Summary and Reviews of Palestine by Jimmy Carter

Media Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle - Saree Makdisi Many of the very individuals and institutions that are so vociferously denouncing President Jimmy Carter would not for one moment tolerate such glaring injustice in the United States. Why do they condone the naked racism that Israel practices? Why do they heap criticism on our former president for speaking his conscience about such a truly unconscionable system of ethnic segregation?

Perhaps it is because they themselves are all too aware that they are defending the indefensible; because they are all too aware that the emperor they keep trying to cover up really has no clothes. There is a limit to how long such a cover up can go on. And the main lesson of Carter's book is that we have finally reached that limit.

The New York Times - Ethan Bronner This is a strange little book about the Arab-Israeli conflict from a major public figure. It is premised on the notion that Americans too often get only one side of the story, one uncritically sympathetic to Israel, so someone with authority and knowledge needs to offer a fuller picture. Fine idea. The problem is that in this book Jimmy Carter does not do so. Instead, he simply offers a narrative that is largely unsympathetic to Israel. Israeli bad faith fills the pages. Hollow statements by Israel’s enemies are presented without comment. Broader regional developments go largely unexamined. In other words, whether or not Carter is right that most Americans have a distorted view of the conflict, his contribution is to offer a distortion of his own.

The Washington Post - Jeffrey Goldberg Why is Carter so hard on Israeli settlements and so easy on Arab aggression and Palestinian terror? Because a specific agenda appears to be at work here. Carter seems to mean for this book to convince American evangelicals to reconsider their support for Israel. Evangelical Christians have become bedrock supporters of Israel lately, and Carter marshals many arguments, most of them specious, to scare them out of their position. Hence the Golda Meir story, seemingly meant to show that Israel is not the God-fearing nation that religious Christians believe it to be. And then there are the accusations, unsupported by actual evidence, that Israel persecutes its Christian citizens. On his fateful first visit to Israel, Carter takes a tour of the Galilee and writes, "It was especially interesting to visit with some of the few surviving Samaritans, who complained to us that their holy sites and culture were not being respected by Israeli authorities -- the same complaint heard by Jesus and his disciples almost two thousand years earlier.

The Independent (UK) - Benjamin Pogrund The one great success of his presidency was his fathering of a peace accord between Israel and Egypt, a feat all the more remarkable because, as he notes, it was between two men who disliked each other, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat. Building on his Christian beliefs, Carter has since had an abiding interest in working for Middle East peace, and this book is an expression of it. That, sadly, is as far as it will go. Because the book is so sloppy and strangely deficient, and so one-sided, that it puts Carter out of court.

Booklist - Brad Hooper The former president's ideas are expressed with perfect clarity; his book, of course, represents a personal point of view, but one that is certainly grounded in both knowledge and wisdom. His outlook on the problem not only contributes to the literature of debate surrounding it but also, just as importantly, delivers a worthy game plan for clearing up the dilemma.

Publishers Weekly Carter's book provides a fine overview for those unfamiliar with the history of the conflict and lays out an internationally accepted blueprint for peace.

School Library Journal Adult/High School—This is not intended to be a scholarly work but rather a frank assessment of the current state of affairs in the Middle East by an experienced elder statesman.....this book is essential reading, for it stimulates precisely the kind of dialogue that Carter believes is necessary to prod all affected peoples beyond present roadblocks to a just and lasting peace.

Reader Reviews

Books with similar themes

• History, Current Affairs and Religion
  
• Asia
  
• Middle-East (West Asia)
  
• 20th Century (multiple decades)
  
• War Related