A Human Rights Crime By Jimmy Carter

[laststeamtrain]

A Human Rights Crime

The world must stop standing idle while the people of Gaza are treated with such cruelty

By Jimmy Carter

08/05/08 "The Guardian" -- - -- -- The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.

This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and fair by all international observers.

Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife, Hamas alone controls Gaza. Forty-one of the 43 victorious Hamas candidates who lived in the West Bank have been imprisoned by Israel, plus an additional 10 who assumed positions in the short-lived coalition cabinet.

Regardless of one's choice in the partisan struggle between Fatah and Hamas within occupied Palestine, we must remember that economic sanctions and restrictions on the supply of water, food, electricity and fuel are causing extreme hardship among the innocent people in Gaza, about one million of whom are refugees.

Israeli bombs and missiles periodically strike the area, causing high casualties among both militants and innocent women and children. Prior to the highly publicised killing of a woman and her four children last week, this pattern had been illustrated by a report from B'Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organisation, which stated that 106 Palestinians were killed between February 27 and March 3. Fifty-four of them were civilians, and 25 were under 18 years of age.

On a recent trip through the Middle East, I attempted to gain a better understanding of the crisis. One of my visits was to Sderot, a community of about 20,000 in southern Israel that is frequently struck by rockets fired from nearby Gaza. I condemned these attacks as abominable acts of terrorism, since most of the 13 victims during the past seven years have been non-combatants.

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19885.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. The sadness and the tragedy of it is that Jimmy Carter's "honest broker" diplomacy

and his objectivity on the situation are so rare in U.S. leaders of either party. This is what America SHOULD BE DOING--seeing both sides, exposing and trying to mitigate, and to end, unnecessary human suffering on both sides of such conflicts, and bringing the antagonists together for a political settlement. I was going to express words of praise for Carter, in his relentless efforts to end armed conflict and injustice. And I certainly do that. He is a truly great leader. Then I got to thinking, "But, but, but...why is this so amazing?" Why isn't this the norm, rather than the rare exception, in U.S. diplomacy?

The reason, of course, is that it does not serve the war profiteers--in the Middle East, Israel, here, in South America. The weapons trade serving all sides, and the contractors and gas providers, and all the beneficiaries of war, want war to continue. It is their gravy train.

I do have reason to believe that an Obama administration will be different and much better, in this regard--if the American people can manage to get our votes counted correctly. In fact, I think that is why Carter is making this effort now, in the hope that a new administration will build upon his efforts to broker peace in the Middle East. I strongly suspect that Gov. Bill Richardson may be working on a similar plan, on Obama's behalf, with regard to that other potential oil war, that the Bushites have been trying to get started, in South America. There is absolutely no good reason that the U.S. government should be so hostile to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and the other many new leftist leaders in South America. Nor should we be hugely favoring the fascists in Colombia, and larding these killers with $5.5 BILLION in military aid. Colombia's human rights record is one of the worst in the world.

In any case, I get the feeling that change is "in the wind," as they say. Quiet initiatives are going forward to create new U.S. policy in which it decent, fair, "honest broker" diplomacy becomes the norm--the bottom line, the least we should be able to expect from our government, and not a thing so rare that it almost makes you cry.

[laststeamtrain]

2. Thank you for the wonderful post. For a few moments, at least, I can feel better.

Change in the wind, yes!