Jimmy Carter Offers Apology To Jews For Israel-Related Remarks

Carter is a true humanitarian, intellect and leader. It is sad that his compassion and deep understanding of humanity are so often misunderstood as weakness.

"The Guardian has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields and the targeting of medics and hospitals.

A month-long investigation also obtained evidence of civilians being hit by fire from unmanned drone aircraft said to be so accurate that their operators can tell the colour of the clothes worn by a target.

The testimonies form the basis of three Guardian films which add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas but left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including more than 300 children.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) refused to respond directly to the allegations made against its troops, but issued statements denying the charges and insisted international law had been observed.

The latest disclosures follow soldiers' evidence published in the Israeli press about the killing of Palestinian civilians and complaints by soldiers involved in the military operation that the rules of engagement were too lax..." Guardian UK

It's nice to see so many blood thirsty zionazis here who condone genocide but opportunistically scream "never forget".

I'm still waiting for him to apologize for 1977,1978,1979, and 1980.

I'm fed up with the entire area. Both sides are wrong. The bickering causes untold amounts of destruction and inhumanity for everyone inside and outside of their borders. If they were my kids, I'd Take away all their toys - no one gets the land then. Turn it into a giant theme park promoting freedom and multiculturalism. Because the foundation of this fight is not religion or soveignty, but hatred and inequality. Until each side sees eachother as equal human beings with equal rights, it will not end.

Jews have been the ni**gers of history since the first records were kept (no offense to African Americans but few words seem more apt.) They have been hounded endlessly, persecuted, slaughtered, etc. throughout time. And then came Israel and before they could even define a national identity they were attacked MORE from every conceivable border. While I agree that their military incursions in Lebanon and Gaza over the past five years have been rash, I do not ever question WHY Israel reacts the way they do. So long as forces align against them, I won't stop understanding why, either. Palestinians are unfortunate collateral damage in what is truly a broader war between Israel and multi-national terrorism and antagonist states such as Iran.

Go Israel! You miraculously defeated five enemy armies in 1967 in 6 days. Now, you defeated Carter, too!

Israel sucks. It's a violent racist state. And it seems that as Americans it is impossible to speak on Israeli or Jewish transgression without being labeled an antisemite. And yet young Jews of age in America are allowed to go serve in a foreign military?! Why? How is that not a conflict? What other nation is allowed American citizens to serve in their military? And in Brooklyn they have their own police department that protects and serves them... It is not false that the Jews in the US have special privilege and that through that privilege Israel benefits. And it makes some of us non Jews wonder...

A letter to the peanut farmer:

Dear President Carter:

We at CAMERA have been outspoken in our criticism of the many factual errors and distortions about Israel in your book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, as well as in various Op-Eds and media appearances. We've been greatly concerned that false allegations you've made damage Israel, promoting misunderstanding, enmity and prejudice against that nation and its people.

It is against this backdrop that we sincerely welcome your recent letter to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in which you ask forgiveness from the Jewish community for statements that may have stigmatized Israel. As you may know, in Judaism the process of repentance also entails action to reverse any harm caused.

In this spirit, we urge you to join your promising words with concrete actions to redress troubling false statements you have made only recently about the Jewish state. In a Nov. 6, 2009 Op-Ed in the International Herald Tribune entitled "Goldstone and Gaza" you made false and exaggerated charges concerning the UN's Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict. You referred erroneously to the "destruction" of 40,000 homes in Gaza and claimed "several hundred thousand homeless people suffered through last winter." You refer to the "destruction of hospitals" and claim the Gaza Strip is "surrounded by an impenetrable wall." You claim "the Goldstone committee examined closely the cause of deaths of 1,387 Palestinians who perished. . . "

All these statements are factually false and contribute to inflaming negative perceptions of Israel. Efforts to redress the errors via communication with IHT editors failed with their saying you have refused to correct the false statements.

We do hope you'll set the record straight and affirm your commitment to undo any wrongful stigmatizing of Israel. Below is the factual detail corroborating our concerns about the errors made:

• Israel did not destroy 40,000 Palestinian homes.

Al Mazen Center for Human Rights, a pro-Palestinian NGO, recently issued a report called "Cast Lead Offensive in Numbers" in which it found that 2,632 houses were destroyed beyond repair and 8,522 were assessed as repairable. The latest UN figures are 3,600 homes beyond repair and 2,700 homes that sustained major damages. The Goldstone Report provides additional sources including the Palestinian NGO, Al-Dameer-Gaza, that cites 2,011 civilian and cultural premises as destroyed, of which 1,404 were houses that were completely demolished and 453 partially destroyed or damaged. Even the Arab League's report on Cast Lead states: "Over 3,000 homes were destroyed and over 11,000 damaged." There is no credible report that comes near your charges.



• There was no "destruction of hospitals."

Along with the World Health Organization and the Arab League, other international and Palestinian sources confirm that while there were hospitals damaged in the Gaza Strip, none were destroyed. The January 22-23 report by the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that four days after the cease-fire, hospitals were running at full capacity to treat the wounded. The report states:

Hospitals continue to function at full capacity as many injured patients remain hospitalized, with the result that hospitals have been unable to resume regular services such as elective surgery. Post-surgical physiotherapy is provided in Shifa hospital. Most repair work to the Al Quds Hospital in Gaza City, which was shelled on 15 January, has been completed and the facility is now functioning again.

