Today's Stories

January 29, 2009

Peter Linebaugh
Tom Paine's Birthday

Paul Craig Roberts
Is It Time to Bail Out of America?

January 28, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza

Noam Chomsky
Obama's Emerging Policies on Israel, Iraq and the Economic Crisis

Patrick Cockburn
Is Mitchell's Mission Already Doomed?

Rob Larson
The Clinton Foundation Donors

George Wuerthner
Who Will Speak for the Forests?

Allan Nairn
South-East Asian Groups Threaten Retaliation Over Gaza Invasion

M. Junaid
Levesque-Alam
A Muslim's Memo to Obama

Stefan Simanowitz
The Silent Trade

Charles R. Larson
The Autumn of the Patriot

Website of the Day
Veggie Love: PETA's Banned Superbowl Ad

January 27, 2009

Winslow T. Wheeler
Save the Economy by Cutting the Defense Budget

Yigal Bronner /
Neve Gordon
Fueling the Cycle of Hate

Joshua Frank
Obama's Neocon: the Curious Case of Richard Holbrooke

Jordan Flaherty
Torture at a Louisiana Prison

Ralph Nader
Access to Economic Justice

Rev. José M. Tirado
How Iceland Fell: a Hundred Days of (Muted) Rage

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Looking Forward

Russell Mokhiber
What If Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?

Martha Rosenberg
Who Says Technology Transfer Doesn't Pay?

C. G. Estabrook
The Inaugural Address: the Digested Read

Website of the Day
Who Profits From the Occupation?

January 26, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Speaking the Truth is a Career-Ending Event

Deepak Tripathi
The BBC's Day of Shame

Vijay Prashad
The India Lobby: Drunk with the Sight of Power

Peter Lee
Geithner's Pop Gun Volley at China

Allan Nairn
The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture

Uri Avnery
On the Wrong Side of History

John Sayen
The Next Shoe to Drop

Dave Lindorff
Afghanistan is No Threat to America

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff

David Macaray
Obama vs. Labor

Roger Burbach
Winds of Change in Cuba

Norman Solomon
The Ghost of LBJ

Website of the Day
Landscapes of Occupation

January 23 / 25, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Ghosts at Obama's Side

P. Sainath
The Freefalling Economy

Patrick Cockburn
In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm

Saul Landau
Reasons for War?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Our Current Economic Crisis: the Monks' Cure

Alan Farago
The Problem with the Stimulus

Christopher Brauchli
When Due Diligence is a One-Way Street

Andy Worthington
Return to Law?

Ron Jacobs
Obama's Pentagon: Bowing to the Masters of War?

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Four)

Henry A. Giroux
The Audacity of Educated Hope

David Yearsley
The Music That Wasn't There: Chamber Music for Obama's Masses

Raymond F. Gustavson
Here We Go Again: General Shinseki and Veterans

Dave Lindorff
The Way Forward

Roberto Rodriguez
Fighting for Migrant Justice in the Desert

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
The Struggle of an Un-People

Fidel Castro
Meeting Cristina

J. Michael Cole
Can Obama's Shift on Terror Succeed?

Bob Fitrakis /
Harvey Wasserman
It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier

Ramzy Baroud
Breaking Gaza's Will

Mohammad Ali Shabani
The Aftermath of the War on Gaza

Richard Rhames
Panning for Pyrite on a Cold Day at the Mall

Stephen Martin
Voices in the Mirror

Lorenzo Wolff
Jurassic Radio

Kim Nicolini
Katrina's Endless Loop

Poets' Basement
Fleming, Henson, First, Jaramillo and Glendinning

Website of the Weekend
Cartoon Love

January 22, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit

Kathy Kelly
Worse Than an Earthquake

Allan Nairn
US Intel Nominee Lied About Church Murders

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Three)

Andy Worthington
Halting the Gitmo Trials

Peter Morici
How to Fix the Banks

Joseph G. Davis
The First MBA Presidency and the Business Academy: a Damage Assessment

Adriana Kojeve
The Democrats on Israel: a Brief Oral History

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Poised for Historic Vote

Website of the Day
Support the Gaza Community Mental Health Program

January 21, 2009

Gabriel Kolko
Understanding Gaza

Harry Browne
Obama's Work Ethic

Michael Colby
Ready. Aim. Organize.

