government’s construction of the segregation
wall in the occupied Palestine West Bank was illegal”.
Responding to the objections on his use of the term
Apartheid to describe the Israeli treatment of the
Palestinians in their own land, Mr. Carter explained
in an interview with CBS: “It is based on
a minority of Israelis occupying, confiscating and
colonizing land that belongs to the Palestinians.
When Israel does occupy this territory deep within
the West Bank and connects 200 or so settlements
to each other with a road and prohibits the Palestinians
from using that road -in many cases even crossing
the road- this perpetrates even worse instances
of apartheid than we witnessed in South Africa.”
Perhaps it is not generally known that two separate
road networks exist in the West Bank: one for the
exclusive use of Jewish settlers, and the other
for Palestinian natives. Palestinians are not allowed
to drive their own cars in much of the West Bank
while the Jewish settlers come and go freely in
their own cars without having to pause at roadblocks
that hold up the natives.
Persons of Palestinian origin are routinely barred
from entering or residing in the West Bank; but
Israeli and non Israeli Jews can come and go and
even live in that area at their will. Although one-fifth
of the population of Israel comprises Palestinians,
Israel is called the state of the Jewish people.
Mr. Carter identifies the following two hurdles
standing in the way of durable peace in the Middle
East:
“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.”
For an abiding solution of the problem, he has the
following suggestions to make:
a..The security of Israel must be guaranteed by
all Arab and other neighbors.
b Israel must acknowledge its permanent legal boundary
as laid down in UN resolution #242 and-its borders
must be those that prevailed from its inception
to the war in 1967.
c. The sovereignty of all Middle East nations and
the sanctity of international borders must be honored.
Carter mentions two interrelated factors that have
contributed to the perpetuation of violence and
regional upheaval: “The condoning of illegal
Israeli
actions from a submissive White House and US congress
during recent years, and the deference with which
other international leaders permit this unofficial
policy in the Middle East to prevail.” The
US has exercised 41 times its veto power in the
UN almost always in support of Israel!
At the moment, the tendentious lobbies with the
deepest pockets have succeeded in creating a furor
over President Carter’s book. But, future
generations will rank him with the founding fathers
and other successive leaders of this great nation
whose cumulative contributions have worked towards
making it the sole super power now. (arifhussaini@hotmail.com)
