Last night 100 progressive people, almost all Jewish (one wore Muslim head covering), crowded the Village Temple in New York to learn about conditions in the Occupied Territories. The speakers were a former Israeli soldier and a former Palestinian resistance fighter. They said the following:
—There are 530 checkpoints in the West Bank. Only 30 are on the Green Line between the West Bank and Israel. Yes; some of those have stopped suicide bombers. The purpose of the other 500 has nothing to do with security. “The strategy there is to destroy Palestinian society, to prevent any joint organized struggle [against the occupation],” said the Israeli.
—The Israeli P.M. recently promised the Palestinian President that the checkpoints would be relaxed. They have not been. “The army receives these instructions and… does not take the instructions,” the Israeli said, citing Israel’s leading newspaper. Thus the army acts on its own as a repressive force (Israeli generals have long defied civilian supervision).
—The Palestinian, his brother, and his father have spent 25 years in Israeli jails, much of that time without due process, for such offenses as graffiti and other statements opposing the occupation. The man’s family has lost many acres of its land to Jewish settlers, in a village outside Bethlehem.
—Arbitrary laws prevent Israelis from carrying Palestinians in their cars in the Occupied Territories. The intention, says the Israeli, is to keep the two sides from talking.
The situation these men describe is worse than apartheid. “Three and a half million people live without any rights,” said the Israeli, whose own sister was killed by a suicide bomber. “You want to stop these people [suicide bombers], you should give them a reason to live.”
The campaign by the U.S. Jewish leadership to smear Jimmy Carter will one day be taught in history books, as an effort by a privileged elite to suppress the truth. Slavery and segregation also had powerful defenders who misrepresented those conditions. Despite all their well-connected efforts, these people will lose for two simple reasons: the facts are against them, and a movement has begun to discover those facts. The progressive Jews jamming the temple last night are the evidence.
The Brit Tzedek tour by these two former combatants in the Occupied Territories continues across our country over the next month. It is aimed at one thing: to open Jews’ eyes and ears. Let us pray.
I'm going to write a supporting email to the Carter Center and make a contribution. I urge others to do the same.
Thank you for this courageous post defending human dignity, putting justice and truth over tribe and bias.
I applaud our President Jimmy Carter and his pro-justice stance. And I thank this paper for doing the same even though Jewish groups and their lobby in the United States would surely throw a fit (as they always do with the abnoxious Mr. Harris of the AJC).
Thanks.
I also made a contribution of $10 to the Carter Center based in Atlanta saying that I 150% agree with his views regarding Christian and Muslim Palestinians living under Israeli state terror, Merkeva tanks, and US supplied F-16I fighter jets dropping 2 tonne bombs.
I received a wonderful thank and "welcome" packet show casing Mr. Carter's committment to help victims of oppression in Palestine, natural disasters of Katrina, and diseases in Africa.
He is one President whom I adore for being 100% unafraid of the smear and fear tactics employed by these people.
They did it to respectable Harvard Professors and they did it to the most humanitarian President of the US. Heck they'd do it to Mother Teresa or Moses again if he claimed Israel was founded on terrorism or championed the Palestinian people's cause for self-determination.
What Jimmy Carter doesn't alk about is the fact that he is on the Saudi Arabia payroll. For him it is easy to lie because his pockets are filled with ill-gotten gains.
he would sell his soul to the devil and it looks like he already has.
I assume Fred is referring to the claim that the Saudis contribute to the Carter Center. So what? It's a non-profit organization. It doesn't line anybody's pockets. And good on the Saudis if they support it.
And what on earth is the supposed connection between the Carter Center and Carter's latest book? He's not compelled to write. He's an octogenarian who still takes a lot of interest in what is going on in the world, and good on him for that. I've seen no evidence that Jimmy Carter is interested in personal wealth.
Virtually his only critics seem to be Jews, and their criticism just illustrates one of the points Carter is making – that debate of the Israeli-Palestinian situation is being stifled in America.
There are always two sides to a story. In America we only get the Israeli perspective. The Europeans are much more free with their press as it is not controlled by a particular group. I welcome the courage of Jmmy Carter who has the guts to stand up and say what he believes, politically correct or not. For this he will be remembered more than any of his past deeds.
KC- you cheap fuck
You make a 10 dollar contribution and then brag about it???
Phil — why don't you address Carter's lies?
