Jimmy Carter speaks

The assault on Jimmy Carter for accusing Israel in pursuing apartheid-like policies has been relentless from certain quarters - the "usual suspects" one might say! The "critics" have trotted out the usual epithets and criticisms. Carter is anti-semitic, he is anti-Israel, he is pro-Palestinian, the book is biased, facts or maps are wrong, etc. etc.

What should not come as a surprise is that these accusations are almost identical, to a tee, to those levelled at anyone who writes critically of Israel. The "critics" certainly aren't original!

That settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is near-enough central to resolution of issues in the Middle East was recognised as recently as by the Iraq Study Group Report.

This morning [in the USA] Carter was interviewed on National Public Radio [NPR]. The interviewer certainly was more than pointed in his questioning of Carter.

"Former President Jimmy Carter finds himself in a defensive posture after criticism of his new book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. The best-seller has generated a passionate response in critics who say it is slanted toward Palestinians, and full of inaccuracies.

Since the book was published, Carter says he has been branded an anti-Semite and a bigot. Reaction to the book included the resignation of 14 members of a Carter Center community board, who say Carter puts too much blame on Israel."

Read the full transcript of the interview here.

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