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience

Audrey Stewart
Starting Over in Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Obama and the Muslims

Binoy Kampmark
The Marketing of Hope

David Kεr Thomson
Abolition

John Ross
In My Own Bones

Allan Nairn
Killer in Chief: Will This President Murder Civilians?

Sheldon Richman
The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power

Website of the Day
Globistan

January 20, 2009

Chuck Spinney
Hosing Obama Israeli Style

Kathy Kelly
The Strongest Weapon of All

Raymond Deane
The EU, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty

Ralph Nader
State Terrorism Against Gaza

Audrey Stewart
Why I am in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Doctrine of Destruction

Harvey Wasserman
A Ten-Point Solar Agenda for Obama

Christopher Ketcham
Inauguration Ad Nauseam

Robert Jensen
A Citizen's Oath of Office

Dave Lindorff
Commie Chorus on the Mall: This Land Really is Made for You and Me

David Macaray
SAG Watches It All Slip Away

January 19, 2009

Kevin Alexander Gray
Time for an New Divestment Campaign

Uri Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Mad

Kathy Kelly
Respite in Gaza

Mike Whitney
What Obama Left Out of His Economic Recovery Plan

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Bernie Madoff

Mats Svensson
For Fatima in Gaza

Harry Browne
Obama's Bard: Springsteen's Working on a Dream

Norman Solomon
The Return of Triangulation

Jeffrey Sommers
The Baltic Riots: Really Existing Thatcherism

Kenneth Libby
Manipulating MLK Day

Peter Ewart
Robbie Burns, Mackenzie and Gaza

Bob Sommer
"The Fierce Urgency of Now"

Website of the Day
Death of a Whaler

January 16-18, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Hail to the Chief

Caoimhe Butterly
Terribly Bloodied, Still Breathing

Audrey Stewart /
Kathy Kelly
Suddenly Bombs Started Falling: Report from Gaza

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Geo. W. Bush, a Concise Biography

Ellen Cantarow
I Could Not Save a Single Child

Neve Gordon
How to Sell "Ethical" Warfare

Vijay Prashad
An African-American in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
Israeli Attack Injures 1.5 Million Gazans

Rannie Amiri
The UN in Israel's Crosshairs

Andy Worthington
Guantánamo's Forgotten Child

Joshua Frank
Forecasting Obama

Dave Lindorff
Prosecuting Bush and Cheney

Brian Cloughley
Who Runs America?

Belén Fernández
Changing the Equation

Missy Beattie
Peace and Justice Denied

Fred Gardner
Growing Pot for Research

George Ciccariello-Maher
"Oakland is Closed!"

John V. Whitbeck
Democracy Not Partition

Stephen Fleischman
Card Check

Mischa Gaus
Medicare for All! Tackling Union Opposition to Single-Payer

Saul Landau
The End of the Affair

Norm Kent
Perils of the Grow House

Alejandro López
Give Bush the Shoe! (and Send Us the Photo)

David Yearsley
The Glory That Was Dresden

James McEnteer
Doin' the Time Warp Again

Lorenzo Wolff
An Album That Lives Up to Its Cover

Kim Nicolini
Patti Smith's Dream of Life

Poets' Basement
Three Financial Poems by Brian J. Foley

Website of the Day
Lancet: Medical Conditions in Gaza

January 15, 2009

Pam Martens
Wall Street Powerhouses Invested Alongside Madoff

Karl Grossman
Obama and the Military - Industrial - Scientific Complex

M. Shahid Alam
Gaza's Shattered Mirror

Jules Rabin
Gaza Besieged, Gaza Mauled

Alan Farago
The Nail-Gun Bailout

Ron Jacobs
The State of Black America: From Oscar Grant to Barack Obama

Timothy Seidel
Just Violence in Gaza? The Calculus of Proportionality

George Ochenski
Why No Montana Wilderness?

