The World According to Tomdispatch or Palestine

The World According to Tomdispatch: America and the Age of Empire

Author: Tom Engelhardt

From America's most influential political blog, a grand survey of the world since 9/11.

Tomdispatch.com has established itself as the go-to blog for contemporary US politics, and the favored web platform for radical commentators from Noam Chomsky to Howard Zinn. Its powerful, no-holds-barred features draw a huge response from the public and resonate throughout the global media, acting as a touchpaper for debates which subsequently become headline news. This comprehensive volume offers readers a chance to catch up on some of the finest political analysis of our age, including trenchant accounts of the two Bush administrations' catastrophic imperial adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq; Guantánamo, extraordinary rendition and its apologists; and Hurricane Katrina, global warming, black gold and the rise of Hugo Chávez.

Introduced, arranged and with additional commentary throughout by the blog's founder Tom Engelhardt, The World According to Tomdispatch is the essential primer for anyone seeking illumination and guidance along the highways and byways of our post-9/11 world.

Contributors include:
• John Brown
• Ira Chernos
• Noam Chomsky
• Michael Klare
• Juan Cole
• Mike Davis
• Mark Danner
• Greg Grandin
• Adam Hochschild
• Arlie Hochschild
• Dahr Jamail
• Chalmers Johnson
• Ann Jones
• Bill McKibben
• Rasha Salti
• Jonathan Schell
• Rebecca Solnit
• Nick Turse
• Behzad Yaghmaian

Look this: Internationales Geschäft

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Author: Jimmy Carter

Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine.

President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2005 and 2006.

In this book President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences with the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many American officials avoid. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.

The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known, the president writes. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy, and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal of a just agreement that both sides can honor.

Palestine Peace Not Apartheid is a challenging, provocative, and courageous book.

Publishers Weekly

It's hard to use standard criteria to assess this book. Former President Carter is not a very good reader; his tone is flat, and his pronunciation sometimes difficult. Nor is he a literary stylist; there is neither music nor imagery in his down-to-earth sentences. But Carter feels strongly that what he has to say is absent from public discourse and policy decisions, and he knows that his status and voice provide authority to what might otherwise be rejected out of hand as anti-Israeli propaganda. He explains that Israel has never complied with U.N. Resolution 242 and others; has never lived up to its agreements made over the years in Washington, Oslo and elsewhere; continues to grab land through settlements and placement of a wall well within Palestinian territory; and still imprisons thousands of Palestinian men, women and children. While pointing out many murderous and counterproductive moves of Arafat and various Palestinian groups, he pointedly lays the blame for the current situation at the door of the Israelis and their Washington backers, with special venom for Bush and Rice, who have been mute on the subject for six years—even during the invasion of Lebanon. Many will dispute his facts and counter his views, but Carter maintains that if we really want to understand and promote change in this region, we must know both sides of the story. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 27). (Jan.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Foreign Affairs

Soon after taking office in 1977, Jimmy Carter declared that the Palestinians must have a "homeland." Later in his presidency, Carter led the tortuous negotiations culminating in Israel's first treaty with an Arab neighbor: the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli treaty, which, it should be remembered, contained provisions intended to move matters toward a viable Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Out of office soon thereafter, Carter continued to follow closely the many ups and downs of the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation, keeping in touch with the American, Arab, and Israeli principals involved. In recent years, he has put himself very much in situ by leading the monitoring of Palestinian elections. This book offers a historical overview in the form of a personal memoir, tracing developments since the 1970s as Carter experienced and understood them. He may thus be said to be both a source for the historian and himself a historian of the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. This little book merits a reading on both counts. Carter concludes that "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land." That statement, so out of line with the way mainstream American political figures (even those retired from public office) frame the issue, ensures that the book will be attacked by many. Perhaps it will be read as well.

Library Journal

The man who brokered peace between Israel and Egypt confronts today's Middle East. With a six-city tour. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.