Carter on Mideast: U.S. must be evenhanded, push harder

[unfrigginreal]

The Bush administration must push harder -- and be evenhanded -- to revive sagging peace hopes in the Middle East, former President Carter said Monday.

In an Associated Press interview 25 years after the Camp David accords, Carter said Israel and the Palestinians had not only abandoned the U.S.-backed road map for peace but had violated it -- Israel by threatening the "removal" of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He suggested the Bush administration was tilted toward Israel.

snip

"The United States is not being evenhanded," Carter said by telephone from his home in Plains, Ga. "You have to have a mediator, willing to negotiate freely with both sides, and equally firmly with both sides."

The 1978 Camp David agreement and the Oslo accords of 1993, in which Norway mediated a partial accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, showed that good-faith negotiations can be successful and permanent, the former president said.

more

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/15/national1623EDT0670.DTL

[Darranar]

1. Thank you, Jimmy Carter!

Thank you so much for stating the truth!

[MasonJar]

2. Carter and Dean

Carter (perhaps the greatest statesman as an ex-President in US history) and Dean said the same thing. Pelosi and others in Congress railed at Dean for being soft on the Palestinians. I didn't know the others, but I called Pelosi and gave her a mouthful. This is not because I am totally for Dean. It just makes sense.

[Darranar]

3. It does, doesn't it?

We need an evenhanded approach in this conflict.

[HawkerHurricane]

9. Carter is a great statesman

Up there with John Quincy Adams for ex presidents.

Interesting they were both one termers, isn't it.

Perhaps the presidency isn't truely suited for statesmanship.

[dudeness]

4. The US is the pivotal power

in the resolution to I/P conflict..both sides must cede ground in negotiations..but only the US wields enough influence in the region to have an impact..but is Bush willing or will he continue to play an abstinance card whilst both sides slaughter each other..

[IndianaGreen]

5. Where are the Gephardt and Kerry supporters? Where is Pelosi?

Are these people going to accuse Carter of anti-Semitism? They should! Jimmy Carter is saying the same thing the Howard Dean said.

I won't discuss Lieberman because he is not even a Democrat, but Gephardt and the others that chided Dean are nothing but whores!

[dudeness]

6. here here IG..

i watched debate 2 (yes we get it in australia) on faux and Deans proposals were common sense approaches to a huge problem..the detractors only wish to see more innocent blood spilt.

[unfrigginreal]

7. Well at least we can count on coverage from the cable news shows...

tomorrow, right? I mean, they spent an entire day after the debates criticizing Dean for his 'evenhanded' remark. I'm sure that they'll show their usual fairness and give this equal coverage. /sarcasm

[IndianaGreen]

8. I think the big news is J-Lo breaking up with Ben Affleck

And of course, we have the California recall.

[HawkerHurricane]

11. Hasn't the recall been postponed?

over the ballots issue?

I hope they don't postpone it too much, I'll be out to sea in late October and November...

[Darranar]

12. No...

it hasn't been.

It should have been. GO ACLU!

[IndianaGreen]

14. The best part is that the court cited Bush vs. Gore as the precedent

for requiring the same voting methodology be used across California. Let's see what happens when the entire court votes.

[HawkerHurricane]

15. Didn't the Supremes say

"Don't ever use this as a precedent" in Bush vs Gore?
Or, in normal words,
"Do as we say, not as we do".

[IndianaGreen]

18. Yes they did, but here is the kicker...

they would have to grant cert and hear the case, reopening all of the arguments in Bush v. Gore, or they could deny cert, in which case the Appeals Court decision stands and the recall election gets pushed back to March 2004.

Either way the GOP loses.

I love it!

[drdon326]

10. Yeah.....

Gephardt, Kerry ,Pelosi....there all LIBERAL "WHORES",

Huh, INDY??

I could hear the same bs said by rush and his clones.

[Darranar]

13. When did IndianaGreen call them liberal?

She just said that they were whores - and when it comes to this issue, they are.

[LastDemInIdaho]

16. Nice glossing over the terrorism problem

"Arafat could be a stronger leader, and more forceful in his condemnation of the violent attacks on Israel by Hamas and other groups, Carter said.

"But I don't think he has ever had control over Hamas," the extremist Palestinian group that has struck Israel with terror attacks, Carter said of Arafat. "And I presume Hamas leaders will not accept his authority." "

Hardly a condemning screed against arafat. He did manage to rake Israel over the coals though. Hardly evenhanded.

[Darranar]

17. I pretty much agree with Carter...

mainly because I have yet to see real evidence against his statements.

[LastDemInIdaho]

19. No excuse for hamas to still exist

If arafat won't or can't take them out then he should ask for help.
Letting hamas run free and kill Jews at random is just plain wrong.

[IndianaGreen]

20. Israel funded Hamas as a counter-balance to the PLO

Just as America helped create bin Laden by our insane support of the jihadists faction in the Afghan-Soviet war, Israel helped create and funded Hamas as a counter-balance to the PLO.

What monsters do we create!

[unfrigginreal]

21. Hamas honored the last truce agreement for 50 days...

while both sides attempted to implement the Roadmap. Then, Israel thought it would be a smart move to start picking off Hamas leaders...WTF?

Was 50 days of peace too much for Sharon to stand? He had to start assassinating Hamas leaders?

We will NEVER get anywhere in that region as long as 'the guy with the big stick' believes that he must eliminate his opponent versus attempting to coexist in peace.

[Aidoneus]

22. what is untrue about that statement?

The whole history of Arafat/Yassin, the PLO, the Hamas movement and its predecessors in the Gaza Ikhwan, the Islamic Congress, or back to the irritation between Sheikh Izz al-deen al-Qassem & Hajj Amin al-Husseini themselves, all suggests that Sheikh Yassin and the Hamas movement on the one hand, and Yasir Arafat and the PLO on the other have always been in opposition to one another aside from being generally opposed to the Zionists.

Thus there is nothing wrong with Carter's statement:--Arafat does not control Hamas, the latter does not accept the PLO/PA or much of its approach as legitimate. Your apparent ignorance on such matters does not excuse the dishonesty you have displayed here in general.

[IndianaGreen]

23. Israel's rightwing blames Arafat for all of Israel's woes, just as...

Israel's rightwing blames Arafat for all of Israel's woes, just as America's rightwing blames Clinton for all of ours.

Rightwingers everywhere must come from the same gene pool.