2008 Woodie Awards
Carter's new book gives prescription for Palestinian peace
Daniel Black
Issue date: 1/25/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 3 next >
Last November, former president Jimmy Carter published a book appealing for a peaceful resolution to the violent conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors entitled: Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. Unique and unprecedented, this book offers its reader a perspective that seldom receives public attention.
Jimmy Carter accounts his personal experiences and involvement with influential leaders of several Middle Eastern countries. Numerous historical events that oftentimes are foggy or shrouded in the American Public's general understanding are discussed openly. Carter draws from his first hand knowledge, and, to an extent rarely seen in mainstream literature, implicitly acknowledges the humanity of all peoples affected by this conflict.
On the whole, I found the book very easy to read, thorough and intensely candid, and apparently written with the understanding that it broaches a subject frequently abused on those rare occasions it is actually discussed. It was, unfortunately, encumbered with a religious facet that I felt diminished its scholarly value.
Stemming from Carter's forthright and non-biased disclosures is the unsurprising consequence of passion-driven personal assaults against the president's character. Carter's work has, unfortunately, been interpreted by many as nothing more than an unfounded attack against Israel, sympathetic to the cause of violent fanatics who are intolerant of a Jewish state, and unruly diplomatic behavior unbecoming of a former U.S. president.
The most heated criticism against Carter's book is his describing Israel's treatment of non-Jewish inhabitants in the occupied territories as apartheid. Responses in defense of Israel's treatment have been swift and strong; critics denounced the comparison of Israel to South Africa as absurd, claiming that Carter's doing so compromises his credibility. If the comparison is inappropriate, then Carter should be commended for clearly agreeing. The final chapter of the book, the one most bitterly unwelcome for its apartheid analogy, says in its second paragraph that "the driving purpose for the forced separation of the two peoples is unlike that in South Africa," (pg. 189) then acknowledging the difference between Israel's and South Africa's respective motives. The analogy, it is important to understand, is based not upon motive, but upon method; to the extent that the analogy is informative and accurate, Carter beseeches the reader to consider critically the reality of Israeli/Palestinian apartheid and its caustic social effects on the marginalized people so affected.
Jimmy Carter accounts his personal experiences and involvement with influential leaders of several Middle Eastern countries. Numerous historical events that oftentimes are foggy or shrouded in the American Public's general understanding are discussed openly. Carter draws from his first hand knowledge, and, to an extent rarely seen in mainstream literature, implicitly acknowledges the humanity of all peoples affected by this conflict.
On the whole, I found the book very easy to read, thorough and intensely candid, and apparently written with the understanding that it broaches a subject frequently abused on those rare occasions it is actually discussed. It was, unfortunately, encumbered with a religious facet that I felt diminished its scholarly value.
Stemming from Carter's forthright and non-biased disclosures is the unsurprising consequence of passion-driven personal assaults against the president's character. Carter's work has, unfortunately, been interpreted by many as nothing more than an unfounded attack against Israel, sympathetic to the cause of violent fanatics who are intolerant of a Jewish state, and unruly diplomatic behavior unbecoming of a former U.S. president.
The most heated criticism against Carter's book is his describing Israel's treatment of non-Jewish inhabitants in the occupied territories as apartheid. Responses in defense of Israel's treatment have been swift and strong; critics denounced the comparison of Israel to South Africa as absurd, claiming that Carter's doing so compromises his credibility. If the comparison is inappropriate, then Carter should be commended for clearly agreeing. The final chapter of the book, the one most bitterly unwelcome for its apartheid analogy, says in its second paragraph that "the driving purpose for the forced separation of the two peoples is unlike that in South Africa," (pg. 189) then acknowledging the difference between Israel's and South Africa's respective motives. The analogy, it is important to understand, is based not upon motive, but upon method; to the extent that the analogy is informative and accurate, Carter beseeches the reader to consider critically the reality of Israeli/Palestinian apartheid and its caustic social effects on the marginalized people so affected.
Be the first to comment on this story