RAMALLAH: Former US president Jimmy Carter said Israel is headed for a clash with main ally the United States over the issue of Jewish occupation in the West Bank.
Carter said in an interview with an Israeli daily Haaretz, published hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key policy speech at Bar-Ilan University.
Asked by the liberal Haaretz newspaper whether the Jewish state was looking at a “head-on collision” with the United States if it doesn’t comply with Washington’s demands, Carter said “Yes.” The former president, who brokered the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, said Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank were the biggest hurdle in the hobbled Middle East peace process, saying they were “illegal and (an) obstacle to peace.” The administration of US President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on Israel to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, which is viewed as one of the key obstacles in the stalled Middle East peace process.
Carter also urged Israel to lift a crippling blockade of Gaza Strip, saying the territory’s residents were being treated like savages.
“To me, the most grievous circumstance is the maltreatment of the people in Gaza, who are literally starving and have no hope at this time,” Carter said.
“They’re being treated like savages. The alleviation of their plight to some means I think would be the most important (thing) the Israeli PM could do.”
Carter yesterday made a rare visit to a settlement, saying he went to Neve Daniel “to make sure they (the occupiers) understand my own attitude toward Israel, the Jewish population across the world and the Jewish settlements.” He was speaking at the start of a meeting with Shaul Goldstein, the head of the regional council of Gush Etzion, a large settlement bloc south of Jerusalem that Israel hopes to keep in any future peace deal.
