Jimmy Carter Writes New Book On Middle East

ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter has written a new book on the Middle East with a title he hopes will not be as controversial as the last one, which was called, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

Carter said Wednesday night that "We Can Bring Peace to the Holy Land" will be published in January, just after the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"I was going to call it, 'Yes, We Can.' My wife talked me out of it," Carter joked toward the end of a panel discussion on human rights at The Carter Center. He offered no further details on the new text, to be published by Simon & Schuster.

As president, Carter brokered peace between Israel and Egypt. But Jewish groups and some fellow Democrats strongly objected to his book published two years ago because it compared Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with former racial oppression in South Africa.

During the panel discussion at the conclusion of a two-day forum of international human rights activists, Carter said the "persecution of Palestinians" and lack of U.S. commitment to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict remains one of the most volatile issues in the Muslim world.

He said when he took office in 1977, there had been four wars and Arab oil embargoes, and he saw a need to begin tackling Middle East peace in the first year of his administration. Those efforts led to the 1979 Camp David Accords.

"We've had very few efforts since then to bring about a comprehensive peace," Carter said.

Carter, 84, has been a prolific author since leaving the White House, in 1981. His many best sellers include "An Hour Before Daylight" and "Our Endangered Values."

Comments

[JerryG1]

Jimmy Carter has worked tirelessly for peace and justice, speaking truth to power no matter the consequences or criticism.
He lives and works as a true disciple of Christ, not as a bombs-away Christian, nor as one who views Israel and the Jewish people as pawns in his own theological endgame.
He (and Mrs. Carter) could have retired in Georgia in comfort and instead have brought a message of peace, justice, hope and democracy to millions.

[1will]

I hope Barnes & Noble has room in the fiction section.

[Gscott1847]

Awesome! More misinformation and anti-Semitism wrapped up in far left lovey dovey stuff, and I'm a proud liberal too!

Read my review here:
http://nazibegone.blogspot.com/2008/04/thoughts-on-former-president-jimmy.html

[tiradintim]

Emotions beget bigotry, not truth

[blueskybigstar]

Carter, I can't remember if you have a Nobel or not. If you already have one, you deserve another. I hope Obama comes to the real middle east expert for advice.

[riverhouse]

Not much of a title, but any writing by President Carter on Middle East peace is worth reading. And you have to give him credit for the courage of his convictions. He doesn't give up on the Middle East.

[MagisterLudi]

too bad middle east gave up on him. Hama-s tricked him into issuing a statement of understanding and then immediately stabbed him in the back by denying it thru' their spokesman. Nice guy, but naive beyond belief.

[chaos4700]

Which statement was that? Not that you've ever fabricated anything before -- heh -- but some factual information might actually make you seem credible for once.

[43P04T34]

Go, Jimmy!

Tell it like it is!

[Susej]

You're monopolizing the discussion and you can barely make a coherent English sentence.

[MagisterLudi]

Lebanon policies,classify all P-nians as foreigners and deny them most political and civil rights.
The economic plight of the P-nians in Lebanon is generally worse than those P-nians in Jordan and the West B-ank and G-aza.
P-nians are unable to obtain citizenship in Lebanon.
The Lebanon does not provide health services to Pal refugees.
P-nians in Lebanon are denied from working in more than 70 professions and from property ownership.
ALL THIS WHILE SO CALLED DEFENDERS OF P-NIANS-- HEZ-B-O-LLAH ARE IN POWER! Talking about pat-hetic.

http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=66003

[functor]

Noun verb JIHADIST!

[chaos4700]

Right, fine. So a militant Islamic faction in Lebanon wants nothing to do with the Palestinian cause. What's your point? Do you honestly think anyone turns to Hezbollah as an example of Muslims at their most charitable? But then I suppose if you used a /real/ example you wouldn't have enough chaff to fill that straw man, would you?

[MagisterLudi]

The point is that YOU and many other brainwashees don't understand that NO ONE give a fkc about P-nians. Hez-bollah, I-ran and all these other 'friends" use them for one purpose only: To attack Is-r-ael. And if P-nians suffer as a result: all the better think (and act) A-rab brothers.W­ith brothas like this, who needs e-nemas.
When P-nians THEMSELVES understand this clearly--- a road to peace will open. Think, about it, if you can.

[Susej]

Analyzing your posts you sound like a angry egyptian coptic

[chaos4700]

There has been much speculation as to the nationality of MagisterLudi. While I have to confess it's hopelessly irrelevant just what his ethnicity and background is, I have to confess that, despite his protestations, to me this guy sounds like he's just some good ol' white boy from the backwoods of the Midwest.

