(originally posted 14 April 2024)
President Jimmy Carter installing solar panels at the Whitehouse in 1979
A beautiful artist reminded me of one of my all time favorite politicians this week and some of the great work that politician has done especially in striving for peaceful resolutions in conflict zones.
Including the Camp David Accord of 1978 – almost two weeks of negotiations between President Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat – Israel and Egypt had been at war for almost three decades prior to President Carter creating the accord. President Carter said an indication of how entrenched the notion of war had tragically become within a few days of negotiations it became clear having Begin and Anwar in the same room was not a path to peace and so that Camp David Accord was created without Begin and Anwar ever speaking to each other President Carter went back and forth between each in separate rooms until an agreement could be reached.
After decades of costly war for fifty years the Camp David Accord has been peacefully upheld providing great prosperity and strength to both Israel and Egypt.
During his Nobel Peace Prize speech President Carter quoted Ralph Bunche**
“To suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable form of warmongering. The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every honorable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions that beget further war.”
The existence of Palestine does not exclude the existence of Israel. Those suggesting the existence of Israel excludes the existence of Palestine are fundamentally flawed.
Any idiot can fire a rocket launcher – that requires zero skill – any politician who thinks differently best step away from politics.
A peaceful resolution can be attained.
And attaining peaceful resolutions via diplomacy and negotiations is what great politicians do.
** The Nobel Peace Prize 1950 was awarded to American Ralph Bunche “for his work as mediator in Palestine in 1948-1949”
In 1963, Bunche was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President John F Kennedy.
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