Contact:
Sr.Ruth Lautt, Esq.
(212) 870-2320

(NY, New York) January 24 2007– Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East is troubled by the review of Jimmy Carter’s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid in a recent edition of America Magazine.  This book has come under widespread criticism for substantial factual errors and omissions not mentioned in this review.

Sr. Ruth Lautt, National Director of Fair Witness, says “Perhaps the most significant error is that President Carter rewrote the history of Camp David.” In the summer of 2000, Israeli P.M. Barak offered the Palestinians four clusters of territory on the West Bank. Yasser Arafat made no counteroffer, walked out of the Summit, and the Second Intifada began.  Five months later, President Clinton crafted a final proposal whereby the Palestinians would get all of Gaza and 97 percent of  contiguous West Bank territory.  Arafat rejected this offer as well.     

Dennis Ross, Clinton’s special envoy to the negotiations recently clarified that maps President Carter presents in his book as the divergent “Palestinian” and “Israeli” interpretations of Clinton’s proposal were actually taken from the Israeli map of Barak’s (initial) offer at Camp David and an approximation of President Clinton’s deal five months later, respectively. 

In Carter’s book, the Clinton proposals seem so vague as to justify Arafat’s rejection.  “Ambassador Ross has made it clear that this is untrue and we question why the America review doesn’t cite this troubling misinformation,” adds Sr. Ruth.
   
Another significant problem with the book is use of the term Apartheid.  “The Israeli policies that President Carter analogizes to apartheid are not racially based; they were instituted as a passive defense against terrorism,” says Fr. James Loughran of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute.  “Israelis should have the right to protect themselves from suicide bombing without being accused of being racists,” says Fr. Loughran. 
   
“Carter’s book  blames the current violence on Israel, ignoring the fact that Israel acquired the territories defending itself against collective Arab armies who vowed to destroy the Jewish state in 1967,” says Dexter Van Zile, Fair Witness Executive Committee member.   “The continued Israeli presence in the West Bank is the unfortunate result of Yasser Arafat’s refusal to accept the 2000 land for peace offer.”
   
As Fr. Loughran states, “If Christians are to be peacemakers, we must present the true events, not a version slanted against one party -- in this case, the Jewish state.