We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land

We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land
By Jimmy Carter
Reviewed by Mohammad Gill


The Bible says that when the first blood was shed among His children, God asked Cain, the slayer, “Where is Abel?� And he said, “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?� And the Lord said, “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed…� (Genesis 4::9-11).

The blood of Abraham, God’s father of the chosen, still flows in the veins of Arab, Jew, and Christian, and too much of it has been spilled in grasping for the inheritance of the revered patriarch in the Middle East. The spilled blood in the Holy Land still cries out to God – an anguished cry for the peace. (Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, 2006)

You can not like the word, but what is happening is an occupation. I believe that is a terrible thing for Israel and for the Palestinians… It can’t continue endlessly. (Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, May 2003, quoted by Jimmy Carter in We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land)

Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid created a huge uproar in the news media because many thought that the despicable title of apartheid reflected very badly on Israel. For example, Alan Dershowitz wrote, “His use of the loaded word ‘apartheid’, suggesting an analogy to the hated policies of South Africa, is especially outrageous…� The critics mostly did not talk about the contents of the book but were wholly possessed by its title. In an interview with truthdig, Stanley Sheinbaum observed that Jimmy Carter made a mistake in choosing the title of his book but the book is good. Jimmy Carter “was accused of being an anti-Semite, senile, a liar, a playgiarist, a racist, unfamiliar with the region, and a supporter of terrorism…� (We can Have Peace in the Holy Land, p. xxiii). He explained how he selected the title in the Introduction of …Peace in the Holy Land, in which he wrote, “I wanted a title that would be both descriptive and provocative.� Provocative, sure it proved to be. He had considered other titles also one of which was, for example, “Land, Walls, Guns, or Peace� but finally settled on the apartheid one.

So much for his Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. Let me now revert to the book under current review. Although Jimmy Carter couldn’t fully accomplish his peace project in the holy land during his tenure as president, it was not for want of his serious efforts. He has peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan to his credit which is quite laudable. He is very optimistic that peace can be achieved and that time for that achievement is now. He has sent a copy of his book to president Barack Hussein Obama hoping that he would start the Middle East peace effort at the beginning of his term and not postpone it till the end.

Carter has outlined the proposal for such a peace plan in his book (Chapter 13: An Agenda for Peace). It includes the following:
• A demilitarized Palestinian state, with the Israeli Defense Forces replaced by a mutually acceptable international security force effective enough to prevent violence against either side, to guard against militarization, and to allow freedom of peaceful movement;
• Mutually acceptable modifications, with land swaps, to the 1967 border to permit a number of Israelis to retain their homes in and around Jerusalem, and withdrawal of all other settlers from the West Bank;
• A sharing of Jerusalem, which would be the capital of both states, with special rights of Jews and Muslims with their holy sites and joint governance of other areas of the Old City;
• The rights of Palestinians to return to the West Bank and Gaza and compensation for those with proven claims in Israel;
• A separate but forceful commitment to reconciliation of the Palestinians and unity between Gaza and the West Bank, with requirements that the two states, Palestine and Israel, recognize the mutual right to live side by side in peace;
• A specific time limit should be set for the consummation of these goals, or at least an assessment of progress made and difficulties remaining, perhaps in September 2009.

The plan is well and good, at least on paper, but how much of it can actually be realized by the combatants who are the parties for the ultimate peace, is very dismal.

Regarding Israel’s attitude toward peace, Carter wrote, “The premise of real peace and security in exchange for Palestinian territory has long been acceptable to a substantial majority of Israelis but not to a minority of the more conservative leaders, who are unfortunately supported by most of the vocal American Jewish leadership.� The complexity and difficulty of any peaceful resolution is highlighted by Israel’s continued occupation of Shebaa Farms which comprise only eight square miles. Israel doesn’t want to give it up. Israel is opposed to giving up the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory which it captured in 1967. It doesn’t want to give up the West Bank and most of the other territories which it has captured from time to time.

It doesn’t want the return of the Palestinian refugees and it thus appears that it doesn’t want peace although it talks about it all the time. Carter wrote in his book, “A resolution of the Golan Heights issue is necessary for regional peace, but Israelis are understandably opposed to any deal that would make Israel’s border with Syria vulnerable.�

Carter’s book is readable and it contains valuable pieces of a peace plan between Israel and its neighboring Arab countries. But something vital needs to change in the Middle East to induce the parties to sit on a conference table and seriously work for the peace. So long as Israel has a free hand in the Middle East, there will not be any peace there – at least not any time soon.

The book was published by Simons and Schuster in 2009; it has 13 chapters and Introduction. It has 5 appendices which include:
• U.N. Resolution 242, 1967;
• Camp David Accords, 1978;
• Arab Peace Proposal, 2002;
• Key Points of the International Quartet’s Roadmap for Peace, April 30, 2003; and
• Israel’s Response to the Roadmap.

The book consists of 228 pages.