Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at 100 years old. The 39th president served a single, tumultuous term in the White House from 1977 to 1981. As we begin our look at his life and legacy, we hear Carter’s own words in a Democracy Now! interview discussing his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter criticized Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and argued Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Territories were the main barrier to peace. “Americans don’t want to know and many Israelis don’t want to know what is going on inside Palestine. It’s a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine,” said Carter in 2007. “And there are powerful political forces in America that prevent any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land.”
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Nermeen Shaikh in New York, joined by Amy Goodman in Cairo.
Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old. The 39th president served a single, tumultuous term in the White House from 1977 to 1981. He’s remembered as a man of deeply held faith who helped negotiate a landmark peace deal between Israel and Egypt that holds to this day.
Carter was also a committed Cold Warrior who began funneling arms to the Afghan mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in 1979. He continued to support right-wing authoritarian governments in Latin America and beyond. His austerity politics also hastened the Democratic Party’s neoliberal turn, further cemented by his defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
In retirement, he devoted himself to causes including election integrity and building homes for low-income people. In 2006, he stirred controversy with his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, in which he compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa’s former racist government.
As we begin our look back at Carter’s life and legacy this week, Amy, you did a series of interviews with President Carter.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, I did. And this is a clip we’re going to play from an interview I did with him in 2007 on his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
AMY GOODMAN: President Carter, I wanted to switch gears to talk about the raging controversy over your book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
JIMMY CARTER: I didn’t know it was still raging, but that’s interesting.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, it raged for a while, and now the book is coming out on paperback with a new afterword. And you dealt with that. You talked about it being perhaps the most controversial thing that you’ve done, maybe, to your surprise. So, start with the title. Talk about the message you’re trying to put out with this book.
JIMMY CARTER: Well, the message is very clear. It deals with Palestine, not inside Israel itself, just the Palestinian Occupied Territories. And the second word is “peace.” I describe in this book the efforts for peace so far and my formula, which I think is very reasonable, for bringing peace to Israel and to Israel’s neighbors. And I repeat that over and over with a strong condemnation of any kind of terrorism that afflicts innocent people by the actions of either the Palestinians or the Israelis.
And the word “apartheid” is exactly accurate. You know, this is an area that’s occupied by two powers. They are now completely separated. The Palestinians can’t even ride on the same roads that the Israelis have created or built in Palestinian territory. The Israelis never see a Palestinian, except the Israeli soldiers. The Palestinians never see an Israeli, except at a distance, except the Israeli soldiers. So, within Palestinian territory, they are absolutely and totally separated, much worse than they were in South Africa, by the way. And the other thing is, the other definition of “apartheid” is, one side dominates the other. And the Israelis completely dominate the life of the Palestinian people.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t Americans know what you have seen?
JIMMY CARTER: Americans don’t want to know and many Israelis don’t want to know what is going on inside Palestine. It’s a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine. And there are powerful political forces in America that prevent any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land. I think it’s accurate to say that not a single member of Congress with whom I’m familiar would possibly speak out and call for Israel to withdraw to their legal boundaries, or to publicize the plight of the Palestinians or even to call publicly and repeatedly for good-faith peace talks. There hasn’t been a day of peace talks now in more than seven years. So this is a taboo subject. And I would say that if any member of Congress did speak out as I’ve just described, they would probably not be back in the Congress the next term.
AMY GOODMAN: Who are these forces that you’re talking about?
JIMMY CARTER: Well, there’s an inherent commitment in America, which I share as a Christian, of a deep commitment to make sure that Israel is safe and that Israel is free and that they can seek for peace. So there’s a strong inclination for all of us to support Israel’s continued existence in peace. And that is added onto by the very effective work of the American Israeli group called AIPAC, which is performing its completely legitimate task of convincing Americans to support the policies of the Israeli government. And AIPAC is not dedicated to peace. They’re dedicated to inducing the maximum support in America, in the White House, in the Congress and in the public media, for whatever policies the Israeli government has at a particular time. And they’re extremely effective.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Former President Jimmy Carter on Democracy Now! in 2007. Watch all our interviews with him at democracynow.org. I’m Nermeen Shaikh in New York, with Amy Goodman in Cairo. Thanks so much for joining us.
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