'Palestine: Peace not Apartheid' by Jimmy Carter

Reading books is not my cup of tea. However, there are times when you are transfixed to a piece of writing and cannot let go without reading it cover to cover. Bored and out of ideas for the weekend, I walked into Barnes and Nobles wanting to buy a gift for a friend of mine. Hardly did I know that the first book that greeted me would end up taking the better part of the weekend.

Former President Jimmy Carter has been involved with the Middle east peace process for the past three and a half decades. No book or point of view can paint the sheer mess that is the Palestine - Israel conflict today and Jimmy Carter is no exception. His book tries to show the other side of the story to Americans - often thought of being victims of selective news presentation. There have been voices calling him anti-Semite but I think the purpose of the book was to bring out the facts which are often brushed under the carpet for vested interests.

The book starts off with a recount of the history of what it calls the Holy Land - starting from Moses to the current day in 2007. In the well documented chapters ahead, Jimmy Carter tries to recapture events that have shaped the region. The chronology of events is far from being a critical analysis of the ground reality. Jimmy Carter touches upon a lot of issues but delves into some selective ones- the miserable life of the Palestinians, control of markets and arable lands by the Jews, Israel's march towards Greater Israel. He drives clear of analyzing the causes for religious fundamentalism on both sides- and rightly so, since that would call for a whole new book altogether. However, given the space constraints of recording events over six decades and more, the book fails to analyze the context in which certain words were spoken by people involved in the conflict. That is where I believe the perceived impression of certain critics of the book being harsh on Israel stems from.

Jimmy Carter tries to maintain a neutral tone but cannot hide his helplessness and frustrations with Israeli actions. The book emphasizes 'illegal settlements' in the West Bank and elsewhere in the 'occupied territory' as being the major stumbling blocks but fails to explore concrete steps towards a lasting peace. The book leaves you wanting to read more about American actions in the region and what drive them - especially the whole 'Israel Lobby' and its effects on American foreign policy. In an interview with Christiane Amanpour on why America cannot stop settlement activity by drying up the aid money to Israel in God's Warriors, Jimmy Carter smiles and has this to say:

"There is no way a member of Congress would vote for that and hope to be re elected."

Overall, it is a great read for someone wanting to learn more about the conflict from someone who is not directly involved in it. Moreover, for a former American President to write what he did, goes on to show how much things have gone wrong in the Holy Land.

p.s: There were two instances in the book when I laughed loud in the mostly quite coffee house.

"So far they have succeeded in holding the peace process hostage to this mentality at one hand. And on the other hand they have provoked tremendous violence by acts of incitement like shelling, bombing, house demolition, uprooting trees, destroying crops, assassination political leaders, placing all Palestinians under closure in a state of total immobility- a prison. And then they wonder why some Palestinians are acting violently! And then they want to have the right to exercise violence against the captive population. They they like to make non-violence on the part of the Palestinians a precondition for the Palestinians to qualify for talks, let alone for statehood."

--Spokesperson for PLO in response to Israel's non commitment to the 'Road map to Peace'.

"A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that dialogue on controversial issues is a privilege to be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and withheld from those who reject US demands."

--Jimmy Carter on the recent US foreign policy in the region.

National Mall, Washington DC

The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., and often is taken to refer to the entire area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol, with the Washington Monument providing a division slightly west of the center.

The Washington Monument reflection can be seen above in the Reflecting Pool.

The Smithsonian Castle above acts as the 'brain' of the Smithsonian, in that it houses all the administrative offices and carries out all Smithsonian operations.

Stone writing in at the World War 2 memorial between the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial.


The White House. The property is owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park.


Office of the President's staff right next to the White House.

It is located on top of Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall. Although not in the geographic center of the District of Columbia, the Capitol is the focus by which the quadrants of the district are divided. Curiously, the west face, which is often taken to be the "front" of the building, is actually its "back"; the true front is the east face.

This shot was taken from the US Capitol west end standing on top of the hill at the perimeter of the gardens.



The reflecting pool between the WW2 memorial and the Lincoln memorial has some friendly creatures around. It is NOT ok to feed them- there are lots of cops around :-)



View from the WW2 memorial towards the Lincoln Memorial.

The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

View of the Atlantic side of the World War 2 memorial.

The memorial consists of 56 pillars and each pillar is inscribed with the names of the 48 U.S. states that were then part of the Union, as well as the District of Columbia, the Alaska Territory and Territory of Hawaii, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each arch is inscribed with "Atlantic" and "Pacific."

American World War II veterans are dying at a rate of over 1,000 per day today and back in the 90s, there was a need felt to construct a memorial soon enough in the remembrance of their sacrifices.

The Freedom Wall is located on the west side of the memorial, with a view of the Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial behind it. The wall contains 4,048 gold stars, each representing approximately 100 American deaths incurred in the war.

View of the Washington monument.

Thats where home is- Pittsburgh :)

There is something about the monument which makes it special.

"Freedom is not free"- inscribed on the walls of the Korean War memorial.