Carter
Responds to Critics at Brandeis
23 Jan 2007
“This is the first
time that I’ve ever been called a liar and a bigot and an anti-Semite and a
coward and a plagiarist,” Mr. Carter told the crowd of about 1,700 at Brandeis,
a nonsectarian university founded by American Jews, where about half the
students are Jewish. “This is hurting me.”
Mr. Carter said he
realized his use of the word “apartheid” “has caused great concern in the
Jewish community.” He said he had used it “knowing that it would be
provocative.” He said he had intended to describe conditions not in Israel but
in the occupied Palestinian territories, and had not meant to “equate Zionism
with racism,” but to point out “that this cruel oppression is contrary to the
tenets of the Jewish religious faith and contrary to the basic principles of
the state of Israel.”
He apologized for
what he called an “improper and stupid” sentence in the book. He said a
sentence in which he seemed to suggest that Palestinians would not have to end
their suicide bombings and acts of terrorism until Israel withdraws from the
territories “was worded in a completely improper and stupid way,” adding: “I
have written my publisher to change that sentence immediately. I apologize to
you personally, to everyone here.”
The
Controversial Sentence, Page 213
It is imperative that
the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear
that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international
laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.
