Carter’s new book reviewed by Gidon Remba

Gidon D. Remba is co-author of the forthcoming book, “The Great Rift: Arab-Israeli War and Peace in the New Middle East.” He served as senior foreign press editor and translator in the office of Israel’s Prime Minister during the Egyptian-Israeli peace process of 1977-‘78. His essays have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times, the Nation, the Jerusalem Report, Ha'aretz, Tikkun, the Forward , the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Chicago Jewish News, JUF News, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

He currently lives in Chicago where he’s active in the Zionist peace camp and blogs at “Tough Dove Israel.” The following is a version of his review that was published at the British online publication, the Engage Forum, at my suggestion as an advisory editor. It should be emphasized that Remba does not view Carter as an enemy of Israel and feels that the situation in the West Bank actually does bear a resemblance to apartheid, but this detailed critique appears harsh because of the factual shortcomings of “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”

A close reading of Carter's Palestine-Israel book leads to the inescapable conclusion: it's even worse than the critics say. The book is replete with major errors of fact, all systematically biased against Israel. Carter never makes a single factual error that works in Israel's favor, or against the Palestinians. He offers an abundance of misstatements and distortions that paint Israel black. Some of the most egregious have already been highlighted by others. But Carter's approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is as one-sided as that of the Israel haters.

Though Carter himself is no Israel hater, at times he does an uncanny impersonation of one, serving up a morality tale of Israeli demons and Palestinian angels forced to descend to hell by the depredations of the evil Israelis. Throughout the book Carter unfailingly shows deep sympathy for Palestinian perceptions, while displaying little understanding for Israeli attitudes or needs. The book suffers from a deep and uncritical pro-Palestinian bias that makes a mockery of Carter's pretensions to fair arbiter and peacemaker.

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