Carter Center advisers resign over book

[almaty 19]

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter's controversial book and subsequent remarks about the Israel-Palestinian conflict have prompted the resignations of 14 people from an advisory board of the Carter Center, the 25-year-old Atlanta-based humanitarian organization.

The 14 explained their concerns, which reflect an uproar in the U.S. Jewish community over Carter's Mideast stance, in separate letters sent Thursday to fellow Board of Councilors members and Carter.

"We can no longer endorse your strident and uncompromising position," the letter to Carter said. "This is not the Carter Center or the Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support."

The letter to the fellow Board of Councilors, with more than 200 members, was brief and less detailed but expressed concern about Carter's book "We are deeply troubled by the president's comments and writings and are submitting the following letter of resignation to the Carter Center," the letter said.

The letters were signed by Alan Abrams, Steve Berman, Michael Coles, Jon Golden, Doug Hertz, Barbara Babbit Kaufman, Liane Levetan, Jeff Levy, Leon Novak, Ambassador William B. Schwartz Jr., William B. Schwartz III, Steve Selig, Cathey Steinberg, and Gail Solomon.

The letter to Carter said while each person "has been proud to be associated" with the center and its work, "we can no longer in good conscience continue to serve the center as members of the Board of Councilors."

The Board of Councilors is separate from the center's board of trustees, which is its governing body, the center says.

The Board of Councilors "is an advisory body of community leaders and business people who are briefed quarterly on the center's work and serve as emissaries of the center to the greater community," the center said. "They are not engaged in implementing work of the center and are not a governing board."

The letter to Carter accused him of abandoning his "historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side." Carter's book confused "opinion with fact, subjectivity with objectivity and force for change with partisan advocacy," the letter said.

"Israelis, through deed and public comment, have consistently spoken of a desire to live in peace and make territorial compromise to achieve this status. The Palestinian side has consistently resorted to acts of terror as a national expression and elected parties endorsing the use of terror, the rejection of territorial compromise and of Israel's right to exist. Palestinian leaders have had chances since 1947 to have their own state, including during your own presidency when they snubbed your efforts."

The center's initial response to the departures expressed appreciation for the members' efforts but did not address the concerns.

"We are grateful to these Board of Councilors members for their years of service and support for The Carter Center in advancing peace and health around the world," the center said.

Many Jewish groups say it is unfair to equate Israel or its policies in occupied territories with the old South African apartheid system that divided the races.

Carter has said the term refers to Israeli policies in occupied territories, not to Israel itself.

The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner has been busy speaking out on the issue since the book was published.

Brandeis University in Massachusetts -- a nonsectarian school with a Jewish heritage and a large Jewish student body -- said Thursday that Carter will speak there and take questions.

The school said he "has accepted an invitation from a student and faculty committee" there "to speak on campus, perhaps as soon as January 23, although the date may be subject to change."

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Many Jewish groups say it is unfair to equate Israel or its policies in occupied territories with the old South African apartheid system that divided the races.

Carter has said the term refers to Israeli policies in occupied territories, not to Israel itself.

...and they resigned over that? :oh:

[Alex+R 0]

I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if they perceived Carter to have sided with the Israelis.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if they perceived Carter to have sided with the Israelis.

Exactly.

[peezey 0]

I read this book. While it might go a bit farther in condemning Israeli policies than any other US president, I'd hardly call it a "strident and uncompromising position." I actually expected far more from him.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if they perceived Carter to have sided with the Israelis.

Exactly.

4 real. This is the American president who engineered the longest-lasting peace treaty ever made between Israel and an Arab country, which continues to this day. If anything, he has been a great friend to Israel.

And he doesn't criticize anything that happens inside Israel. This book is all about what is happening under the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the ongoing siege of Gaza.

But anything less than 100% pro-everything-Israel-all-the-time-no-matter-what is just not enough for some people. The smear campaign has already begun.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I read this book. While it might go a bit farther in condemning Israeli policies than any other US president, I'd hardly call it a "strident and uncompromising position." I actually expected far more from him.

Yep. He pretty much said Israel ought to follow international law and the UN resolutions.

*Gasp !*

Of all the unmitigated nerve !!!! How dare he !!!!

[Caladan 19]

Oh, good lord. I have no opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict except to say it pisses me off so much that i just want to put all parties in a crowded room, lock the door, and when anyone b*tches, smack them upside the head with a baseball bat, and then re-lock the door.

Getting pissed off at Carter is like kicking a puppy.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I read this book. While it might go a bit farther in condemning Israeli policies than any other US president, I'd hardly call it a "strident and uncompromising position." I actually expected far more from him.

Yep. He pretty much said Israel ought to follow international law and the UN resolutions.

*Gasp !*

Of all the unmitigated nerve !!!! How dare he !!!!

There is a certain group of people who loathe Carter because of his political ideologies. I wouldn't be surprised if they are the ones that have turned the statements he made in his book into an exaggerated controversy.

Here's something from NPR...

Speaking yesterday to NPR’s Leonard Lopate — who noted he had only once received more protests about having a guest on his show (that was when when Jane Fonda stopped by) — Mr. Carter said that the book was being maligned by people who hadn’t read it:

Most of the people that seem to be critical have not read the book, or they haven’t referred to anything inside Palestine, and the book is not written about Israel at all. I know that Israel is a wonderful democracy with equal treatment of all citizens whether Arab or Jew. And so I very carefully avoided talking about anything inside Israel. The book is about Palestine and what’s going on inside the occupied territories….

But Mr. Carter also said the use of the word apartheid — which critics like Michael Kinsley have condemned as being unfairly loaded and backward — was appropriate. Again, from yesterday’s segment with Mr. Lopate:

I have spent a lot of time in Palestine in recent years. … The Palestinians have had their own land, first of all, occupied and then confiscated and then colonized. They’ve been excluded from their own gardens and fields, and pastures and churches. They have been severely restrained in their movements. They have to have different kinds of passes to go through different checkpoints inside their own lands on their own roads. The Israelis have built more than 200 settlements inside Palestine. They connect these settlements with very nice roads for the Israeli settlers, and then superhighways and so forth going into Jerusalem. Quite often the Palestinians are prevented from even riding on those roads that have been built in their own territory. So this has been in many ways worse than it was in South Africa. Of course, there were many more horrible atrocities in South Africa, but the word apartheid is quite pertinent.

Appearing on CNN this morning, Mr. Carter told Soledad O’Brien that Israel would have peace if it simply withdrew from the Palestinian territories.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/1...c-of-apartheid/

[almaty 19]

i think President carter points in his book were fiar minded and certainly not off base..the people who resign were flag drapped chopf##ks