Home
Archive
Columnists
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Register to Vote: Rock the Vote, powered by Working Assets Wireless
Advertisement
  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

Jimmy Carter: Ex-President, Humanitarian...Movie Star?

Posted by Adam Howard at 2:00 PM on September 11, 2007.


Adam Howard: A new documentary starring Carter shows him at his most outspoken and passionate on the crisis in the Middle East.

Jimmy Carter generated just as much buzz as Hollywood hearthtrobs George Clooney and Brad Pitt at the opening night of the Toronto Film Festival.

He was appearing in support of a Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs", "Philadelphia") directed documentary, Man From Plains which stars Carter and covers his book tour for the controversial book Palestine Peace, Not Apartheid and also explores his post-presidential life during which he's been widely praised for building homes for the poor and for being a tireless advocate for peace.

From the AP:

Taking part in the film festival's first geo-political talk, taped for television, Carter called for Washington to hold "direct talks" with Iran, laid out his vision for Mideast peace and lamented the "unwarranted and unprecedented" religious fundamentalism that has crept into US politics.

In a stinging attack on US President George W. Bush and his Christian supporters, he said: "I worship Christ who was the prince of peace, not pre-emptive war."

"A superpower like the United States should use all of its resources ... to promote peace," he said.

Talking about his book, Carter said: "I hope it will precipitate attempting to find peace in the Holy Land."

"It's one of the most important political issues in the world, because a lot of the animosity (in the world) is centered around what's happening to bring peace or not bring peace in (Israel-Palestine)."

"There hasn't been one single day of peace talks in the last seven years," he complained.

Carter when on to talk about what motivated him to write Palestine Peace, Not Apartheid:

"I became very frustrated to see the stagnation there and the animosity building up around the world against my own nation just because we had not tried to bring peace to Israel and its (surrounding) states," he said, explaining his inspiration for the book.

"I was amazed and almost nauseated to see the encroachment by Israel on Palestinian land and the persecution of the Palestinians," he said, citing 205 fortified Jewish settlements in "choice places" in the West Bank.

Carter and his wife Rosalynn had visited the Palestinian territories on three occasions in recent years. Rosalynn commented that the wall built by Israel to separate the two sides, but condemned internationally, was "shocking."

"I would like to see good faith talks begin between the Israelis and Palestinians to bring peace and justice (for both)," said Carter, who spearheaded the first Mideast peace talks at Camp David in 1978.

The film is due out in October. According to the AP, Carter and his wife recieved two standing ovations from Toronto audiences before the movie even debuted. Director Demme says:

"In the last year or so, I've spent more time with Jonathan than I have with Rosalynn," Carter told the audience. "He followed me around and we became close friends, and I learned to admire his abilities as a director. I've seen the film. It is, because of him, outstanding, not because of the leading actor in it."

Digg!

Tagged as: palestine, israel, middle east, carter, books, demme, film

Adam Howard is the editor of PEEK.


Hagee's Revenge? Videos Of Controversial Pastor Removed From YouTube
As Christians United for Israel summit approaches, copyright and PR trump evangelism.
Post by Sam Stein. July 8, 2008.
White House Briefing Materials Describe Italian PM as "Amateur", "Hated by Many"
WH apologizes to PM Berlusconi, a close ally of Bush and backer of Iraq war.
Post by Lindsay Beyerstein. July 8, 2008.
Rep. Waxman Threatens to Hold Contempt Vote on AG Mukasey
Mukasey must produce FBI interview with Cheney, or face the consequences.
Post by Satyam Khanna. July 8, 2008.

Comments Turn comments off sitewide Give us feedback »
Comments closed.
The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.
View:
Isn't the US program in the Middle East called "The Carter Doctrine"?
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on Sep 11, 2007 5:24 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Well, President Carter did say that it was a mistake - and he did try to initiate a program aimed at energy independence and expanded renewables in the early years of his term.

Perhaps he's trying to assuage his guilt over those years with all his good works since then. That's commendable.

The Carter Doctrine is described by Michael Klare:

"Enunciated by then-President Jimmy Carter in his State of the Union speech in January 1980, the doctrine defines Persian Gulf oil as a "vital interest" of the United States that must be defended "by any means necessary, including military force." Seen in this light, Bush Jr. was merely applying the doctrine when he invaded Iraq in 2003. He's not the first. President Reagan cited it to justify U.S. intervention in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988 to help ensure the defeat of Iran. President Bush Sr. invoked it to authorize military action against Iraq in 1991, during the first Gulf War. And Bill Clinton, though not explicitly citing the doctrine, adhered to its tenets."

The Department of Energy founded by Carter to pursue renewables is now the home of nuclear weapons research - that's how that effort played out. The Saudis and Republicans got in bed to perpetuate the global oil addiction for another 30 years, and buried renewable energy while they were at it. They knew about global warming back in 1980, as well - and that's proceeding as predicted, well a bit faster actually.

Not that Carter's a bad guy - he probably had no idea what he was getting into. John Perkins tells us in Confessions of an Economic Hitman that the Saudi deal was set before Carter even took office.

Carter did win a Nobel Peace Prize - but then, so did Henry Kissinger, el warmonger supremo. It is just hard to ignore the basic fact that the current Mideast situation is just an extension of the policy that Carter outlined back in 1980, is all... but which predated him.