• "Several hundred thousand" people were not made homeless, spending the winter in tents and caves and under plastic sheets.

A January 21-27, 2009 report by the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, issued just days after the end of the Gaza fighting found that "Tens of thousands of Gazans remain homeless, with most staying with relatives or other host families." A Jan. 16-20, 2009 report, also by OCHA, stated: "As of late 20 January, 18,035 people remained in 30 shelters, down from 29,421 people on 19 January." Thus, the U.N.'s figure for those displaced last winter is one-tenth or less of the number you posit. Of those displaced, most stayed with relatives and not in tents, caves or plastic sheets.

• Gaza is not "surrounded by an impenetrable wall."

While a concrete and steel wall does separate Gaza from Egypt, a fence made of metal wire, posts and sensors separates Israel from the Gaza Strip. The fence has been penetrated many times, including when Palestinian gunmen crossed into Israel and kidnapped Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit and killed two of his comrades.

• The Goldstone Report did not examine "closely the cause of deaths of 1,387 Palestinians."

The report identified by name only a small fraction of the1,387 reported fatalities, and certainly did not "closely" examine the "cause of deaths" of that total.

Again, we hope your conciliatory words are indicative of a true change of heart in which Israel is no longer subjected to unwarranted and false criticism. We urge you to take the concrete step of correcting the wrong and distorted statements about Israel in your recent column in the IHT.

Thank you for considering this request and, perhaps, setting the stage for a new beginning.

Andrea Levin

Executive Director, CAMERA

what the f is CAMERA? and why should i care about their bullshit?

"Israel’s repeated firing of US-made white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its recent military campaign was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a report released March 25, 2009.

The seventy-one-page report, “Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza,” provides witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza. Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended in January.

Militaries officially use white phosphorus to obscure their operations on the ground by creating thick smoke. It has also been used as an incendiary weapon, though such use constitutes a war crime. “In Gaza, the Israeli military didn’t just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops,” said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren’t in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died.” The report documents a pattern or policy of white phosphorus use that Human Rights Watch says must have required the approval of senior military officers.

The devastating Israeli firepower, unleashed largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the three-week attack starting December 27, 2008 was fueled by US-supplied weapons paid for with US tax dollars. Washington provided F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide array of munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME. The weapons required for the Israeli assault were decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of 1,000 bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39) were approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to Israel in November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation) for use in the initial air raids on Gaza..." from Project Censored dot org.

CAMERA is an Israeli front group. CAMERA uses money from Pro-Israeli groups that in turn takes that money to produce bull with no factual or numerical research. Just more zionazi bullsh*t to hide the truth.

Carter's apology is like the many corrections that appear in newspapers days after the errors have already done damage to Israel. It's meaningless and obviously self-centered since his grandson is running for office.

Mondoweiss is garbage. It's often rife with errors and outright lies, as well as being a favorite spot for the white supremacist crowds according to net watch groups. It's written by a self-hating Jew that is obsessed with hating Israel, yet completely ignorant of the terrorism & perpetual hate speech from Palestinians and other Arabs.

Even Jimmy is bending over for the zionazis. What did they do, threaten to kill Ross?

well they only own all the media, banks, mortgage, finance, real estate, academia, marketing, advertising, consulting, and mainly the federal reserve system, which pretty much owns the now royally screwed, indebted america. thanks to this, the zionist jewish lobbies might as well have more power than the president

I'm proud not to know you.

He should stick his sorries up his ass. I don't know a single Jew that gives a damn what he's said. His only point in life is to prove that Southern old white men are racist, anti semetic and dumd as shit. Wake me when he's dead.

Congrats. You now know a Jew who gives a damn about what he has said. And his "apology" or whatever is a disgrace. He was spot on about Israel.

http://mondoweiss.net/ - Amazing blog written by some of the bravest Jews going today.

"When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness"

Forgiving is divine.

Divinity is not one of my performance goals for this year.

I'd just love to know what his motivation for this is. I'm guessing he's trying to get some kind of lobbying gig with the Israelis. Or applying to be a salesman at B&H.

eskimos got it right, find a nice floaty slab of ice and push the old timers out to sea. this guy is a disgrace no matter what he does.

aw jimmy what are you doing? what is prompting you to take such peculiar action? no need to apologize for anything. your past comments about israeli brutality against palestine were spot on and you should stick with them

You should about as one-sided as... well, as one-sided as Jimmy Carter.

should = sound. I'm out of it on Xmas day.

You're really out of it. Christmas is tomorrow.

Now that his grandson is running for Congress in a district that has a large population of jews, Jimma suddenly realizes that he's been uttering antisemitic remarks for at least 30 years.

Of course he'll deny that his family wants had anything to do with his non-apology apology.

If telling the truth for thirty years about Israeli expansionism, colonialism and aggression is anti-Semitic, the Jews have no one to blame but themselves.

If they can't win an argument, some people will resort to name calling, stigmatization and cheap ad hominems in a desperate attempt to bolster a weak argument.

"If they can't win an argument, some people will resort to name calling, stigmatization and cheap ad hominems in a desperate attempt to bolster a weak argument."

Isn't this how douchebags such as yourself deal with everyone *you* disagree with only instead of "anti-Semites" you call them "racists" instead?