Carter defends 'Apartheid' book, says attacks on character hurt

Jimmy Carter has gone to Brandeis University to defend his new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

Brandeis, in the Boston suburb of Waltham, is a secular university founded by American Jewish leaders, and about half of its 5,300 students are Jewish. The school is named after Louis Brandeis, the first Jew on the Supreme Court and a robust defender of the right to free speech.

I have to say that I really admire the courage that Carter has shown by daring to bring up the similarity between Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the South African Apartheid regime. The similarity is widely recognised everywhere except in the United States and Carter is performing a valuable public service by daring to make Americans question their support for what is being done, if not in their name, then at the very least financed by their government's funding of Israel.

The former United States president, in his first direct address to Jewish Americans on his book, said the title referred to human rights in the Palestinian territories, not in Israel.

He said the word "apartheid" was intended to provoke debate on the rights of Palestinians, who he said were being treated unfairly by Israel.

He said he never asserted that Jewish money was controlling the U.S. media, as some critics have charged, but only that the pro-Israel lobby was strong.

"I've been hurt and so has my family by some of the reaction," Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, told about 1,700 students at the university.

"I've been through political campaigns for state senator, governor and president, and I've been stigmatized and condemned by my political opponents. But this is the first time that I have ever been called a liar. And a bigot and an anti-Semite and a coward, and a plagiarist. This is hurtful," he said.

"I can take it," he added, joking that he could handle the attacks because as a former U.S. president he still had Secret Service protection.

The pro-Israel lobby are almost fanatical, as Carter is discovering, and they literally will hear no criticism of Israel of any kind without resorting to the charge that the person complaining must be anti-Semitic. It is one of their most effective tools at preventing any rational discussion of Israel's shortcomings.

I am sure at 82 there are easier ways for a former President to spend his time, so Carter is to be applauded for daring to raise this important subject and to suffer this level of abuse in order to facilitate a discussion that Israel's supporters are anxious not to have.

It is also heartening to read that a majority of the students seemed to support Carter's argument.

About 60 protesters, detractors and supporters, gathered outside, some holding Israeli or Palestinian signs and flags.

"We support what Jimmy Carter is saying," said Alan Meyers, 56, a Jewish doctor from Boston. "We feel that there is not enough attention being paid to dissenting Jewish voices in the United States."

But a few hours before the appearance, only about two dozen demonstrators showed up, and most were carrying signs with a pro-Palestinian view. Among them: "Closing our eyes to injustice is not a Jewish value" and "Support Jimmy Carter. End the occupation now.

As is so often the case, television and the media gives scant notice to Jewish voices who are critical of Israel. I certainly know that the views of my British Jewish friends are rarely represented when it comes to this subject, as was especially noticeable during the recent Israel-Lebanon war.

Hopefully Carter's book will enable a proper discussion to be held, although I am sure the Dershowitz's of this world will do all in their power to demonise and attack the man.

As I say, at 82 it's a brave man who would put himself through this level of disapprobation simply because he knows what he is doing is right. Carter is to be applauded.

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