Timing the placement into movie theaters the last two weeks of the new documentary, ''Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains,'' before the proposed Middle East conference in Annapolis this year was not intentional. But the irony of the former president's clarity on the Palestinian question contrasts sharply with the refusal by George W. Bush to face harsh reality that casts a pall over hopes to conclude his presidency with a diplomatic triumph.
{josquote}Carter repeatedly declares Israel must end its occupation
of Palestine for peace to have a chance.{/josquote}
The film is more assertive than the book, which tends to be prolix in
recounting Carter's experiences with Israel. It was the word
''apartheid'' in the title that spawned instant accusations of
anti-Semitism against the former president and led 14 members of the
Carter Center's board of counselors to resign. Not until page 215 near
the end of the slim book did Carter make it clear that the ''policy now
being followed'' on the West Bank is ''a system of apartheid with two
peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each
other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by
depriving Palestinians of their basic rights.''
In the movie, Carter repeatedly declares Israel must end its occupation
of Palestine for peace to have a chance. The hecklers at his
appearances and confused interviewers only provoke a stubborn Carter,
who says chopping up the West Bank is actually worse than apartheid,
just as Palestinian peace-seekers told me this year in Jerusalem.