Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (Book 4 of 52)

Last month, I finished reading Jimmy Carter's Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, the latest book by the prolific former president.

Instead of providing the reader with a dry historical retelling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Carter blends history with personal experiences and eyewitness accounts - from his first visit to Israel in 1973 through his last visit to the region for the Palestinian elections last year.

Throughout his account, he highlights the successes and setbacks of diplomatic efforts over the past thirty years. He then outlines a way for the peace process to move forward, which he sums up in one paragraph at the end of the book:

The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of its own citizens - and honor its own previous commitments - by accepting its legal borders. All Arab neighbors must pledge to honor Israel's right live in peace under these conditions. The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories.

Since finishing the book, I've read a number of reviews and opinion pieces blasting Carter, claiming his book is unbalanced and lacks historical context. Some have gone as far as to accuse him of being an anti-Semite.

While I felt Carter was extremely critical of Israel, more so than he was of Palestine, I don't think it was because of some underlying hatred of the Jews. Nor do I think his criticism of the United States stemmed from a hatred of Americans. I think all of his criticism stems from a frustration with a long peace process that has seemingly gone nowhere.

It's a book written by a man who has played a role in that peace process, in one capacity or another, for thirty years. I don't know how anyone involved in such a longstanding and heated conflict could write an objective account of it. And I think what people expected was an objective account.

They expected him to be the peacemaker like he's always been and diligently navigate the diplomatic waters like he always has. When his book didn't meet their expectations, they bashed him.

Despite the charges of his critics, I believe Carter wrote this book with a genuine desire for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine with both nations coexisting in peace. Overall, it isn't a perfect book, but due to the subject and the author, it's a book worth reading.