"In the past you would inject yourself into this world to moderate between the two sides in the pursuit of peace and as a result you earned our admiration and support. Now you repeatedly make false claims. You wrote that UN Security Council Resolution 242 says that "Israel must withdraw from territories" (p. 38), but you know the word "must" in fact is not in the resolution. You said that since Mahmoud Abbas has been in office there have been no peace discussions. That is wrong. You wrote that Yassir Arafat told you in 1990 that, "The PLO has never advocated the annihilation of Israel" (p. 62). Given that their Charter, which explicitly calls for Israel's destruction, was not revised until the late 1990s, how could you even write such a claim as if it were credible?
You denied on Denver radio on December 12 that Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyah said he would never accept or negotiate with Israel. However the BBC monitoring service reported just the opposite. In fact Haniyah said: "We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihadist movement until Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are liberated. When presented with this fact you said, "No he didn't say that, no he did not do that, I did not hear that." These are not points of opinion, these are points of fact."
also see how Carter is bought and paid for by Saudi Arabia — Especially lucrative have been Carter’s ties to Saudi Arabia. Before his death in 2005, King Fahd was a longtime contributor to the Carter Center and on more than one occasion contributed million-dollar donations. In 1993 alone, the king presented Carter with a gift of $7.6 million. And the king was not the only Saudi royal to commit funds to Carter’s cause. As of 2005, the king’s high-living nephew, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, has donated at least $5 million to the Carter Center.
You Carter lovers are living in denial — and are serving as useful idiots in furthering the cause of a retrograde, anti-modern, women suppressing, homo-hating, racist, sick excuse for a state — Saudi Arabia.
Nuff said. Peace out.
Jimmy Carter smeared himself. Anybody who opens a history book can easily learn the differences between South Africa's aparthied and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
I question the motives of anybody who looks at Israel and calls it "apartheid", because they are either gloriously ignorant of the facts on the ground, or simply have no desire for the truth.
The Israeli-Palestinian issue is complicated and there are more than enough human rights violations on both sides, but to call Israeli policies "apartheid" is simply promotion of a lie.
Funny Yakir, it seems that Tutu and Mandela don't agree with you because they have both called it apartheid.
I wonder what kind of history books you are reading. And I'll take Tutu's and Mandela's word about what apartheid is over yours anytime.
I am glad I don't hate anyone as much as Phil Weiss hates Jews.
Sorry, Dan Fromme, calling someone a Jew hater because they criticize Israel no longer works–we know it's no substitute for facts. It's one of the ways Jimmy Carter is trying to liberate public opinion from the pro-Israel lobby. Be a good Jew, Danny, and support universal rights!
Yakir, I would guess that you did not read Jimmy Carter's excellent book. If you had you would have seen that nowhere in the book does he say that apartheid is practiced within Israel proper although he would have absolutely been correct to write about the discrimination in Israel against non-Jews, especially non-Jews who are Palestinian.
Only a few years ago, after traveling through the illegally occupied territories, Bishop Desmond Tutu who had lived under South African apartheid, said that what he saw was worse than South Africa. And isn't it interesting that Israel and apartheid South Africa were good friends. Birds of a feather, as they say.
My Challenge to so-called Progressive Jews such as Phil Weiss
Go and live there. Live under the control of Hamas.
Don't give other people advice on how they should defend themselves.
Don't hide in New York under the protection of the US military which you loathe
Don't put your brothers and sisters on cattle cars. We don't need Rumkowskis. We need vounteers. You first.
Go yourself. Show us by your example how wonder it could be. Move yourselves and your families. Put Burkas on your wives and daughters. Pay your Dhimmi tax. Show us how Jews and Islamists can live peacefully together. Teach us by your example the error of our ways.
I also called the Carter Center and told them that they shouldn't worry about those who resigned from the Center's board, that I supported Carter's right to freedom of speech and that I planned to contribute money to the Center as a result.
Thanks for all of your insightful posts on this issue. I did research and lived in Ramallah for over a year and have returned annually.
The situation is worst than apartheid in that the Afrikanners wanted Blacks as a source of cheap labor, whereas Israel continues to want as much as historical Palestine with as few Palestinians as possible. Oh I know the propaganda line–Israel just wants to live in peace and its Arab neighbors who just want to destroy it, blah blah blah. It doesn't matter what anyone says. The truth lies in who has the army to enforce their viewpoint and who doesn't.
No Israeli leader ever suggests ending the occupation as a way to secure Israel, because Israel has no intention of leaving the West Bank. And as long as that's not possible, there is not going to be a two state solution.
At any rate, this "controversy" over Carter's book is parochial and distinctive to America only. It's a great big YAWN, but we have to stand up for the ability to have a rigorous debate in America over what our tax dollars fund.
Steve Jones, there is such a person. Her name is Amira Hass.
