Posted on 12/09/2006 12:25:44 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter says the decision by Canada and other nations to withhold money from the Hamas-led Palestinian government is "a crime."
Israel and western donors such as Canada have demanded Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept past peace agreements. Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction despite its stated offer of a long-term truce, rejects the conditions.
"It's a crime against the people of Palestine," Carter told CBC News in an exclusive interview from New York.
"For Canada and others to punish the Palestinian people because they voted for their candidates of choice, I think is literally a crime."
The statesman and prolific author defended his harsh criticism of Israeli policy in his latest book, saying he hopes to erode the "impenetrable wall" that blocks the U.S. public from seeing the plight of Palestinians. 'Apartheid' questioned
Jewish groups have launched petitions criticizing Carter's use of the word "apartheid" — the system of legal racial separation once used in South Africa — to describe Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
"There is in many ways a much more serious deprivation of human rights among the Palestinians because of this ill-advised policy than even there was in South Africa," he told CBC News.
"I deplore the Palestinian suicide bombings as much or more than anything than I do what Israel has done against the Palestinian people. It's horrible on both sides and should be eliminated. But you have to look at the facts."
He said that by the time Hamas was elected in January, the Palestinian authority had already been brought to bankruptcy and couldn't pay police officers, firefighters and government employees.
"They can't a cheque from their own government, so they're in effect performing their own duties without pay and Canada is in collusion with this ill-advised policy."
Carter also said the Israeli response to the capturing of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah last summer was "excessive beyond what was needed."
Carter, who has led efforts to monitor several elections in the Palestinian Authority since leaving office, said bringing peace to the Middle East is the most important commitment in his public life.
His top-selling book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, has been criticized by pro-Israel groups and led to the resignation, announced this week, of Kenneth Stein, a Carter Center fellow and a longtime Carter adviser.
Carter's latest book has drawn stern rebukes from current Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean.
"With all due respect to former president Carter, he does not speak for the Democratic party on Israel," Pelosi said in a statement.
Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, said he intended the book to provoke debate on Israeli policy that has been stifled by the news media and others, who have been "almost unanimously silent," and lamented the lack of debate over Israeli policy in the U.S.
"It's almost a universal silence concerning anything that might be critical of current policies of the Israeli government," he said.
The book follows the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, starting with Carter's 1977-1980 presidency and the Camp David peace accord he negotiated between Israel and Egypt.
Carter's orders are to do as much damage as he can before he goes back to Hell where he came from.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Palestine wants to be a country.
The Countries principal import is rockets from Iran, Their principle export are rockets from Iran and suicide vests.
The principle labor of Palestinians is fighting with each other or anyone else.
The principal source of income is donations from radical Islam and Charity from other countries .
What other country in the world has ebver survived with these statictics.
Why dont you send them a check from the peanut farm Jim-boy.
Well and truly put!
Are Jimmuh's testicles in a lock-box somewhere?
What a pussy!
He's usurped Warren Harding to be sure. What a malignant b@stard he's become.
It's blind intellectual equivalence at work in JC's mind. TO him, any election must be fully honored by the international community, especially by other demcoracies like Canada. Even if terrorists are elected into power, Jimmy thinks the need to respect the will of the voters is more important than punishing terrorists. He does not believe choices have consequences. I believe that voters who elect terrorists are terrorists themselves and a collective punishment like witholding funding is appropriate.
Jimmah...Jimmah...Jimmah!
The Palestinians made their decision and the Canadians made theirs.
Is that so difficult for you to understand?
Jimmah, your 15 minutes of fame has now become 15 years! You have become a national embarrassment!
It is time for you to shut up and get off the stage!
Personally I think jimmah cawter sucking oxygen out of the air that decent people can use is criminal.
I thought the headline was declaring Carter to be a Palestinian criminal and Canada was withholding his speaking fees or something.
History's Greatest Monster rears his ugly head again!
Hamas recently called for Muslims to attack American targets anywhere in the world. So... fund Hamas, fund attacks on Americans. I guess that's what Jimmy Carter wants.
It seems to me the former President is the criminal, making up his own history as he goes and working against the interests of his own country. Thankfully the Harper government in Canada seems to know what the right thing to do is.
I am deadly serious here - I think Mr. Carter should be given some mental status testing if he is going to continue making traitorous assertions against the nation in which he lives and prospers.
He held public office - the highest in the land - and I think somewhere in the back of his mind, he should at least respect those people who placed him there rather than insulting and demeaning the American people before the world.
Dementia often includes paranoid thought.
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