Jimmy Carter’s “infatuation with the holy land”

In his recent book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, former US President, Jimmy Carter, comes across as a deeply religious, and God fearing man. To quote Albert Einstein’s “as a deeply religious non-believer”, I could not help taking Carter’s historical chronology on the Middle East with a bit of salt. The religious undertone of the historical chronology is unmistakable. Says Carter:

“Developments in the Middle East can be best understood if the history of the region is reviewed. [Two essential timelines include]:

ca. 1900 B.C. Abraham journeys from Ur to Canaan
.
.
.
ca. 4 B.C. Jesus is born. He is crucified thirty- two years later after a ministry of three years. Christian churches are established throughout the eastern Roman empire.”

As illustrated above, the historical chronology of the Middle East is also indicative of Carter’s strong believe in the bible as an accurate account of life in the Middle East during the middle ages. That is despite the lack of empirical evidence of the existence of God, and his “holy son, Jesus”. Furthermore, Carter seems to have an obvious admiration for the “holy land” and, according to the bible, ‘God’s chosen people’. Says Carter: “I was infatuated with the holy land [since the beginning of my bible studies]” (p. 22) or as he described his early morning tours of the holy land “I wanted to see the city come to life…to catch a flavor of how it might have been two thousand years earlier when Jesus strolled down these same streets” (p. 24). It is thus, not surprising that Carter’s first recommendation to lasting peace in the region is “the security of Israel must be guaranteed” (p. 207) at all times. As a matter of fact, in the first two chapters, one already has a feeling on the outcome of the recommendations. His open belief in God and the bible consequently indicates certain biasness towards Israel.

Although Carter also criticizes the Israeli government for not respecting international law- in particular Israel’s refusal to withdraw to the 1967 border as specified by UN Resolution 242-, and the building of the proposed segregation wall route, which also acts as a border that surrounds Palestinians, he seems to agree that Israel has a right, to him, a biblical right, to occupy Palestine.

Despite all of this, Carter’s book is a must read if you want to get an excellent behind-the-scene description of Middle Eastern politics and a historical overview of the region between World War I and the recent Israel/ Lebanon war that took place in 2006. The account on the creation of the countries in the Middle East, the key players, the origins of the middle eastern monarch and pretty much how Britain, the US and France fucked up the whole region (even though these are just mentioned in passing) is indeed fascinating.