Carter Says Israeli Invasion of Lebanon Was Not Justified
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
President Carter has told a German newspaper that Israel was not justified in bombing and invading Lebanon and Gaza after its soldiers were kidnapped because the Jewish state itself holds so many Lebanese prisoners.
“I don’t think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon,” Mr. Carter told Der Spiegel.
“What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that’s justified.”
He urged Israel to agree to a prisoner exchange. “There has to be some exchange of prisoners,” he said. “There have been successful exchanges of prisoners between Israel and the Palestinians in the past, and that’s something that can be done right now.”
He also criticized President Bush for not having attempted in the last six years to negotiate a peace settlement between the Israelis and their neighbors.
American foreign policy and its close alliance with Israel had isolated America from the rest of the world, he said. “I think that, at this moment, the United States and Israel probably stand more alone than our country has in generations.”
Mr. Carter said he believes the defeat of Senator Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary was evidence that American voters disagree with Mr. Bush’s policy on Iraq. “The election results in Connecticut were an indication that Americans realized very clearly that we made a mistake in going into Iraq and staying there too long,” he said.
He thinks that the events of September 11, 2001, hindered the press’s ability to criticize the Bush administration, which exploited the weakness. “Unfortunately, after September 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous,” he said.
“For three years, I’d say, the major news media in our country were complicit in this subservience to the Bush administration out of fear that they would be accused of being disloyal. I think, in the last six months or so, some of the media have now begun to be critical. But it’s a long time coming.”