What is happening to Carter is a classic example of what happens to any American who dares to challenge Israeli policy. Israel's apartheid is as cruel and barbaric as South Africa's was. The difference is that the Africaners couldn't call you a racist when you pointed that out.
Bryan: What exactly is happening to Carter. He has rivers of money flowing in from the Saudi's to the Carter center. He is on a book tour selling books like any other author. He is celebrated in left wing circles. And I can't turn on my TV or pick up the paper without seeing peanut Jimmys pearly whites. What's happening to him that is so bad?
And by the way he was the worst president we had since Buchanan, 1856-60
What a shame that when someone tells the truth, he is called a liar, anti-semitic, traitor or a terrorist. They even lose their jobs or position wherever they work. Is that democracy or a threat? Is this what the deniers truth been taught to do?
Ex-President Carter is absolutely right in calling Israel and "apartheid" country. But even as Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu said, it is even worse. (Ex-Prez Carter is lucky of his great position otherwise he would be called a terrorist and would be imprisoned without trial in Guantamana Bay also
On the other hand, I don't believe that Israel wants peace because they have the power and they have the upper hand. If they really wanted peace, it could be done in one day. They could not bring peace with Arafat. They called him a liar, terrorist and whatever. They even put him literally under "house arrest" etc. Now Palestinians have elected Hamas. What now?
May God bring victory to the opressed, may God bring peace in this world…..ameen
"KC- you cheap fuck
You make a 10 dollar contribution and then brag about it???" (Randy)
If I wanted to take the Carter Center for a test ride, that's what I'd do. See what I get back, how much it involves me, and then… maybe… contribute more.
What's wrong with that?
(And btw, I'm a supporter of the Carter Foundation).
It's truly exciting to be witnessing the whole Zionist facade in the US finally begining to crumble and fall. The end game for the this wretched period of in American political history is nigh. The Zionist damn of lies is leaking like a sieve and they are engaging in a futile excersise, rushing around trying to patch it up all over the place. The pressure is building, rapidly, and when it finally gives way it will be like a damn burst, as Americans finally realise the crock of crap they have been sold by the Zionst lobby and their friends in government for the past sixty years. (Read "Perceptions of Palestine", by former CIA analysts Kathy Christison for a terrific explaination of how this happened). The panic is palpable.
Yes Sean, those evil Jews are being exposed and soon we will be rid of them and their meddling in our foreign policy. After we cut off aid to evil land of the Jews it will only be a matter of time before they are handled by their righteous neighbors and we will have the proper balance in place in the Mid-East for peace to break out between Sunni and Shia and Arab and Persian. There is a lot of nice real estate on the Upper East Side that I have my eye on as well. When they cart them off to the camps run by CAIR, I'm going to grab me one of them 4 bedroom pre-wars. I too sense their panic and I like it!
Carter was always a good man. The occupation of Palestine (which I visit regularly) is much worse than SA Apartheid. F16s, m16s, murders, sonic booms,imprisonments, demolitions, terrorising whole areas, land theft, the apartheid wall, water polluted with shit, imposed poverty – the list of Israeli government persectution is endless. Many Israelis work hard for peace – Uri Avnery, Peace Now, Ilan Pappe, University Academic, military refuseniks and hundreds of others help us draw the distinction between a Jew and a Zionist. Here in Britain and all over the world we have Jewish members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who work hard for the truth to be told. One country gave away part of another country to a group of Europeans. Those Europeans want the whole area and Jordan, south Lebanon and part of Egypt. Fact.
Joyce
Carter was always a good man. The occupation of Palestine (which I visit regularly) is much worse than SA Apartheid. F16s, m16s, murders, sonic booms,imprisonments, demolitions, terrorising whole areas, land theft, the apartheid wall, water polluted with shit, imposed poverty – the list of Israeli government persectution is endless. Many Israelis work hard for peace – Uri Avnery, Peace Now, Ilan Pappe, University Academic, military refuseniks and hundreds of others help us draw the distinction between a Jew and a Zionist. Here in Britain and all over the world we have Jewish members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who work hard for the truth to be told. One country gave away part of another country to a group of Europeans. Those Europeans want the whole area and Jordan, south Lebanon and part of Egypt. Fact.
