Carter: Blockade of Gaza is an Abomination

Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking in Cairo, stated the obvious: the blockade of Gaza is a "crime" and an "atrocity," Reuters reports.

"It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. it's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said.

Since the blockade is aimed at punishing civilians, the Carter's statement that the blockade is a crime is simply a statement of fact. It's a clear violation of international law.

But when someone with access to the microphone states an important fact which is not being acknowledged, they deserve attention.

Carter is not just denouncing the conditions in Gaza, but suggesting a way out of the political impasse that is being used to justify the blockade. The United States should abandon its counterproductive campaign to isolate Hamas, and instead work to incorporate Hamas into a process of seeking Israeli-Palestinian peace. While the Bush Administration and its supporters in Congress like Rep. Berman act as if this is an absurd idea, it's supported by 64% of Israelis, the former head of Israel's Mossad, and a bipartisan group of US foreign policy experts including Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft.

By meeting Hamas leaders, he has already helped create progress toward a different policy. In a proposal given to Carter, an Israeli cabinet minister offered to meet Hamas leaders to ask for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit - a move at variance with official Israeli government policy. Carter said Hamas leaders in Cairo told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Palestinian President Abbas if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.

The Bush Administration has said that it wants an Israeli-Palestinian agreement before it leaves office, but the process it initiated has stalled. The opportunity for movement created by Carter's trip should not be ignored. Americans who support Carter's initiative should raise their voices.

Just Foreign Policy and Jewish Voice for Peace have initiated a petition to the Presidential candidates, asking them to support President Carter and support talks with Hamas. Let's not let another opportunity to push forward for peace slip away.

Comments

[mommamia526]

Now, I wonder, someone, please, enlighten me. Is it not true that the U.S. (and other nations) have declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization? Is the U.S. - and are other countries - not at war with terrorism and terrorist organization? If that is the case, some lawyer help me out here, could a point be made that Jimmuh Cahtuh is engaging in *treasonous* *activity*? Moreover, the way he goes about matters is not even helpful to *da poor Palestinians*. It only riles everyone up. It does not solve any problems. Jimmuh Cahtuh may be *out of the loop*. Secret negotiations have been going on with Hamas for about five years now. Instead of Jimmuh Cahtuh's admonitions to Israel it would be better for him to convince *da poor Palestinians* to change their ways and *methods*. *MURDER* is not allowed - as Baptist Cahtuh should know - does he not know his own bible? *MURDER* is also not allowed under international law. And Jimmuh Cahtuh has been forced to correct his own statements in his recent book, that Palestinians should continue what they are doing. THAT, Jimmuh Cahtuh should know is exactly why Israelis and everyone else can not live with Palestinians and other terrorists. And the tentacles of *da poor Palestinians* apparently reach far. Just a few weeks ago I met a Palestinian woman whose father, a shopkeeper in the U.S., was murdered, right here, in the U.S. not so long ago. Terrorism destroys everything and everyone.

[LittleBrother]

Excuse me-- I have to soak my eyeballs in bleach now.

[mommamia526]

Egypt has a problem with Gaza (Hamas) a.o. with respect to illegal gun smuggling and has instated measures to counteract, a.o., that. Israel gave up Gaza to the Palestinians, and many Israelis are STILL without proper housing because of that, and not receiving adequate aid. Kassams are lobbed daily from Gaza into Israel, a.o. on Sderot. Gaza murderers invade Israel with the intent to blow up and even poison Israelis and visitors to Israel. Just a few weeks ago a plot was discovered to poison visitors at a restaurant. Hamas has declared to be at war with Israel and will not recognize Israel. In spite of that Israel does provide Gaza with aid. Jimmuh Cahtuh needs to realize that the sitution is one of war, declared by the Palestinians and Hamas, and under the circumstances the protective measures taken by Israel are more than mild. The best example of how giving and giving to the Palestinians does NOT WORK, but instead has THE OPPOSITE EFFECT of achieving peace and prosperity lies, indeed, in the handing over of Gaza. Jimmuh needs to go home and plant more peanuts, make them into peanut butter, and feed the Palestinians himself. Maybe he wants to give up, moreover, some of his accumulated wealth and landownership here in the U.S. to give a few poor Palestinians a home and some land.