[MagisterLudi]

Sorry... Which part of the facts presented in my post are NOT true? can you name ONE. Sorry it doesn't agree with propaganda you've been fed.....

[MagisterLudi]

Sorry... Which part of the facts presented in my post are NOT true? can you name ONE. Sorry it doesn't agree with the fairy tales you've been fed.....

[functor]

Read the Topic before you start your maniac.

Noun verb JIHADIST! ..........­...three words perfectly characterize you.

[Prattvictory2]

I think the Lebanese should be allowed to send the Palestinians back to their homes in Palestine.

[MagisterLudi]

Carter--one of the least successful and least popular Presidents of the 20th Century.
I truly hope that Obama does NOT turn out like Carter. Otherwise we're looking at another 12 years Republican domination in four years. Come to your senses, people.

[marymansour]

Carter was the least understood President but a great one. I lived in Egypt during the years he was helping Sadat work with the Israelis on a peace agreement. He is a genuine and very honest man. A rarity in politics.

[MagisterLudi]

Marymanous,, Carter DID work hard to make peace between Egypt and Israel. Unfortunately, most of his other undertakings met with dismal failure. That's why he became so unpopular. History is unkind to weak and indecisive leaders. For better or worse.
Gorbachev is very much like Carter. Except he was much greater politician than Carter can dream to be. Still, Gorby's perceived weakness in dealing with the attempted coup and economic mistakes doomed him as a politician. C'est la guerre

[orangepetal]

Oh, hooow dreadful that Jews are not helpless victims. I wonder if Carter will write about how the Palestinians agenda is not and has not been about seeking peaceful solutions. It is about gaining popular support for the destruction of the state of Israel. They have consistently encouraged terror in Israel in every conceivable way. When Israel REACTS they are labeled the aggressor. Whatever, we walked quietly and peacefully into the gas chambers, we are historically experts at being refugees and at being blamed for EVERYTHING. We are even pros at defending others rights even at our own peril. But we will once again persevere as the world once again unwittingly spews at us their venom.
Even now, with the closure, not even one small voice has even questioned why aid cannot be taken into Gaza through Egypt. Why not ? Do-gooders. Really ? I would say hardly. You can say as much as you want that we hate and try to label us, but we know better, we are taught to love, to sing, to dance, to learn, to give and to care.

[thankulord13]

That is the typical White man reply for justification for doing wrong... what Israel has done to the Palestinians has been as bad as Apartheid. Nelson Mandela's ANC did the same thing as the PLO and that is fight for their freedom. Carter only told the truth and the sad thing is America can't handle truth telling. Palestine needs to be free and Israel should be able to live in peace but not at the expense of the Palestinian people. This situation is only allowed to continue because the Israelis are Caucasian in appearance while the Palestinians are darker in complexion. We as people tend to defend those who look like us more often then if they looked like those people...

[MagisterLudi]

Now take a cold shower and read this:
"Egypt will not accept the establishment of an Islamic emirate along the eastern border," said Mustafa el-Fiqi, who heads Egypt's Parliament's foreign relations committee, on Wednesday, according to the London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi."
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit is blaming the Islamic movement for the breakdown in reconciliation talks with Fatah, Egyptian media reported Thursday.
Gheit said Egypt's reconciliation efforts between the two factions have failed thus far "due to Hamas's lack of enthusiasm for reconciliation," according to the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper.

[cheforacle]

As an American Jew and someone who loves Israel (and one who sometimes agree with the gov't's policy there and sometime I don't) I did not find Carter's last book objectionable. What I really object to is the notion that if you say one thing good or bad about either side, you are immediately labelled as being either anti-Semitic or an Arab-hater. I firmly believe it is in both Israel and Palestine's best interests to finalize a 2-state solution as soon as possible. The Palestinian extremists who utilize suicide bombers and lob rockets across the border make it less likely that the Palestinians will finally get their state. The continued occupation of the West Bank and the embargo on the Gaza Strip renders Israel incapable of realizing lasting security. And the ranks of jihadists worldwide enhance their recruiting by citing the oppression of the Palestinians while other Arab nations do very little for them.

As for Carter, no American President ever did more for Israel. For 30 years Egypt fought four wars with Israel. As a direct result of his difficult and intensive diplomacy, the two countries have been at peace for thirty years and set an example for Jordan. The fact the conflicts of the previous decades have not been repeated have kept the Middle East from being even worse, in terms of security, than it already is.

[who38]

Great post. Thanks.

[sonoffestus]

Thanks for your thoughtful and accurate post. I'm glad some folks have an ability to sort through the rubble, and see the reality of the situation.

