Posted on 02/22/2007 5:28:14 PM PST by NormsRevenge
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Jimmy Carter defended his new book on the Middle East on Thursday against sharp criticism from Jewish groups and said a majority of U.S. citizens including many Jews supported its main proposals.
Letters he received since the publication in November of "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" were largely supportive and included support from many readers who described themselves as U.S. Jews, said the former president.
Jewish groups have expressed outrage at the book, arguing that its title and contents could undermine perceptions of Israel's legitimacy.
Carter, 82, was addressing a forum at Atlanta's Emory University in which he detailed his involvement in the Middle East culminating in the Camp David Accords in 1978. He gave a robust defense of the book and responded to written questions.
"Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from its neighbor's land and to permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights," he said.
Repression of Palestinians and taking of Palestinian land by Israel resulted from policies pursued by a conservative minority within Israel, he said.
Carter said he condemned all violence and he repeated an apology for a passage that critics said could be interpreted as supporting suicide bombings as a negotiating tactic. The passage would be removed from future editions, he said.
Carter denied accusations that he had said Jews controlled the U.S. media, but said the strength of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, whose aims he described as legitimate, acted to stifle debate.
For any member of Congress to call for Israel to withdraw to internationally-recognized boundaries would be "politically suicide," he said.
REACTION
Asked what he had learned from reaction to the book, Carter said he was surprised at the "intensity of feeling and genuine concern that some American Jewish citizens have when anyone questions the current policies of the ... Israeli government.
"I can understand the reasons ... that any shaking of almost unanimous support in America for Israel might weaken Israel's position ... as they struggle for their own safety and their own existence," he said.
The book's main points were that Israel should stop persecuting and abusing Palestinians, withdraw to internationally-recognized borders and conduct intense negotiations with its neighbors to bring peace, Carter said.
"Those premises, which are the major premises in my book, have a strong support of American citizens," including many Jews, he said. He added that he guessed the majority of Jews in Israel also agreed with the book's proposals.
A Public Agenda poll last October with the journal Foreign Affairs found that 70 percent of Americans expressed at least partial support for the view that U.S. policies were too "pro-Israel" for the U.S. to be able to broker a Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, received several standing ovations during the forum. Outside, some people criticized his remarks and the book.
"It seems from what he said today that Israel's occupation is at the root of the problem. But I would argue that Palestinian terrorism is at the root of the problem," said Benjamin Braun, 21, a student at Emory of Middle East studies.
Former President Jimmy Carter speaks about his controversial book 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid' at Jewish-founded Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts January 23, 2007. Carter defended his new book on the Middle East on Thursday against sharp criticism from Jewish groups and said a majority of U.S. citizens including many Jews supported its main proposals. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
He is getting more senile day by day.
Haley Rosengarten, 22, a senior American Studies major from Greenwich. Conn at Emory University in Atlanta, wears a sweatshirt that reads 'What's Jimmy Afraid Of?' Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007, as former President Jimmy Carter speaks at Emory. Carter on Thursday suggested that critics of his controversial book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should visit the occupied territories and see for themselves whether his account is on target. Answering written questions from the audience, Carter said he felt no need to debate Dennis Ross, a former U.S. Mideast envoy and major player in past Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. (AP Photo/Gene Blythe)
Jimmy Carter needs a good rest home.
What's Jimmah smokin' these days???
I believe I’ll go make myself a peanut butter and bologna on Lavash. (aka Jimmah Carter Sandwich)
Hi, I am Jimmy Carter, Mr. Delusional.
I hate Jimmy Carter. If you are looking for an "American" to put the blame on, for most of our problems, you will find Carter. He is the (still) living example of everything wrong, evil and stupid.
Jimmy Carter, valued friend of terrorists and Islamo-fascists everywhere!
Jimmy certainly wasn't the brightest peanut on the vine.
Jews just think they disagree with Jimmah. He says they agree with him, so it must be true. /s
I am ashamed to be an Emory grad (although, from post #3 it seems the girls have gotten cuter and smarter since I was there).
Carter is an idiot.
The high point of Carter's life was appearing in a sweater in the White House with the thermometer set at 65 degrees as he told us about the malaise we were all in.
It's been down hill for him since.
This is the man who gutted the military.
This is the man who had no reply to Iran's taking over of our Embassy, our Ambassador and the diplomatic staff and keeping them as hostages for 444 days.
This is the man who had a run in with a giant hare.
This is the man who lusted in his heart (he had no choice since his brain was rusted).
This is the man who became the first ex-president to denigrate a sitting president - he broke a 200 year protocol.
This is the man engineered long lines at the gas pumps.
This is the man who gave us unprecedented inflation.
And economic stagnation.
I don't see where he gets the hutzpuh (do you mind me using a Yiddish work, Jimmah?) to try to tell us anything about anything with any kind of authority.
I can't think of one thing this man has gotten right.
I didn't even like his sweater.
The only parts of the book that I support are the page numbers, although there is a slight chance, if you twisted my arms hard enough, that I could be convinced to support its whitespace, with emphasis on "slight chance".
At 82 it won't be too long before he's no longer a problem.It's gonna be a great party when he goes.
About the same percent that fondly remember his four years as President.
Care to vote on that, Mr. President... My guess is you wouldn't fare even as well as when you were trounced (thank God!) in 1980.