Joyce
Joyce. Jimmy Carter is actually very explicit, no reading between the lines. Suicide bombings and terrorist attacks are ok with him. He says so in his book, which I read. Perhaps if England had not played both sides against the middle the situation might not be this way. But the fact is its a zero sum game in the sense that you either want Israel to survive or be destroyed. I know what I want and I know what you want. But what can one expect from a country where assholes like George Galloway and Ken Livingstone are runing around. So, not to worry, sharia will be arriving soon in England. Mosques will replace synagogues and boy won't you be better off. I also saw that the Royal Navy, Rulers of the ocean is now down to 19 ships so you don't carry the weight you used to anyway. So Joyce, I know you or your mom were probably friends with the Mitfords and the Moselys, hanging out in Cliveden and screwing Lord Halifax but give it a rest.
her, a veteran of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigation, described a letter he received from Carter in 1987 in an interview with Israel National Radio’s Tovia Singer. The letter, written and signed by Carter, asked that Sher show “special consideration” for a man proven to have murdered Jews in the Mauthausen death camp in Austria.
“In 1987, Carter had been out of office for seven years or so,” Sher recalled. “It was a very active period for my office. We had just barred Kurt Waldheim – he was then president of Austria and former head of the United Nations – from entering the U.S. because of his Nazi past and his involvement in the persecution of civilians during the war. We had just deported an Estonian Nazi Commandant back to the Soviet Union after a bruising battle after which we were attacked by Reagan White House Communications Director Patrick Buchanan.
“Also around that time, in the spring of 1987, we deported a series of SS guards from concentration camps, whose names nobody would know. One such character we sent back to Austria was a man named Martin Bartesch.”
Bartesch, who had immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Chicago, admitted to Sher’s office and the court that he had voluntarily joined the Waffen SS and had served in the notorious SS Death’s Head Division at the Mauthausen concentration camp where, at the hands of Bartesch and his cohorts, many thousands of prisoners were gassed, shot, starved and worked to death. He also confessed to having concealed his service at the infamous camp from U.S. immigration officials.
“We had an extraordinary piece of evidence against him – a book that was kept by the SS and captured by the American armed forces when they liberated Mauthausen,” Sher said. “We called it the death book. It was a roster that the Germans required them to keep that identified SS guards as they extended weapons to murder the inmates and prisoners.”
An entry in the book for October 10, 1943 registered the shooting death of Max Oschorn, a French Jewish prisoner. His murderer was also recorded: SS guard Martin Bartesch. “It was a most chilling document,” Sher recalled.
The same evidence was used by the U.S. military in postwar trials as the basis for execution or long prison sentences for many identified SS guards.
“We kicked him out and he went back to Austria. In the meantime, his family – he had adult kids – went on a campaign, also supported by his church, to try to get special treatment. In so doing they attacked the activities of our office and me personally. They claimed we used phony evidence from the Soviet Union – which was nonsense. They claimed he was a young man of only 17 or 18 when he joined the Nazi forces, asking for some sympathetic treatment and defense from our office, which they claimed was just after vengeance.”
The family approached several members of Congress. “The congressmen would, very understandably, forward their claims over to our office and when they learned the facts they would invariably drop the case,” Sher recalled.
But there was one politician who accepted the claims without asking for any further information.
“One day, in the fall of ’87, my secretary walks in and gives me a letter with a Georgia return address reading ‘Jimmy Carter.’ I assumed it was a prank from some old college buddies, but it wasn’t. It was the original copy of the letter Bartesch’s daughter sent to Carter, after Bartash had already been deported.
“In the letter, she claimed we were un-American, only after vengeance, and persecuting a man for what he did when he was only 17 and 18 years old.
“I couldn’t help thinking of my own father who returned home with shrapnel wounds after he joined the U.S. Army as a teenager to fight the Nazis and hit the beaches at Normandy at that same age on D-day.
“On the upper corner of the letter was a note signed by Jimmy Carter saying that in cases such as this, he wanted ‘special consideration for the family for humanitarian reasons.’
“I didn’t respond to the letter – the case was already over and he was out of the country – but it always stuck in my craw. A former president who didn’t do what I would expect him to do – with a full staff at his disposal – to find out the facts before he took up the side of this person. But I wasn’t going to pick a fight with a former president. We had enough on our plate.”
Now, following Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Sher has decided to go public with the hope that a public made aware of Carter’s support and defense of a Nazi SS man will help illustrate why the arbiter of the Camp David Accords came out with a book defending the Palestinians after the landslide election of the Islamist Hamas terror group.
“It always bothered me, but I didn’t go public with it until recently, when he wrote this book and let it spill out where his sentiments really lie,” Sher said. “Here was Jimmy Carter jumping in on behalf of someone who did not deserve in any way, shape or form special consideration. And the things he has now said about the Jewish lobby really exposes where his heart really lies.”
is gay
It is time to act. To boycott
isreal and its products and
the companies that support the apartheid state. Enough with the words. Just pass it on and start informing everyone you know to boycott…Starbucks, McDonalds ….google boycott isreali products…and see the list….you'll be surprised.