[blueskybigstar]

thanks

[tiradintim]

Israel needs to find a role for itself that is neither one of victim nor aggressor

[tiradintim]

Israel needs to find for itself a role that is one of neither victim nor aggressor.­...until it can work that out and understand the irrelevance of being a one people-one religion state in the 21st century, it is hard to see peace coming to that part of the world

[who38]

Hear, hear.

[tiradintim]

Sorry--mistake. I meant RELEVANCE, not irrelevance. The idea that I.s.r.a.e.­l is a model democracy in the region is hard to swallow when you examine that country's behavior

[tiradintim]

Such a caring country

[betz55]

All you need to do is look at South Africa. The political violence ended after apartheid ended. The Israelis worrying about suicide bombers and other forms of resistance depends squarely on whether they end the occupation­... it's that simple.

If Israel ends the occupation, the humiliation and indignity, and the theft of Palestinian lands then we will have the chance to witness a change in Palestinian and Arab behaviour towards Israel. We can't know or presume to know what that behaviour will be then, but what we do know now (from the facts on the ground) is what the root cause of that behaviour is.
No occupation equals no need for resistance­... No apartheid means justice and equality.
Don't try to complicate things: It starts and ends with the occupation.

We, the US and the rest of the world are being blackmailed by a country that has an illegal nuclear arsenal capable of unimaginable destruction, a country which has no regard for international law, Geneva conventions, apartheid behavior, or their own terrorism and are demanding that sanctions be imposed on Iran for pursuing its inalienable right within the framework of the NPT. Utter bovine scatology.

[orangepetal]

Did the violence end ??? More people have died in South Africa from horrific violence in the last years than in Iraq.
Just because no one cares to tell the story does not make it any less real.

[thankulord13]

Just like more people have died in America than in South Africa... your right just because we don't report it doesn't mean it is any less real!

[blueskybigstar]

I don't believe you. A million people have d i e d in Iraq since we've been there.

[baffy]

Absolutely right. America must make Israel end the occupation now. The longer it goes on the more dire the consequences and the deeper the hate of America and Israel. Let's hope that Obama really does believe in change.

[MYSHA0405]

Couldnt have sid it better myself

[max08]

"But Jewish groups and some fellow Democrats strongly objected to his book published two years ago because it compared Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with former racial oppression in South Africa."

Tony Karon, Senior Editor of TIME Magazine, who is South African, and lived on a kibbutz before coming here in the 90s, said that what Israel is doing is worse than South African apartheid. So does Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela. (Google for the AP stories on the latter two.)

[thankulord13]

Agreed and yet they will bring up the atrocities of the holocaust in a heart beat... but they will never discuss there part in the Palestinian holocaust! Bottom line is wrong is wrong no matter who is behind it!

[Skandal]

To suggest there's been a Palestinian holocaust or genocide is sheer idiocy and ignorance. The Palestinian population has, in fact, grown significantly since the 1967. The exact opposite occurred during the Holocaust.

The Palestinians have had countless opportunities to negotiate an end to the occupation as is required under U.N.S.C. Resolution 242. They would much prefer to destroy all of Israel rather than have a country of their own.

[CarmanK]

I think Jimmy Carter is a great American and he is truly a man of peace. And like others who preach peace instead of an "eye for an eye", he had met with his detractors. I am so glad that he believes peace is achievable in the Middle East, because I believe that Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State will be the instrument of that movement which I hope will be successful. I am so tired of the lost lives due to unnecessary land grabs and big egos. It is time for Israel to have a safe homeland and the Palestinians to have their nation restored with dignity and respect. I believe Obama and Hillary will listen to Jimmy Carter.

[Arbor]

I hope you are right! But I'm afraid Jimmy Carter is considered political poison by many in the Democratic Party. Did you see how his only role at the Convention was to waive? As if he was a relative the Dems are ashamed of... He should be treated with respect. Anyone can disagree with his analysis, of course, but one can't question his motives.

[thankulord13]

Yes because he is a truth teller and people in politics can't handle the truth!

[indyny]

Carter has always been a truth-seeker and truth-speaker.
He is not afraid to tell it like it is, even to the almighty and powerful ghewish lobby.

[escapement]

Jimmy Carter may not have been a great president, according to the historical metrics, but he most definitely was my favorite president. Ever since Reagan took over and cheapened what it means to be an American we've had nothing but garbage in the Whitehouse­... Clinton included.

Let's hope that Obama will live up to the expectations.

[Manchurian]

I think Carter is by far our finest ex-president. His commitment to ending the persecution of Palestinians proves his compassion is sincere and apolitical.

[MagisterLudi]

I truly hope that Obama does NOT turn out like Carter. Otherwise we're looking at another 12 years Republican rule in 4 years.