Some kind of Peanut Blight of the Brain might do it.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Zionist bunny, though treif, has had peanut man's number for years. Probably a right wing bunny.
Jimmah Chiclets is NOT delusional!
He is pure EVIL and he knows exactly what he is doing and saying!
I have relatives well into their 80's who are rational, true and good people.
Not like this WORTHLESS CREEP!!
):^(
Mr peanut not only needs a rest he needs to come to grips with his disasterous legacy as president. It took the great Ronald Reagan to bring pride and honor back to this great land!!!! where are the Ronald Reagans for the 2008 election??? We need him now more than ever! Step up to the plate Republicans and stop appeasing these feckless, dispicable demon-crates who will ultimately ruin 300 years of glory. where is Georgie Wash, hes probably shaking his head right now
"At 82 it won't be too long before he's no longer a problem.It's gonna be a great party when he goes."
The pathetic thing is that the residuals of his actions will go on for quite some time.
I lived through that. It is incredible to me that a U.S. President allowed that to drag on for 444 days. Reagan would not have allowed it to go on for a week. No one much talks about that anymore and many young people probably don't even know it happened.
He's as right on that as he ever has been on anything else. It reminds me of the old joke, that Jimmuh could be stripped naked, dipped in a vat of clue musk, dropped in a field full of horny clues, and he STILL couldn't get a clue.
A damn lie!
Carter is the same moron who deposed the Shah and served Iran to the Shiite fanatics on a silver platter. That shows you how much he knows about Islam
I can just imagine what will happen to Israel if tomorrow it gave up the West Bank and Golan Heights. And it sure wouldn't be peace. Because Jihad is eternal and war against Israel is eternal as long as there are Muslims
Jews just think they disagree with Jimmah. He says they agree with him, so it must be true. /s
I think we all miss Ronald Reagan. I wish Rick Santorum would get in the fight.
Nope Jimmy,after reading the above postings I don't think you've convinced anyone here that you're anything besides a moron !!!
Just like the residuals of Clinton The Swine.
Jimmy has eaten too many of his peanuts.
Of course not! Just check out the podium in the first post. You couldn't ask for any more proof than that.
Any idea what that passage is?
The attack of the killer rabbit is a longstanding joke.
That's funny enough, the attack of the killer rabbit.
But if you read the contemporary coverage, this wasn't a killer rabbit.
It was a panicked rabbit fleeing a predator.
And Jimmy, President Jimmy, with the power of the United States of America behind him, tried to help by smacking him with the paddle. Help the predator, that is.
And bragged to the papers about it.
Maybe he was lusting in his head, and thought he got his wish.
Carter is full of crap. he is now making up public opinion just as he made up "facts" for his book.
He is a disgrace to the South and nation.
Taking over an Embassy is an overt act of war.
Taking am Ambassador and the diplomatic staff hostage is an overt act of war.
It has been an overt act of war for 1000 years.
It's an overt declaration of war.
Even the Japanese and Germans didn't do that. I can't recall any counry doing that.
The American reply should have been an immediate deadline for freeing the diplomatic staff and vacating the Embassy grounds - and paying damages. The Embassy is AMERICAN SOIL.
If the deadline was not met the response should have been immediate and lethal.
Yes, the lives of the diplomats might have been forfeit - but they understand that when they accept overseas assignment.
Carter's pleading and offers of appeasement was worse than a non-reply. It broadcast to the entire world that America was a paper tiger (as China had labeled us in the 1960's). Most of our troubles can be traced directly to that event in Teheran.
The Islmaic fascists realized they could take over a country (Iran) and pull the tiger's tail (us) and the tiger would wimper and meow.
So, the terrorists decided to try for other countries: Aghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, etc.
And what made it worse is Carter attempted not to retaliate against that international crime - but he attempted to rescue the hostages with a military he had gutted.
The failure to respond with lethal overwhelming force against the capital (Teheran) and the failure to even mount a credible rescue made us the laughing stock of the entire world.
Much of the world is still laughing.
Message to Jimmuh, You do NOT speak for me!
signed Kalee
It was Carter who negotiated the treaty in which Egypt
became the first Arab country to formally recognize Israel,
in 1979. Wouldn't you say that this was something that Carter
had "gotten right"?
majority in his family, that is...and Barbra Steisand...
Let's play a simple game called "One of these things is not like the other". The challenge is to place the actual words of a former president into the mouth of a genocidal mass-murderer, and see whether or not there's a snowball's chance in hell that the mass-murderer, any mass-murderer, would agree with it and be comfortable saying it. (credit to Taranto's column for the inspiration)
Sir James, you and Billy Beer both suck.
Carter wrote: 'It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.'
Page 213Of course a day or two after his "apology", he went on al Jazeera.
This video clip speaks for itself, as America’s worst former president is interviewed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s media mouthpiece, Al Jazeera, on January 14, 2007. (Courtesy of MEMRI TV.)
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Like most scumbags of the Carter variety, they think we're all too stupid to pick up what they say in Arabic. Or in the Arab press.
You forgot BCCI.
Amen to all that. He was and is a disaster.
Signed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos of Panama on September 7, 1977, this set in motion the process of handing the canal over to Panamanian control for free.
Excerpt source - Wikipedia
Jimmey Carter must count votes and determine majorities like Bert Lance determined security for handing out Calhoun National Bank loans (mainly to relatives).
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