BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Okay, right off the bat, the title of this book is going to enrage some BuzzFlash readers and please others.

That's because our readership is split right down the middle when it comes to issues concerning Israel and Palestine.

BuzzFlash's policy, as we have editorialized, is that we support security for the State of Israel and a Palestinian State.

How to get there without all the bloodshed has always been the stumbling block.

Jimmy Carter is an odd candidate to cause such a controversy with a book on achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. After all, he won a Nobel Prize for his efforts to accomplish just such a goal.

We haven't read the whole book, so we will let our readers make up their mind on Carter's analysis and recommendations.

Carter fully supports the right of Israel to exist, but he equally denounces the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. That explains the title of the book.

A Noble Prize winner for his work to achieve peace in the Middle East deserves to be heard.

You make up your own mind as to whether or not you agree with him. But he has earned the right to merit our attention and respect, whether or not one agrees with everything he has to say.

From Simon & Schuster, the publisher:

"Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine.

President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2005 and 2006.

In this book President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences with the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many American officials avoid. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.

The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known, the president writes. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy, and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal of a just agreement that both sides can honor.

Palestine Peace Not Apartheid is a challenging, provocative, and courageous book."


BUZZFLASH REVIEWS