Use aid to Israel to secure peace: Carter Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit AFP via Times of India - April 21, 2002 Use aid to Israel to secure peace: Carter WASHINGTON: Former US president Jimmy Carter on Sunday suggested Washington use its considerable military and economic aid to Israel as leverage to persuade the Jewish state to accept a just peace settlement with the Palestinians. In an editorial carried in the New York Times, the former president said: "Normal diplomatic efforts have failed. It is time for the United States, as the sole recognized intermediary, to consider more forceful action for peace. The rest of the world will welcome this leadership," he added. Asked to comment on Carter's suggestion of an aid cutoff, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told NBC Sunday: "We are not considering any cutoffs at this time, and it would be hypothetical to talk about what we might do in the future." Israel currently receives roughly $3 billion in aid, both military and economic, a year from the United States. Carter cited two factors that could persuade Israel to accept a settlement based on implementations of UN resolutions and on the recent Saudi proposal calling for Arab normalization with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war. "One is the legal requirement that American weapons are to be used by Israel only for defensive purposes, a premise certainly being violated in the recent destruction in Jenin and other towns of the West Bank," he added. Carter pointed out that this requirement was imposed by the Richard Nixon administration to stop Israel's military advance into Egypt during the 1973 Middle East war and noted that he also used it to deter Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 1979. "The Israeli Defense Force is heavily supplied with US weapons, so any operation they conduct, there are always US weapons involved," Powell told ABC. "There are laws, and we're always examining those to make sure that use is consistent." Carter meanwhile also pointed to the "approximately 10 million dollars daily in American aid to Israel" and noted that former president George H. Bush had threatened to cut off this assistance in 1992 to prevent the building of Israeli settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. "I understand the extreme political sensitivity in America of using persuasion on the Israelis, but it is important to remember that none of the actions toward peace would involve an encroachment on the sovereign territory of Israel," he added. The former US president had some harsh words for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "His rejection of all peace agreements that included Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands, his invasion of Lebanon, his provocative visit to the Temple Mount, the destruction of villages and homes, the arrests of thousands of Palestinians and his open defiance of President George W. Bush's demand that he comply with international law have all been orchestrated to accomplish his ultimate goals: to establish Israeli settlements as widely as possible throughout occupied territories and to deny Palestinians a cohesive political existence," Carter said. He was also critical of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, citing his failure to exert "control over Hamas and other radical Palestinians who reject the concept of a peaceful coexistence and adopt any means to accomplish their goal." And he slammed the "abhorrent suicide bombings" targeting Israeli civilians as "counterproductive in that they discredit the Palestinian cause, help perpetuate the military occupation and destruction of villages, and obstruct efforts toward peace and justice." ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-04.25.02-18:59:02-2635