The news that Jimmy Carter, 98, will spend his last days in hospice services at his home, has led to an outpouring of reflections on his life and career, allowing for a commemoration of the US president who lived longer than any other.

In this context, an article by writer Ishan Tharoor appeared in The Washington Post, which examined the position of the former president on Israel building new settlements in the West Bank, his insistence on the need to allow the Palestinians a measure of self-rule, and his warnings that it is not a peaceful solution to the conflict. Israel is taking a wrong turn on the path to apartheid.

The writer said that Carter's presidency lasted only once, yet his legacy extended beyond his presidency long, and included an interest in the environment, human rights, social welfare, and an indelible memory of humility.

Carter's most famous peacemaking effort began in 1978 at Camp David, where his administration brokered peace talks between Israel and Egypt under the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

He added that although Carter did more for Israel's security than any American president has done since then, he was still vilified in Israel and among American supporters of Israel, and he was accused of "anti-Semitism."

Settlements are a violation of international law

Tharoor explained that unlike all those who held the White House, Carter openly viewed the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as a violation of international law and an obstacle to the creation of a separate and viable Palestinian state, and cracked down on them after leaving office.

In 2006, Carter published a book entitled "Palestine... Peace, Not Apartheid," warning that conditions of "apartheid" prevailed in Israel in a context in which millions of Palestinians were denied the same rights enjoyed by their Israeli neighbors, and where settlements were expanding by confiscating Palestinian lands. .


He wasn't afraid

Tharoor quoted Kai Bird, Carter biographer, as saying that the former president always insisted that Israel is obligated to suspend the construction of new settlements in the West Bank and allow the Palestinians a degree of self-rule, and for decades he had argued that the settlements had become an obstacle to the two-state solution and a peaceful solution to the conflict. He was intimidated by his warning to everyone that Israel was taking a wrong turn on the path to apartheid.

The writer went on to say that Carter was criticized from every side.

The Palestinian response to his book "Palestine... Peace, Not Apartheid" was harsh, and 14 members of the Board of Directors of the Center resigned to it. Representatives and prominent members of the Democratic Party, such as former President Bill Clinton and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, publicly rebuked him. Many commentators in Washington - including opinion writers for this newspaper - are aghast at his comparison of the former apartheid regime in South Africa to a democracy more favorable to the United States in the Middle East than that of Israel.

Carter is credited with telling NBR's Steve Inskip in 2007 that the phrase "apartheid" accurately describes what is happening in the West Bank and the total oppression of the Palestinians by the dominant Israeli military.

Days confirmed his view of things

He said Carter, a great statesman in the West, took risks in a way that none of his peers had done before or since, but that the years that followed confirmed his view of things, as "apartheid" in Israel and the occupied lands that he now controls The decision of the most influential human rights organizations in the world, as well as a human rights group inside Israel.

He noted that right-wing extremists, who were outside the political scene in Carter's Israel, are now sitting at the heart of the most right-wing government in Israel's history, already launching a program that would lend more credence to Carter's description of "apartheid."

Tharoor concluded his article that Carter warned of this drift a decade and a half ago, as well as in 2020 when the Trump administration published the now-neglected "peace plan" that essentially eliminated the need for an independent Palestinian state.

"The plan will eliminate the only viable solution to this long-running conflict," Carter said in a statement.