http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=312458&content_id={199 0D415-01B6-4D6F-A5E3-827D30FE7AE9}&notoc=1

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the center, who read the book, said people in the Jewish community are outraged at Carter's book(Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid).

"I think the point of the book is to be hostile to Israel," Hier said. "I think he deliberately did it...The reason he wrote this book is because he has become a spokesman for the Palestinian cause," Hier said. "Having read the book, I can tell you these are not the words of a person who is objective, who is trying to see a way out of this. He has come down 100 percent on the Palestinian side."

• Israel’s “occupation and colonialization” of the West Bank and Gaza is the reason there is no peace.

FACT: President Carter deliberately overlooks that in 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak went to Camp David and offered Yasser Arafat 95% of the West Bank, 100% of Gaza and part of the Old City of Jerusalem for a Palestinian State, along with $30 billion in compensation for Palestinian refugees. Arafat’s response: launching the bloody Intifada which targeted innocent civilians in restaurants, malls, schools, and religious services with suicide terror attacks. Had Arafat accepted Israel’s offer at Camp David there would have long been a Palestinian State alongside Israel.


• Israel’s ‘Wall’ has virtually choked-off the Palestinian economy and in many ways is worse than South Africa’s former Apartheid system.

FACT: Israel’s temporary security fence has been an effective deterrent in thwarting unending Palestinian suicide terror attacks which have dropped over 90% since its construction. Israel has said that the fence will come down when the Palestinian terror stops. Israel is entitled to protect her citizens from outside threats in the same way as with any sovereign country. It is interesting to note that during his presidency President Carter correctly chose to continue the U.S. embargo of its Soviet-allied neighbor, Cuba because he perceived it as a continuing potential national security threat.


• The actions of Israeli governments do not reflect the will of the people who, in polls consistently show that Israelis overwhelming support a two-state solution.

FACT: Israelis’ support for a two-state solution is predicated on having a peaceful partner that does not seek the destruction of the Jewish State and has a government that renounces terrorism.


• President Carter blames “powerful political, economic and religious forces” in the U.S. for America’s "submissive" pro-Israel policies.

FACT: America’s continuing bipartisan support of Israel is not a result of pressure from “powerful political, economic and religious forces” but based on U.S. interests and the fact that Israel is a democracy whose citizens share common values with the American people.


There is no Israeli Apartheid Policy and President Carter knows it. We therefore urge you to join with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in respectfully reminding him that the real reason there is no peace in the Middle East is because of continued Palestinian terrorism and fanaticism.

And when the Palestinian people repudiate their fanatics in favor of a course of moderation there will be peace in the Middle East.