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Jimmy Carter Calls Gaza Conditions "Intolerable" |
By
Stephen Lendman |
| On Saturday, 90-year-old former US President Jimmy Carter
called conditions in Gaza "intolerable" eight months after Israel's summer
2014 genocidal war. Visiting Jerusalem he said: "What we have seen and heard only strengthens our determination to work for peace. The situation in Gaza is intolerable." "Eight months after a devastating war, not one destroyed house has been rebuilt and people cannot live with the respect and dignity they deserve." Last summer during the height of Israeli aggression, Carter warned of an impending "humanitarian catastrophe." In vain, he urged "all combat operations must stop, and Israeli troops should withdraw from Gaza." They continued rampaging lawlessly against defenseless civilians - mass murdering noncombatant men, women and children, an Israeli specialty. Carter ignored Netanyahu during his visit. He "decided it was a waste of time" to see him. "As long as he is in charge, there will be no two-state solution and therefore no Palestinian state," he explained. He "made clear during his (election) campaign, he is against a two-state solution." Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland accompanying Carter said "(a) complete (Israeli) paradigm shift is essential. Without it, we fear that further conflict is inevitable." Carter met with Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. They laid a wreath on Yasser Arafat's grave. He cancelled a planned Gaza visit - citing security concerns. He urged Palestinians to hold elections and end divided rule. "We hope that sometime we'll see elections all over the Palestinian area and East Jerusalem and Gaza and also in the West Bank," he said. Hamas is Palestine's legitimate government - democratically elected in January 2006. It's not a terrorist organization. US/Israeli claims otherwise are Big Lies. Abbas has no legitimacy whatever. Israel rigged his 2005 election. His term expired in January 2009. He's a longtime Israeli collaborator in return for special benefits he enjoys. He betrays his own people unaccountably. He supported Israel's Gaza wars. He's comfortable with mass murdering Palestinians. Enforcer services he provides persecutes them. Why they put up with him they'll have to explain. Carter ended his three-day visit to Israel and Occupied Palestine Saturday evening. He called prospects for peace remote. Brundtland said Israeli officials "don't want to listen to views they don't agree with." A Netanyahu spokesman said his office had no comment. Israeli ceremonial President Reuven Rivlin refused to meet with Carter. Israel's Foreign Ministry recommended boycotting his visit because of his "anti-Israeli" positions. He called last summer's Gaza war "illegitimate." Israeli hardliners call him a hostile critic. In earlier remarks, Carter compared Israel's illegal occupation to South Africa's apartheid, saying: "When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa." He hoped his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" would "stimulate a debate, which has not existed in this country." "There's never been any debate on this issue of any significance," he explained - not in Israel or high places in America. Carter earlier and today believes regional peace is impossible unless Israel unconditionally ends its illegal occupation. Chances for responsible Israeli policies are dead zero. Rogue states make their own rules. Israel is a regional menace - to its neighbors and its own people, Jews and non-Jews alike. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. |
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