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Posted on 01/24/2007 12:12:10 PM PST by presidio9
WALTHAM, Mass. (Jan 24, 2007): Jimmy Carter defended his controversial book yesterday, telling a predominantly Jewish university that his goal was revive Middle East peace talks and that attacks on his character had hurt him and his family.
Jewish groups have expressed outrage at "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," arguing that its comparison of Israel's treatment of Palestinians with South Africa's reviled apartheid system of racial segregation could undermine perceptions of Israel's legitimacy.
The former U.S. president, in his first direct address to Jewish Americans on his book, said the title referred to human rights in the Palestinian territories, not in Israel.
He said the word "apartheid" was intended to provoke debate on the rights of Palestinians, who he said were being treated unfairly by Israel.
He said he never asserted that Jewish money was controlling the U.S. media, as some critics have charged, but only that the pro-Israel lobby was strong.
"I've been hurt and so has my family by some of the reaction," Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, told about 1,700 students at Brandeis University, a secular school founded by the American-Jewish community, outside Boston.
"I've been through political campaigns for state senator, governor and president, and I've been stigmatised and condemned by my political opponents. But this is the first time that I have ever been called a liar. And a bigot and an anti-Semite and a coward, and a plagiarist. This is hurtful," he said.
"I can take it," he added, joking that he could handle the attacks because as a former U.S. president he still had Secret Service protection.
APOLOGY
Carter, 82, has been dogged by protests during a promotional tour. In the book, Carter traces the history of the Middle East from the 19th century to the present via the Camp David Accords in 1978, a year into his presidency.
He apologised for a passage that can be interpreted as supporting suicide bombings as a negotiating tactic, saying it was a "mistake" and would be removed from future editions.
But he said a full Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories was crucial for lasting peace.
The event was tightly controlled and closed to the public, preventing one of Carter's more scathing critics, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, from openly questioning him.
Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor who was on O.J. Simpson's legal defence team, wanted to ask Carter why he had accepted money from Saudi Arabia and why the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based humanitarian organisation, had criticised Israel while not looking into human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia.
Instead, a student asked those questions.
Carter responded in part by saying all donations were audited with Arab nations contributing a tiny fraction with most of the money going to humanitarian programmes.
About 60 protesters, detractors and supporters, gathered outside, some holding Israeli or Palestinian signs and flags.
"We support what Jimmy Carter is saying," said Alan Meyers, 56, a Jewish doctor from Boston. "We feel that there is not enough attention being paid to dissenting Jewish voices in the United States."
Nearby, Israeli-American Gilend Ini, 29, handed out fliers identifying what he said were errors in Carter's book. "We're trying to let the public know that much of what he said in his book was factually incorrect information." - Reuters
Call the whaaaaaambulance!!
"I've been hurt and so has my family by some of the reaction," Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002Don't feel bad. At least you didn't barf your guts out, like most of us did in 2002 when you got the Nobel POS Prize.
His presidency and the damage he did and continues to do to this country still hurts me.
Worst
President
Ever.
L
Character attacks? If he had any character it might hurt.
*plays tiny violin*
Does peanut-brain know that a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders would give the Temple Mount and Wailing Wall to the muzzies, who did not allow Jewish access??
....put some ice on it Jimmah....
Jimma:
They're not character attacks, their veracity attacks. That your lies reflect poorly on your character is not the point, just the after-effect. Tough.
"character attacks hurt"
...except when he's attacking a Bush or a conservative.
What an ASS CLOWN
Here's all you need to know about how Jimmy Carter sees the world...
.."the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we've fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.
Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonials' really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.
I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.
"Carter defends book, says character attacks hurt" ... truth hurts fools when they awaken to see themselves as others see them. But fear not, Jimmy will slump back into his fantasy image of himself all too quickly.
The truth hurts.
"the most bloody war.."
Plus the Dumb**s uses poor grammar! It's the BLOODIEST, you maroon!
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