Todd Chretien
Taking a Stand for Justice in Oakland

Bob Fitrakis /
Harvey Wasserman
Obama's Marijuana Prohibition Acid Test

Website of the Day
Uranium Watch

January 14, 2009

Henry A. Giroux
Killing Children With Impunity

Kathy Kelly
Cease Fire, Cease Siege

Franklin Lamb
A Second Front? Hezbollah Militants Chafe as Gaza Burns

Mike Whitney
The Big Contraction: Why the Stimulus Alone Won't Work

Paul Craig Roberts
The Humiliation of America

Glen Ford
Sullying Dr. King's Legacy: the Congressional Black Caucus and Israel

Aditya Chakrabortty
The End of Property Porn

Dave Lindorff
Fattening the Rats: Feeding at the Bailout Trough

Jonathan Cook
Israel Bars Arab Parties From Elections

David Swanson
Conyers Explains Why He Didn't Push Impeachment

Martha Rosenberg
Fragile: Handle with Risperdal

Website of the Day
Report of a Red Cross Worker in Gaza

January 13, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
The Facts About Hamas and the War on Gaza

Jonathan Cook
Is Israel Using Experimental Weapons in Gaza?

Michael Neumann
Hamas and Gaza: Slave Revolts and Passionate Evasions

Coleen Rowley /
William John Cox
No Victors in the War on Dissent

Robert Sandels
Cuba and the Obama Administration: Subversion Through Trade?

Saul Landau
The Changeling: an Obama Nightmare

David Swanson
What to Ask Eric Holder

Wajahat Ali
Waltzing with War Crimes

Sam Bahour
No Other Option? A View From the West Bank

Stanley Heller
Why It's Useless to Lobby Congress on Gaza

Robert Jensen
Beyond Grief and Rage

Robin Mittenthal
Eating Away at the Land That Feeds Us

Website of the Day
The 50 Most Loathsome People in America

January 12, 2009

Uri Avnery
The Blood-Stained Monster Enters Gaza

Paul Craig Roberts
Our Collapsing Economy

Mike Whitney
Israel's Moral and Political Insanity

Ewa Jasiewicz
Oh, Quiet Night: Only Six Homes Were Bombed

Bill Quigley
A Day in Gaza

Dave Lindorff
From Vietnam to Gaza

Bill and Kathleen Christison
Blowback From a Tragic Error: a Message to Barack Obama

Jonathan Cook
Israel Ponders the Third Stage

Andy Worthington
Seven Years of Guantánamo

Kara N. Tina
Oakland on Fire

Brenda Norrell
Palestinians and American Indians: Russell Means Breaks the Silence on Obama

Nour Kharma
A Plea From a Teen in Gaza: "Will I Die, Too?"

Website of the Day
The Villages Group: an Antiwar Alliance in Sderot

January 9/11, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Israel's Onslaught on Gaza: Criminal, for Sure; But Also Stupid

Kathy Kelly
Tunnel Vision: Report from Arish, Egypt

Bill Quigley
Report From Rafah: Doctors Stopped at the Border

George Ciccariello-Maher
Oakland's Not for Burning?

Elaine C. Hagopian
Gaza: History Matters

Mike Roselle
Drowning in a Toxic River: What Can be Done to Save Appalachia?

Steve Hendricks
The Torturer-Elect?

Gary Leupp
Revisiting the Tale of Samson

Jonathan Cook
Outcry Over Israel's War Crimes

Karim Makdisi
The Ceasefire Plan: the UN Finally Acts, But Does It Mean Anything?

Rannie Amiri
Livni's Big Lie

Peter Morici
In the Jaws of a Depression

Peter Montague
Can Chemicals be Regulated?

Ralph Nader
Move Fast to Restore the Rule of Law

Andy Worthington
The Dying Days of the Guantánamo Trials

Nadia Hijab
A Music School Silenced in Gaza

Dan Bacher
Unholy Alliance: Nature Conservancy Backs Schwarzenegger's Big Ditch

Catherine Fenton
The American Peace Movement and Israel

David Macaray
Wal-Mart Caught Stealing

Valia Kaimaki
Why Greek Youths Took to the Streets

Richard Morse
Haiti's Gas Gang

David Yearsley
To Gotham City with Dexter Gordon

Charles R. Larson
The Horror, the Horror

Richard Rhames
Gaza and the Goon Squad Meet the Wizard

Stephen Martin
Meltdown Memo to Come?

