ONCE UPON A TIME not very long ago

There was an American Leader who spoke with solid knowledge, on the ground experience—

Respectfully and Courageously

He Urged True Peace in the Middle East

That Man from Plains, Georgia

In addition to his civilian service as U.S. President, he had served also in the U.S. Navy and as the State of Georgia's governor. In 1982, former president Carter and his wife Rosalynn Smith Carter established The Carter Center, “a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world. In 2002, Mr. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid was published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster (ISBN13: 9780743285032)

“I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel. My prayer is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors will join in this common effort”—said the thirty-ninth (1977-1981) President of the United States of America James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. ending his 2006 “Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.”

In that letter, Mr. Carter says he had been on a book signing tour when asked and he accepted an invitation to meet with leaders of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix (six rabbis: three men, three women, five of whom had read his book completely, one partially). They questioned Mr. Carter, and he answered their questions about the text and title of his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. He later disclosed the thoughts he had shared in that meeting.

“A letter to Jewish citizens of America”
This is an excerpt with minor edits from Mr. Carter’s letter to the Jewish Community containing his thoughts expressed in discussions with the six rabbis.

In the discussions, Mr. Carter “defined the word ‘apartheid’ as

the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other.”

“… [T]he system of apartheid in Palestine,” he said:

“… is not based on racism, but on the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land, and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence.”

Mr. Carter continued: 

“[T]he (extreme partiality) for Israel comes from among Christians like me who have been taught since childhood to honor and protect God’s chosen people from among whom came our own savior, Jesus Christ.

“… [I]n the political arena (additionally) is the powerful influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is exercising its legitimate goal of explaining the current policies of Israel’s government and arousing maximum support in (the USA).

“There are no significant countervailing voices.” [Emphasis added]

Grounding his ideas in solid knowledge and direct (on the ground) experience, Mr. Carter affirmed that in the preceding “33 years” he had traveled “throughout the Holy Land,” making direct “observations…especially within the occupied areas.” Additionally, The Carter Center had “monitored the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005, and 2006, which required a thorough and intimate involvement with Palestinian citizens, candidates, public officials, and also the top political leaders of Israel who controlled checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza and all facets of the elections in East Jerusalem.”

Clearly in evidence, Mr. Carter said: 

“The Palestinian people were being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42 percent had voted for Hamas candidates in the most recent election.

“Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees are not being paid, and the U.N. has reported that food supplies in Gaza are equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa with half the families surviving on one meal a day. My other request was that American Jewish citizens help to alleviate their plight.”

“… I am (also) familiar with the extreme acts of violence that have been perpetrated against innocent civilians,” Mr. Carter said. “(I) understand the fear among many Israelis that threats against their safety and even their existence as a nation still exist.” He then stressed his “strong condemnation of any acts of terrorism.” (Emphasis added)

What to do?

In further response to the rabbis’ questions asking what he would do, Mr. Carter first asked them “to join in an effort to induce the Israeli government to comply with the proposal for Middle East peace. Then he offered these succinct recommendations:   

 “Call on Hamas members and all other Palestinians to renounce violence and adopt the same commitment made by the Arab nations in 2002,” specifically:

• Full recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace within its legally recognized 1967 borders (to be modified by mutual agreement by land swaps) …” in compliance with “United Nations Resolutions, the official policy of the United States, commitments made at Camp David in 1978 and in Oslo in 1993, and the premises of the International Quartet’s ‘Roadmap for Peace.’”

• Immediate “resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians” (consistent with the official spokesman for the Palestinians, head of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, President Mahmoud Abbas, who “has repeatedly called for peace talks.”

At the end of his discussion with the rabbis in 2006, Mr. Carter reported that together they “held hands in a circle while one of the rabbis prayed.” At their request, he “autographed copies of (his) book (Palestine Peace Not Apartheid),” and Chaplain (Colonel) Rabbi Bonnie Koppell gave (him) a prayer book.”

“My own prayer,” Mr. Carter concluded, “is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors join in this common effort.”

The Carter Center press release “Center Jimmy Carter Issues Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, December 14, 2006, “Jimmy Carter Issues Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,” December 15, 2006, https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/carter_letter_121506.html

In the Moment (an update)

Dimitri Lascaris’s October 11, 2023, piece (excerpted)

Lawyer, journalist and activist Dimitri Lascaris recalls that over many decades the “Israeli government has tested the boundaries (but) rarely exceeded boundaries of the world’s tolerance.”

Relatively Recent Examples of Israel’s testing of the world’s tolerance

“Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza displaced 500,000 people and destroyed or damaged more than 20,000 Palestinian homes, 148 schools and 15 hospitals.”

(United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported that year that “the unemployment rate in Gaza had reached 44 percent”; and projected that, by the year 2020, close to 100 percent of Gaza’s drinking water supply would be unsafe.)

The Israeli military in 2018 reacted to “thousands of Gazans’ … peaceful ‘Great March of Return’ … by killing more than 150 Palestinians and injuring at least 10,000 others, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. An Israeli sniper also shot a Canadian-Palestinian doctor, Tarek Loubani.”

Then, NOW

“In the past,” Lascaris writes, “when the international community’s outrage at Israel’s criminality approached unmanageable levels, Israel lowered the pain dial on the Palestinian people. When the suffering of Palestinians receded from the world’s consciousness, Israel then ratcheted up the pain dial.

“This week, that cycle of calibrated depravity was broken…”— circumstances in which only the government of the United States “could rein in Netanyahu …

(Benjamin Netanyahu: an Israeli Likud Party politician and Israel Defense Forces (1967-) member raised in Jerusalem (and for a time in the U.S. city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) employed by the Boston Consulting Group before returning to Israel (1978); and later assuming the post of Israel’s UN representative (1984-1988); and reigning more than 17 years in the post of Israel’s premiership (1996 – 1999; 2009 – 2021; December 2022 –present).

“… [B]ut the Biden administration is too weak, too distracted by its failing proxy war in Ukraine, and too incompetent to intervene.…”

Is there a true moment of Awakening…  

(stir from distraction and slumber)

or Reckoning 

On the horizon?

Dimitri Lascaris concludes:

“The reality of what Israel has become is now too obvious to ignore. The international community cannot stand idly by any longer. In the weeks and months ahead, I believe that the conscience of the world will be awakened.

“The only question is: how many more Palestinians will the West allow to die before that moment comes?”

Dimitri Lascaris “Israel’s genocide in Gaza is no longer ‘incremental’” posted October 11, 2023, in Human Rights, International, Middle East, https://dimitrilascaris.org/2023/10/11/israels-genocide-in-gaza-is-no-longer-incremental/ Dimitri Lascaris is a multinational lawyer, journalist and activist based in Canada

Composition, Compilation Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett 

Author’s links: https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

nolandanisland@hotmail.com