[jhNY]

Since Israel has been bargaining in good faith lo these many years since Camp David, you'd think they'd have built a few housing units in advance of the end-state of the peace process they have worked so nobly to complete. But never really wanting or expecting peace with the Palestinians, they never built any such accomodations, and so, now we have the plight of homeless 'settlers' without adequate aid, even a couple years after Sharon had them removed from Gaza. This is probably a political goldmine locally, in that the poor settlers can be paraded before the electorate as an example of Israeli suffering for the cause of peace. And yet, it would seem that the Gazans suffer even more...

[Dohiyi]

Carter was not to blame for the Iranian hostage crisis. The Iranian Revolution occurred because the CIA overthrew Iran's democratically elected government in the early 50's and the US then supported the Shah's opressive regime. The hostage crisis was extended until Reagan's inaugeration because Reagan and George H. W. Bush negotiated with the Iranian Revolutionary government to hold the hostages untl after the 1980 US presidential election in exchange for Reagan's promise to sell military arms to Iran in violation of American law. The Reagan administration then used the proceeds from the illegal arms sales to illegally arm fascist guerillas in Nicaraqua.

Jimmy Carter is widely unpopular in the US today because of his efforts to bring peace to the world. Americans are addicted to war and violence and resent anyone who interferes with their favorite passtime.

[steve70638]

Like everything else during Carter's administration...his comments are an oversimplification of a complex problem. Gaza blockade? What is Egypt's role in this (let's not forget Gaza has TWO borders, not one)? The border with Egypt is run by the Egyptians under EU supervision but nobody focuses on THAT border.

When he was president, what would he have done if a neighboring country like Mexico was daily firing missiles into Arizona and the Mexican government was doing nothing to stop it? What would he have done if suicide bombers were coming in from Mexico daily? I think he would have acted rationally and closed the border. I think he would have authorized the Army and Air Force to run adventures into Mexican soil to stop the rockets too.

[Robert Naiman - Huffpost Blogger]

See Robert Naiman's Profile

Denouncing the blockade by no means implies letting Egypt off the hook. I don't think it was an accident that Carter made those remarks in Cairo. People in Egypt know full well the role of the Egyptian government in maintaining the blockade. Indeed, it was because of the public pressure that the Egyptian government acceded to the breach.

[LittleBrother]

Apart from being a person of extraordinary intellect, vision, and integrity, Mr. Carter is a mensch. It"s not surprising that he is shunned by the goniffs in high places in the Amerikan-Zion hegemony.

Nor is it surprising that Mr. Carter is not daunted or discouraged at being disrespected and discommoded by these puerile pissants, but steadfastly hews to his agenda and remains one of the few moral leaders left in the world with the courage to speak truth to power.

[VeggieVeal]

Not sure about yiddish: Mensch=schmuck?

[Robert Naiman - Huffpost Blogger]

See Robert Naiman's Profile

Folks who say Carter is naive should have to answer this: 64% of Israelis said they support talks with Hamas. Are 64% of Israelis naive?

[NoSocialism.com]

Carter is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, all that time that his administration was held Hostage to the Iranian extremists. He's doing everything he can to make sure the people who humiliated him, like him and realize that they made a "mistake" in targeting him.

[blindjester]

What is your solution to the problem?

[VeggieVeal]

Unfortunately, Carter is once again exposing his naivete in handling international problems. When you get stung by some hornets from a troublesome nest, you don't selectively try to kill just the individual hornets who attacked you. You strike at the whole nest, otherwise, you are a fool.

Apply that fundamental logic to the hornets nest that is Gaza.

[Atticus]

Veggie, that is way too simplistic. The hornets nest isn't Gaza, it's Hamas.

[jhNY]

You are both wrong. And rhetorically reducing your enemies to insects is more than bordering on racism, yet entirely unsurprising coming from intellects like yourselves. Israel is the last European colony to be visited on the Third World, and has , despite the bristling fervency of its supporters and no matter how many targeted assassinations and armed incursions it undertakes against a trapped population, no better chance for a long existence over time as any other colony forced on the politically marginal by the politically strong.