Lorenzo Wolff
What They Sing About When They Sing About Love

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Beatty and Valentine

Website of the Weekend
Gaza Protest

January 8, 2009

Jean Bricmont /
Diana Johnstone
Gaza Seen From Paris

Franklin Lamb
How Dershowitz Misstates, Misrepresents and Misapplies the Law

Paul Craig Roberts
The Difficulty of Being an Informed American

Kevin Alexander Gray
Give Burris His Seat

Chris Floyd
The Enduring Priorities in Obama's Time of Change

Ewa Jasiewicz
Riding on Fire in Gaza

Steve Conn
Sanjay Gupta and Obama

Harvey Wasserman
Kill the Nuclear Stimulus!

Wayne S. Smith
An Opening to Cuba?

Linda Mamoun
Re-settling Gaza: the Real Goal of the Israeli Invasion?

Adam Turl
Unions and Young Workers

Chris Papaleonardos
Mourning Maria Dimitriadi

Website of the Day
On the Wing

January 7, 2009

Saree Makdisi
What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel?

Franklin Lamb
Bend Over Professor Dershowitz, It's Time for Your Check Up

William Blum
America's Other Glorious War

Belén Fernández
The Trauma Vortex: Israel's Monopoly on Psychological Suffering

Lawrence Davidson
What is New About Gaza?

Allan Nairn
Adm. Dennis Blair and the Church Killings in East Timor

Jonathan Cook
What is Israel's Objective?

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
Watching the War on BBC

Deepak Tripathi
Bush, as He Leaves

Cal Winslow
Now is the Hour to Defend Democracy in the Labor Movement!

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
To Students Planning Careers: Be Mindful

Dr. Hannah Safran
No More Recycled Military Solutions

Website of the Day
CNN: Israel Broke the Ceasefire First

January 6, 2009

Pam Martens
It's All One Big Lie

Victoria Buch
Real Estate War in Gaza: the History and "Morals" of Ethnic Cleansing

Neve Gordon
Israel's New War Ethic

Tami Sarfatti /
Yonatan Mendel
What Silence Says: Gaza is Still Waiting on Obama

Mike Whitney
The Gaza Bloodbath

Alan Farago
After the Fall

Gary Leupp
A Hamas Coup d'Etat in 2007?

Larry Everest
Silent Partner: the US-Backed War on Gaza

Ron Jacobs
The New Iraqi Sovereignty

David Macaray
Union-Busting is Alive and Well

Stephanie Basile
Where's Anna's Money?

Stacey Warde
An Uncle's Unrest

Website of the Day
Israeli Refusenik on Gaza

January 5, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Will There be a Recovery?

Sousan Hammad
Phoning Home to Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Flying While Brown

Mats Svensson
Longing in Gaza

Jen Marlowe
Abeer's Baby

Muhammad Ali Khalidi
Gaza Phone Tag

Brian Cloughley
Israel is Immune From Criticism

Faheem Hussain
Gaza and India: a View From Pakistan

William Cook
Consider the Realities of Gaza

Dr. Trudy Bond
The Madness Among Us

Christopher Ketcham
The Revenge of the Blogger at the National Press Club: a Rotten Washington Interlude

Steve Early
Who Rules SEIU?

Dave Lindorff
When It Comes to Terrorism and POW Cases, Equal Justice Under Law is a Joke

Website of the Day
The Endangered Fish of the Colorado River Basin

January 2 - 4, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Diary of 2008: an Incredible, Hope-Filled Year

Uri Avnery
Molten Lead in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of the Gaza Assault

Paul Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Western Morality?

