← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · londo
Thread ID: 3966 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2002-12-11
2002-12-11 05:20 | User Profile
CARTER: Well, in the Camp David Accords, we covered the prospects for the Palestinians thoroughly. Israel agreed to withdraw their military and political forces from the West Bank and Gaza. Israel agreed that the foundation for the Camp David Accords was United Nations Resolution 242, which prohibits the acquisition of territory by force and calls for the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories. And so all that was in the Camp David Accords.
Subsequently, though, leaders from within the Israeli government decided to forget or to ignore or to violate those commitments that they had made. And so Israel has since then continued to occupy or colonize the West Bank and Gaza, have now established hundreds of settlements all over the occupied territories, and are in violation of the United Nations resolution.
I think, as I said in my speech today, the only possible solution for Israel to live in peace with all its neighbors and for the Palestinians to have justice and peace and a homeland is for the United Nations resolution terms to be honored.
MANN: You are not, though, the only American president who has tried to help the Palestinian people. Bill Clinton believes he has tried, and has been very clear about suggesting -- his close aides have said it out loud -- that Yasser Arafat was an enormous disappointment. The current president, George W. Bush, will not talk to Arafat and regards him as a corrupt figure who is either soft on terrorism or complicit in it.
They are very disappointed with the Palestinian side. You sound like you're disappointed with the Israelis.
CARTER: Well, I'm disappointed with both sides. It takes two sides to negotiate and accept terms of a commitment. And this was done by the very heroic Israeli leaders, Rabin and Peres, in 1993. It was, on the other side, was Arafat. And the Oslo Agreements was a beautiful step forward, which was later disavowed.
You have to remember too that ever since Israel was founded as a state in 1948, and particularly since 1967, when this resolution was passed, every president, not just Bill Clinton and me, have tried to be, I would say, a balanced mediator between Israel and the Arab states and people who threaten Israel and whose own lives are threatened.
So it has always been a balanced effort, up until recently.
The thing that induced me to devote so much time to the Middle East peace process, and other presidents as well, is that this is like a -- I hate to use the word cancer -- it's like a festering sore in the world that not only creates violence on both sides, or innocent civilians being killed by suicide bombers and by Palestinians being killed, but it spreads its animosities almost throughout the world.
When I go to Indonesia, when I go to Bangladesh, I see the effects of the dissention that still hasn't been resolved between the Israelis and her neighbors.
So this is a tiny geographical place, but I think it is the most significant threat to world peace in the world.
There has only been one time in history when both the United States and the Soviet Union put their nuclear forces on alert, and that was over the Middle East.
MANN: I'm going to interrupt you, because you said something very important there. I wish we had more time to go over it -- but you're saying, this is the biggest threat to world peace, not Iraq. And I wish I could invite you to comment more fully on my brief summary of what you're telling us here, but that's an important point.
[url=http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0212/10/i_se.01.html]Transcript here[/url]
2002-12-11 06:14 | User Profile
Thanks for posting this.
Israel's blatant colonization of the West Bank has long been the problem.
It's good to hear somebody as well known as President Carter actually say that on a major news outlet.
Walter
2002-12-11 07:18 | User Profile
Originally posted by Walter Yannis@Dec 11 2002, 06:14 **Thanks for posting this.
Israel's blatant colonization of the West Bank has long been the problem.
It's good to hear somebody as well known as President Carter actually say that on a major news outlet.
Walter**
It hardly matters if Jimmy Carter said it. Remarks like these certainly will NOT be the type of comments the major media refers to when it says things like "Jimmy is our most succesful ex-President" etc. And I suspect Jimmy will tone down his remarks slightly if he detects them getting slightly more attention. If not, you can expect him to drop from the radar screens again.
2002-12-11 13:43 | User Profile
Jimmy Cater aka Jesus Christ, probably the only honest President we have ever had or ever will.