by John M. Curtis
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Copyright Dec. 8, 2006
All Rights Reserved.

warded the Nobel Peace Prize Oct. 11, 2002 for brokering the 1978 Camp David Accords—a peace deal between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin—82-year-old former President Jimmy Carter [1977-1981] launched his new book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”—his take on the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma. Three short years after Sadat received his Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10, 1978, he was assassinated by Egyptian Islamic Jihad Oct. 6, 1981—a prophetic warning about rising Islamic extremism. While his Nobel Prize-winning counterpart Begin died in obscurity March 9, 1992, few imagined that his successor Yitzhak Rabin would succumb to an assassin's bullet Nov. 4, 1995, daring to sign a peace deal Sept. 28 with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, granting autonomy to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

      Carter's new book gives the Palestinian perspective, "free from interference by the Jewish lobby," especially the powerful American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC], Carter calls a “political action committee.” Carter describes “the abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied territories,” decrying the imprisonment by Israeli's ugly security fence, comparing the treatment to the former white supremacist Apartheid regime of South Africa. It's beyond ironic that the Camp David Accords were based on the 1967 U.N. Resolution 242, recognizing Israel's right to exist with its Arab neighbors in exchange for returning to the pre-1967 Arab-Israeli War borders. There's no mention of (a) the late Arafat's 2000 “intifada” or uprising, sending streams of suicide bombers into Israel or (b) recent Palestinian elections, voting the radical terror group Hamas into power.

      Like Carter's presidency, his latest work mirrors more contradictions, blaming the Bush administration for biased management of the Palestinian question. Carter mentions nothing about Sept. 11, making it impossible for President George W. Bush to placate or negotiate with terrorists, sidelining the late PLO Chairman Arafat for his involvement in terror. Palestinian's Hamas-led President Ismail Haniyeh vowed he would not recognize Israel's right to exist or any prior agreements. “We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government an will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem,” said Haniyeh, calling the U.S. “the world arrogance,” for insisting future U.S.-Palestinian support was contingent on accepting prior agreements and U.N. Resolution 242. Haniyeh continues to resist joining Mahmoud Abbas's moderate Palestinian Authority.

      Since winning his Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter forgets his country remains at war with Islamic extremists responsible for Sept. 11 and a host of enemies attacking U.S. interests. Capturing the House and Senate on Nov. 7 doesn't give Carter a license to bash U.S. foreign policy, no matter what its flaws. Whatever one thinks of Iraq, it doesn't discredit Bush's overall foreign policy or approach to the Middle East. Everyone wants peace but it's no longer responsible, as the Baker-Hamilton Commission urges, to dialogue with rogue regimes supporting terror and refusing to stop enriching uranium. Carter made much ado about nuclear proliferation during his presidency yet ignores Iran's feverish pursuit of atomic weapons. While Carter wants to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Bush can't ignore current Palestinian leadership or Iran's attempt to build A-bombs.

      Speaking to thousands at morning prayers at Tehran University, Palestinian leader Haniyeh called the U.S. “the world arrogance,” accepting $120 million in aid from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Unlike Carter, or former Secretary of State James A. Baker III who heads the Iraq Study Group, Bush understands the U.S. cannot sell out Israel or dialogue with diabolical regimes. Both Carter and Baker still live in a pre-9/11 world in which “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” touting past dialogue with the former Soviet Union. Neither man understands the difference between the Cold War and today's asymmetric war with radical Islam. “You should know that either you respond to our demands or we are going to an open conflict and victory will be ours,” said exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, affirming Hamas's continued war against the Jewish State.

      Bush's foreign policy and national security team miscalculated the consequences of invading Iraq. After Sept. 11, they didn't misjudge the dangers of radical Islam or Iran's feverish pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran and Syria, with the help of Russia, continue to sabotage U.S. efforts to bring democracy to Iraq and the wider Middle East. Neither have any intent other than harming U.S. interests. Former President Carter improved relations between Egypt and Israel but did little to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Carter placed his faith in Arafat, who, like Haniyeh, continued his guerrilla war against Israel. Now that the Palestinian Hamas government takes its cash—and orders—from Tehran, it's suicide giving Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah a foothold in Jerusalem.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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