Brian Eno
Stealing Gaza: an Experiment in Provocation

Ralph Nader
America Must Stop Shirking Its Responsibility on Gaza

Omar Barghouti
UN Complicity in Israel's Massacre in Gaza

Graham Usher
Where Pakistan's Generals and the ISI Draw Their Lines

P. Sainath
The Economy is Worse Than It Appears

Belén Fernández
Pardon Our Dust: Israel's PR Campaign for Gaza

Deb Reich
Shiv'a in Gaza, December 2008

Gary Leupp
Defacing Mr. Jefferson's Wall: Preachers and the Inauguration

Michael Yates
Top Chef or Top Wage Thief? Tom Colicchio and the Economics of Restaurants

Joanne Mariner
How to Close Guantánamo

Seth Sandronsky
Funding the Israeli Military: the US Pipeline

Cynthia McKinney
We Lived to Tell the Story

Sonja Karkar
Israel's Dogs of War

Deepak Tripathi
Gaza in Perspective

Robert Fantina
Obama, Afghanistan and Israel

John Ross
The Year No One Can Remember

Norm Kent
The Heat on Duval Street: Why Head Shop Raids are Unfair and Unjust

Larry Portis
Syria and the Arab Barbie Doll--Before the Deluge

Richard Rhames
Is Conscience Dead?

Dee C. Lubell
We Come From the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright

David Yearsley
A Gay German at the Courts of the Medici and Hanover, and of Course the BBC

Lorenzo Wolff
Joe Ely, the Fighting Rooster of Rock

Marc Catone
Looting Lennon's Legacy

Poets' Basement
Five Poems by Grzegorz Wróblewski

Website of the Weekend
Earth in High Rez

January 1, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
If Hamas Did Not Exist

Oren Ben-Dor
The Self-Defense of Suicide

Wajahat Ali
The U.S. Response to the Gaza Crisis: Unfair and Unbalanced

Saul Landau
In Cuba No One Man Could Steal $50 Billion From Other People

David Michael Green
What to Expect While We're Expecting

Website of the Day
Morbid Anatomy

December 31, 2008

Pam Martens
Wall Street's Collapse and the Ownership Society

Neve Gordon /
Jeff Halper
Where's the Academic Outrage Over the Bombing of a University in Gaza?

Ted Honderich
The First Casualty of Israel's War

Brian Cloughley
Five Little Girls on a Sofa: Gaza's One-Sided Images

Ron Jacobs
What is Hamas, Really?

Vijay Prashad
Hot Rod and His Sikh Warrior: Blago's Indian Connections

Franklin Lamb
Mr. Mubarak, Tear Down That Wall!

Mike Whitney
My Brilliant Career

David Macaray
What Really Killed the Auto Bailout

Richard Thieme
The Betrayal of the Commons

Mary Lynn Cramer
Who Wins What in Gaza?

Stephen Lendman
The Troubling Case of the Fort Dix Five

Worthy Group of the Day
Western Shoshone Defense Project

December 30, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
May We No Longer Be Silent

Tariq Ali
The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant

Robert Bryce
The $775,000-a-Year GI

Jonathan Cook
Electioneering with Bombs

Gary Leupp
The Fishbarrel War

Dave Lindorff
Tough Guys Don't Walk: Will Cheney Seek a Pardon?

Brian McKenna
Ted Downing and Troublemaker Anthropology

John Walsh
The End of the Green Party

Ramzy Baroud
Gaza and the World

Bob Sommer
The Education of David Frost

Worthy Activist of the Day
Support Marie Mason

December 29, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza

Neve Gordon
What, Exactly, is Israel's Mission?

Joshua Frank
Obama and the "Special Relationship"

George Salzman /
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The War Against Palestine: Exception From Humanity

Norman Solomon
A Hundred Eyes for an Eye

Ewa Jasiewicz
Gaza Today: "This is Just the Beginning"

Rob Larson
The Banks Laugh All the Way to the Bank

Kenneth Libby
Arne Duncan's Dark Years in Chicago

Robert Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008

Elsa Johnson
High Noon at Black Mesa: Bush's Farewell Gift to Peabody Coal

Nicola Nasser
Resolution 1850: Bush's Parting Gift

Belén Fernández
Hanukkah Games

Worthy Group of the Day
Nuclear Information and Resource Service

December 26-28, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Medusa's Head

Dr Eyad Al Serraj
The Boming of Gaza: "An Earthquake on Top of Your Head"

Jeffrey St. Clair
Cancerous Air

Bradley Simpson
Obama's New Intel Chief, Dennis Blair, Ran Interference for Indonesia's Butchers

