"If they won’t make this pledge to you, do not support them," Carter urged. "This is it: ‘If elected president I will do everything possible to promote negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians to achieve peace and security for Israel and a secure and contiguous state for the Palestinians.’ If they won’t tell you that, don’t support them," the former president said to enthusiastic applause.
President Carter has received over a hundred requests for speaking engagements at universities. He has already accepted requests to spread his message for peace in the Middle East at Brandeis, Emory, George Washington, Berkeley and the University of Iowa.
We all should be grateful to this man for his dedication to this effort. Not many are brave enough nor smart enough to take on some very powerful interests. And let me say....interests that have not brought any closer to peace....but further into the mud of perpetual war.
Noting "the powerful influence" of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which pursues what Carter characterized as "its legitimate goal of defending the policies of Israel’s most conservative governments and arousing maximum support in our country," Carter cautioned that "Under AIPAC pressure there are few significant countervailing forces in the public arena, and any balanced debate is still practically non-existent in the U.S. Congress or among presidential candidates."
Carter called for U.S. leadership to act as an honest broker in negotiating peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
"To play that essential role, America must not be seen as in the pocket of either side," he explained. "We must enjoy a degree of trust and respect from both sides. We must always make clear our commitment to the security of Israel, but we cannot be peacemakers if American government leaders are seen as knee-jerk supporters of every action or policy of whatever Israeli government happens to be in power at the moment. That’s the essential fact..." said Carter—the remainder of his sentence lost in thunderous applause.
Read the whole thing:
http://www.wrmea.com/...
Meanwhile, there are democrats that are slowly looking at the consequences of blind support for Israel's actions. Is our money well spent?
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the committee's foreign operations subcommittee, proposed across-the-board cuts and other subtle changes that could have hurt Israel's funding packages, sources say.
Democrats who spoke off the record said Leahy is among several lawmakers in their party who generally support Israel, but is not necessarily as committed to funding for the Jewish state as pro-Israel groups, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Leahy also managed to put into the Senate bill a provision ending a 13-year-old ban on U.S. diplomats meeting Palestinians in Jerusalem, once considered a critical bulwark against recognizing Palestinian claims to the city.
"The committee felt that our diplomats should be in a position to make their own judgments about where they meet and what they are able to discuss with anybody in any country," a Leahy aide said.
snip
In the Senate, all eyes are focused on Leahy. According to observers, Leahy last week attempted to introduce a 0.1 percent levy on defense grants that would be spent monitoring how the allocations were spent.
http://www.jta.org/...
There are democrats that are beginning to voice their concerns regarding foreign aid funds possibly being used for funding human rights abuses, and the underfunding of African humanitarian issues.
Now, after the last 60 years of perpetual war in the Middle East do we really think we can continue to support another 60 years of war? The destruction of resources, the killings, the cost in human misery. The generations of families maimed and destroyed by American bombs. Are we any safer?
Israel needs to make some hard decisions, and if we are really their friends, we have to gently lead them to make some difficult choices. Enabling them has not lead us or them any closer to security. Slowly we are being isolated by world opinion and are being forced into becoming a militarized state that is slowly stealing our civil rights in the name of security.
Carter says it best:
"The bottom line is this," he said. "Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from its neighbors’ land and permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights.