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.
LOL!
Well, at least he has done one good thing!
This is serious, Carter normally reserves such talk only for the United States!
Carter could care less if Israel went away tomorrow. The caller to cSPAN last week was totally correct in what she said to him (before being cut off by the moderator).
He's never forgiven us for voting for Ronald Reagan and cutting him out of office. I think he hates America and Americans.
You said it. He is a sorry person that has been on his own 30 year jihad against Americans for knowing he was a fraud and a fake.
What would be Jimmy's reaction be if one of his neighbors, with the means to do so, publicly and loudly announced that they were going to wipe the Carters off the face of the Earth?
I'd bet they'd quickly find hundreds of heavily armed federal agents at their doorstep hauling them away to jail.
I'd also bet that Jimmy would not be complaining when his neighbors declined to fund the neighbor intending to wipe him off the face of the Earth.
That Jimmy Carter is not in a nursing home is literally a crime. Where is social services when we need them?
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That Jimmy Carter is not in an INSANE ASYLUM is literally a crime. Where is social services when we need them?
There; I fixed it.
He's going lower...
Carter: Universities blocked book promo - December 9, 2006
Jimmy Carter said universities with substantial Jewish enrollment have blocked him from discussing his book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid."
"My most troubling experience has been the rejection of my offers to speak, for free, about the book on university campuses with high Jewish enrollment and to answer questions from students and professors," Carter said in an Op-Ed published Friday in the Los Angeles Times.
snip
I think he has gone off the deep end and does not know how to surface. I do not remember a worse President.
btt
Statesman?...Give me a large break,...more like a mumbling idiot, staining our fine reputation with statements/comments way out of line
Ol'Carter should be going to his main employment of growing peanuts/building cheap homes, and let the political heavy lifting to the real pro's.
He is an utter embarrassment to the United States of America.
I wonder when Carter's Alzeimer's will be publicly confirmed?
.......he just seems desparate .......
He is old, he sees the end. He sees a moment of glory supersceded by history that.
Bitterness has overcome reason as he flails about seeking historical relevance
It seems Republicans are content to create their legacy during their terms in office. Jimmy and Billy did nothing to create one during their terms in office. Hence the scrable...
Also there is some nice music if you click on the picture.
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