Ralph Nader
Government Without Laws

Gary Leupp
Obama and the Graveyard of Empires

Ellen Cantarow
Richard Falk, Israel and the NYT

Matt Landon
The Great Coal Ash Flood: a Report From Swan Pond Road

David Macaray
SAG's Terrible Dilemma

Patrick Bond
End of Neoliberalism? Sorry, Not Yet

Norm Kent
Invoking Bigotry: Obama and Rick Warren

Brian T. Ketcham
Fuel Efficiency is Easy--Just Don't Let Detroit Tell You How to Do It

Rannie Amiri
War Clouds Over Gaza

Larry Portis
Changing the Ethnic Vocabulary

Richard Rhames
Welcome to Soup Kitchen America

Stephen Lendman
29 Red Flags: Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff

James L. Secor
Unheralded Coup

Ramzy Baroud
Iraq, the Plot Thickens

Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture

Cpt. Paul Watson
Tracking the Cetacean Death Star

Howard Lisnoff
Nixon's Cambodian Shock Treatment

Michael Dee
The Bill of Rights, Killed in Action by the War on Drugs

Steve Conn
Eight Predictions for 2009

Poets' Basement
Valentine, Kaung, Moser and Graham

Worthy Group of the Weekend
United Mountain Defense

December 25, 2008

Judy Gumbo Albert
What Were Those 1960s Terrorists Thinking, Anyway?

Rev. William E. Alberts
The Sole of Christmas

Hannah Mermelstein
Caution: Settlers Ahead

Worthy Group of the Day
Citizens' Coal Council

December 24, 2008

Bill Quigley
Five Bailout Lessons From Katrina

Saul Landau
Then and Now: Venezuela and Cuba, 1960-2008

Sam Smith
Evangelism and Politics

Brian Cloughley
Torture, Slaughter and Lies

John Ross
Where's al-Zaidi's Pulitzer?

Eric Walberg
Cold War Shivers

Norm Kent
What Will Obama Do About Marijuana?

Stephen Martin
Reasons for Cheerfulness

Worthy Group of the Day
Collateral Repair Project

December 23, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Ponzi Paradigm

Michael Yates
The Tombstone Economy

Chuck Spinney
The New York Times Flames Out in Defense Dogfight

Vijay Prashad
India's Reckless Road to Washington, Through Tel Aviv

Brian Horejsi
Interior Decorating: Obama, Salazar and the Future of America's Public Lands

David Macaray
Obama's Best Pick?

Neil Watkins /
Sarah Anderson
Ecuador's Conscientious Default

David Michael Green
Hey, Reagan Democrats! Now Do You Get It?

Worthy Group of the Day
Focus on the Corporation

January 29, 2009

An Interview with Jimmy Carter

The Future of Gaza

By RIZ KHAN

RIZ KHAN (Al Jazeera): Hello and welcome. Could Hamas be a key to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians? In spite of the U.S. condemning the democratically elected organization as terrorists and Israel launching a prolonged military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, there are those who feel there cannot be a solution without Hamas in peace talks. The argument for dialogue gains weight with the backing of a former U.S. president who's been willing to take on the critics and controversy as he continues to staunchly campaign for peace in the region. In his book, "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work," former President Jimmy Carter argues that, despite the recent violence between Israel and Hamas, the conditions are right for a peace deal.

Well, for more than 30 years, Jimmy Carter has worked on building peace in the Middle East. The 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel paved the way for later agreements with Jordan and the Palestinians. So as a new U.S. president takes on the challenge of finding a resolution, what advice does President Carter offer, will it be received willingly and why is he hopeful now, when the two sides seem further apart than ever? President Carter, it's an honor to speak with you again.

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: It's a pleasure, thank you.

MR. KHAN: Sir, you've been saying positive things about President Obama's approach to peace in the Middle East, but your views with him seem to diverge when it comes to the issue of Hamas. You've advocated including Hamas – talking to Hamas – where he's taken the line of the previous administration, that Hamas shouldn't be in the peace talks. Sir, do you think he's wrong?

