The Helsingin Sanomat, (Helsinki’s premier daily news paper) published an op-ed (17.3.06) by the US’s most failed ex-president Jimmy Carter, in which he rakes Israel over the coals for everything related to the conflict war with the Palestinians. His op-ed proves what the Israelis have known for some time, that Jimmy Carter is a joker and someone who could never be taken seriously or trusted. Since I found the original copy in English I will leave a link to it here.
Carter:
“For more than a quarter century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the United States and the international community. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had no formalized government, one headed by Yasir Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas, or with Abbas as president and Hamas controlling the parliament and cabinet. The unwavering U.S. position since Dwight Eisenhower’s administration has been that Israel’s borders coincide with those established in 1949, and, since 1967, the universally adopted U.N. Resolution 242 has mandated Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories. This policy was reconfirmed even by Israel in 1978 and 1993, and emphasized by all American presidents, including George W. Bush. As part of the Quartet, including Russia, the U.N. and the European Union, he has endorsed a “Road Map” for peace. But Israel has officially rejected its basic premises with patently unacceptable caveats and prerequisites. With Israel’s approval, The Carter Center has monitored all three Palestinian elections. Supervised by a blue-ribbon commission of college presidents and distinguished jurists, they have all been honest, fair and peaceful, with the results accepted by winners and losers. “
First of all, Carter errs geatly in depicting Israel’s settlement policy as ”being in conflict” with the US. Though previous US administrations have envoked the 4th Geneva convention, the administrations under both Reagon and Bush Sr. did not view the settlements as being ‘illegal’.
Secondly, Carter’s claim of ”Israeli obstruction” is pure fantasy, which completely overlooks Ehud Barak’s Camp David offers and Arafat’s unwillingness to forgo terrorism and his stranglehold on Palestinian politics that were choking Palestinian society through severe corruption.
Thirdly, Carter also errs by adding a ‘THE’ before the word ”territories”, no such article was included in the final drafting of UNSCR242. On October 29, 1969, for example, the British Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons the withdrawal envisaged by the resolution would not be from “all the territories.” When asked to explain the British position later, Lord Caradon said: “It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and artificial.”
And lastly, Carter is ‘way off’ concerning the legitimacy of Arafat’s election to the office of president of the PA., as the report by Daniel Polisar shows why. Relying on half truths and out right falsehoods, former president Jimy Carter weaves an altogether different scenario as to why there is still an impasse in the ‘so called peace process’. Like a drunk that looks for his keys under the lampost, Carter can only blame the Israelis for the intransigence of the Palestinians. KGS