What do Presidents really control, after all? Not much, it seems - they're just the kings on the chessboard.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Carter also said
Posted by: wawa on Sep 12, 2007 5:19 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Carter said that THE ISSUE all the presidential candidates should be talking about is the issue of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

International law states occupation is to be temporary and not transfer ones population into occupied territory.

Under international law the 275,000 settlers in the West Bank are all illegal, and we are now in the 40th year of occupation of Palestinians who have been denied basic and inalienable human rights.


I have been to Israel Palestine five times in the last two years and it is what the Israelis call "Haditha" which in African is called Apartheid and in English is called separation/segregation.

We the people of America have provided Israel with over $108 billion since 1948, and over 1.2 million per mile to build The Wall, which the International Court of Justice has deemed illegal and must come down.

Candidate Bush claimed his favorite philosopher was Jesus, President Bush doesn't know jack about the philosophy, which in a nutshell is THE PEACEMAKERS ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD!

Jesus never said it was OK to bomb, torture or occupy another.

Jimmy Carter has become a prophet; and prophets do NOT predict the future as much as they point out danger and provoke us to think about God.




Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu."

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As occupiers, to condemn Israel we would first have to condemn ourselves
Posted by: stevepasek on Sep 12, 2007 11:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Or is there something about Iraq that I'm missing that makes it somehow superior to the Israeli occupation? Oh, yeah, we have a puppet government there that gives it the veneer of acceptance -- oh, wait a minute, didn't they ask us to leave? Hmmm....I'm sure we can think of something.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

starfish
Posted by: gr_pramenko on Sep 12, 2007 12:23 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have a tough time having sympathy or real support for Jimmy Carter. James Madison, John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson all warned about the "dangers of the entanglement of religion and government." President Carter, however, didn't follow this advice and was the first U.S. President to establish an "ambassadorship" to the Vatican. How's that for not following the good advice of these three Amer. Founders.
Carter then gets elected by being close to, knowing of, and parlaying off of a national religious revival movement, headed by Rev. Billy Graham, that he used as a political base from which to win election as President.
Now he wants other political leaders to back off from their religious power
bases and get all chummy with ideologues from opposing religions and religious sects. That's asking a helluva lot of others when you didn't do it...and
it smacks at hypocrisy...even though it would be nice to have
peace talks. GP in Colorado

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Carter as a Christian missionary
Posted by: herbal on Sep 13, 2007 12:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Evangelist Baptist Jimmy Carter, for all his past failings, has broached a critically important imperative. He has taken on the Israeli lobby and broken the ice for Rabbi Michael Lerner and all mainline Christians who repudiate the cult of the religious right. The documentary is great news because it challenges the blacklisting of Carter's 'Apartheid' book that deserves far a far greater readership.

To get a better idea of why his work is so important please watch this hair raising video footage of Hillary addressing AIPAC (3 min.), Hillary's "No options left on the table..." nuclear threat.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVWagtd8uwM&mode=related&search=

Then consider more AIPAC footage:
Rev. Hagee the self-described Christian Zionist. rapture cultist: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDRxmqOn7x4&mode=related&search=

Rabbi Michael Lerner heartily endorsed Carter's 'Apartheid' book and, has endured condemnation by fundamentalist but political Zionists for his commitment to peace work.
"The Israel Lobby (excerpt from Tikkun newsletter)
"In this Issue Tikkun Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner responds to the recent publication of The Israel Lobby by John Walt and Stephen Mearsheimer by giving an in-depth analysis of one of the most important issues in U.S. politics today: The power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to control the relationship between the United States and Israel.

"He comes to one conclusion: AIPAC is bad for the Jews, bad for the U.S., and bad for the world and he tells why.
This is not only a Jewish issue. Lerner presents ideas for how the Network of Spiritual Progressives can become the interfaith alternative to the Israel Lobby and shows that it can only do so with the help of non-Jews as well as Jews.

"Walt and Mearsheimer will be speaking at a series of Tikkun forums. The first will be held September 19th in Berkeley, California at 2345 Channing Way at 7:00 p.m. (reservations through Cody's bookstore)."

Editorial comment: Will US foreign policy continue to be directed by AIPAC under Hillary Clinton? All the candidates need to be asked if they have accepted donations from foreign agencies and lobbies like AIPAC. It is time to join with the Jewish peace activists here and in Israel, and not fear the Lukid Zionist backlash of AIPAC. Israelis are deeply divided over war and peace issues; we simply don't get their news past the US corporate media censors. Hillary Clinton represents a travesty of an added 4 to 8 years of the same world hegemony as Bush Jr. Let us not forget her perfect Bush agenda voting record up until the day her campaign began! There should be no options left on the table to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Primaries. We certainly must remember the Republican media campaign to declare all candidates as "unelectable" with the exception of Kerry (Yale, Skull and Bones, Wall St.) in 2004.

Jimmy Carter's Palestine, Peace not Apartheid chronicles and documents years of personal involvement and committment to peace and the wanton betrayal of good work by the Bush Administration and a potential betrayal by an ambitious Hillary Clinton. Its a plain truth read and a solid gift for the peace effort.
Hillary AIPAC video address:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVWagtd8uwM&mode=related&search=

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]