PRES. CARTER: Well, in the United States, now, it's not possible to move immediately into discussions with Hamas, but my position is not completely different from Obama, because I realize what I just said is true, but there's no way to have a permanent peace in the Middle East without the inclusion of Hamas. The first step, as far as the Palestinians go, will obviously have to be a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, and I think all of the Arab world – and I think the Palestinians, both sides – want to see that done.

So far, as you know, it's been objected to and obstructed by the United States, and that may change, at least on the United States side, in the next few months. But the other thing is that I've seen that Hamas is willing to have some flexibility in their previous position. They have told me and announced publicly on this TV station last April that they would accept any peace agreement negotiated between Abu Mazen and the Israelis if the agreement was submitted to the Palestinians in a referendum and if the Palestinians approved it, or if there was a unity government that could approve. So that opened up a door to an absolutely necessary fact, and that is that Hamas has got to be involved before the peace can be concluded.

MR. KHAN: Sir, you met with Hamas for a second time this past December and said it was putting all of its eggs in the Obama basket. What do you think Hamas hopes is possible under President Obama that wasn't under President Bush?

PRES. CARTER: I would say just a basic change in everything. One is that neither – that President Bush didn't start working on the Mideast situation until toward the end of his term, and the other thing is that when he did start working on it, the United States played a very dormant role pretty well approving or accepting what Israel was doing by increasing massive numbers of settlements, increasing the number of checkpoints and continuing to build a separation barrier, or the segregation wall, as it's called.

So I think that Obama will have a much more balanced point of view. Also, in the previous 16 years, most of the envoys for the president in the Mideast have been openly and publicly committed to Israel's side. Some of them have been professional lobbyists for Israel. George Mitchell is a different person. And he will be objective and fair. He's a tough negotiator. He was able to bring peace to Northern Ireland, which everybody thought was impossible, and he's on the way over there now for a fact-finding tour. I gave him a copy of my book, at his request. I gave the first copy of the book to President Obama. So I think that at least they understand my points of view.

But I don't think there's any doubt that with this new administration in Washington and a new approach, that we'll see a move toward peace. The other thing is that it's coming down to a choice between one state and two states. And as I describe in one of the chapters in my book, a one-state solution would be a catastrophe for Israel, because with only one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, you would, at this moment, have a majority of non-Jews in the population. And you would very soon, in just a few years, have a majority of Arabs, and it's very likely that you could no longer have a Jewish state, or the Israelis would have to force the Palestinians to leave the West Bank, or they would have to have a nation within which part of their citizens couldn't have a vote. So none of those things are attractive, even for Israel.

MR. KHAN: Is there anything left for there to be a two-state situation? Gaza's in ruins, the West Bank's fragmented – there's not much left, really, for the Palestinians.

PRES. CARTER: I think that, obviously, Gaza can and will be rebuilt. Gaza has been very resilient. I hate to see it happen. The Carter Center has a full-time office in Gaza; we know what's happening there. But Gaza will be rebuilt. And I think that the proposal by the Arab nations is the key formula that I personally espouse. And it's completely compatible with the final stages of the so-called international quartet's "Roadmap for Peace," and it's also compatible with the official policies of the United States and the United Nations resolutions and the Geneva Accords, that is, Israel withdraws from the Palestinian territories in exchange for peace and with accommodation for the right of return and also for Jerusalem.

And those things can take place. I think that there's one degree of flexibility that I would espouse, which I do in the book and that is that, let Israel have a small part of the West Bank right around Jerusalem so they could retain about half of their settlers in the West Bank, but not deep in the West Bank. And then in exchange for that let an equivalent amount of land be given to the Palestinians. And I would personally like to see a corridor between the West Bank and Gaza – it's about 30, 35 miles – about 50 kilometers. Even Ariel Sharon, when I talked to him in 2005, said that that would be a good idea. So that's the kind of exchange that can take place only through good-faith talks.

MR. KHAN: Now, in terms of Hamas, with your meetings with them – obviously you take a lot of flack for that. Do you feel Hamas can be trusted, that they would – of course, they're always portrayed as never sticking to ceasefires, that they are pretty much part of the problem. Israel certainly portrays them as the main reason the ceasefire ends.

