Spreading conflict

Middle East | Jimmy Carter loses respect—and friends—over latest book | Jill Nelson

Former President Jimmy Carter may have brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, but his latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon and Schuster, 2006), isn't likely to win him another Nobel Prize. The root cause of the conflict, Carter states, is "occupation of Arab land" and "mistreatment of the Palestinians," and he suggests that wealthy Jewish lobbyists have purchased the silence of American politicians and the media on the subject.

While Carter may have timed the book to swipe at the Bush administration's Middle East policies (including its refusal to work with Hamas until the militant group acknowledges Israel's existence and renounces terror), it is members from his own camp—including board members from the Carter Center—who are protesting loudest.