PRES. CARTER: Well, I know what happened in this last ceasefire. I was the one that helped to orchestrate it. When I went that April I asked Hamas to accept a ceasefire just in Gaza. Their first position was no, we'll only accept a ceasefire with the entire Palestine, that is, Gaza and the West bank. I knew that Israel would not accept that, so they finally accepted okay, we'll accept the proposition that you put forward to us, Mr. President, that is, Gaza ceasefire only. I relayed that information to the chief negotiator between the Hamas and Israel, Omar Sulaiman, head of security in Egypt.

And he pursued that proposition and finally reached an agreement late in May – about a month and six weeks later – and the agreement was that they would stop all attacks on each other, that Hamas would stop all the rockets and that Israel would open up the supply line going in to supply food and water and medicines and fuel to the one and a half million Palestinians. That was the agreement. Hamas kept their promise I would say 99 percent. Three months there was just one mortar round or rocket fire – no damage done. But Israel did not keep their promise on opening up their supply lines; they only increased to about twenty percent.

But still Hamas kept their promise until the fourth day of November, at which time Israel attacked Gaza militarily because they claimed that there was a tunnel being built. It turned out that the tunnel was completely within the walls of Gaza and there are probably a thousand other tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. But that was what precipitated the breakdown in the ceasefire.

MR. KHAN: So now, as you know, on this show we give the viewers a chance to question you as well and we've got a call –

PRES. CARTER: Good.

MR. KHAN: – on the line from the U.K., Howard, what would you like to ask President Carter?

Q: Yes, Mr. Carter, while I commend you on what you've said on the occupied territories, I feel that in your book and your public remarks you have failed to understand the extent of the discrimination the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel – living in Israel proper suffer from and I would suggest to you to ask Al Jazeera for a copy of their two-party documentary called "Palestine Street" because the second part of that documentary has hard evidence of the kind of persecution and discrimination that Arab-Israeli citizens suffer from. You seem to think that it's a beautiful democracy and they have all these democratic rights.

MR. KHAN: Howard, let me put that to President Carter.

PRES. CARTER: I don't deny that, you know, but when I wrote my controversial book, that is, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid", I specifically oriented it towards Palestine – the occupied territories – and not Israel. And it was Palestine peace, not apartheid. Well, there's no doubt that within Palestine there is apartheid and I defined apartheid in the book: Apartheid is when two different peoples occupy the same land, when they are forcibly segregated one from another and one dominates the other. That's actually what's happening in Palestine.

But I specifically refrained from including Israel in that book but I know what's happening in Israel; I've read the documentaries – seen them and I've read the books about it. There's not an equality of opportunity – citizenship in Israel, if for nothing else just the ownership of land.

MR. KHAN: Before I take another call, did that controversy with first book force you to really hold book on the second book, then?

PRES. CARTER: No.

MR. KHAN: Have you had to bite your tongue?

PRES. CARTER: No, the second book is a formula for peace and it describes the 30 years of history under different presidents, beginning with me and down to what's happened. It describes the choice between a one-state and a two-state solution and it spells out the capability among all of those different elements that I have described to you – the official position of the U.S., United Nations resolutions, Arab positions and so forth – that they're all exactly the same and the fact the peace is possible. That's what I tried to do in the second book, but it wasn't to describe the devastating status of the life of Palestinians under occupation.

MR. KHAN: Let's get Ayun (ph) on the line from Switzerland. Thanks for your patience, Ayun, what would you like to ask?

Q: Yeah hi, it's Aaron (sp).

MR. KHAN: Aaron, sorry, go ahead.

Q: (Chuckles.) No problem. So is there any evidence to suggest that Barack Obama will join the international community in recognizing that the state of Israel is an occupying power and that her occupation is a fundamental violation of international law? Will he do something as simple as that? Is there any evidence that suggests that whatsoever?

MR. KHAN: Okay.

PRES. CARTER: I believe he will. I think every president since I was in office has officially agreed with the United Nations resolutions, which emphasize the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war – I'm quoting directly from the preamble to it. And all of us have agreed, too – in official U.S. policy – that Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories. The fact is that very few of the presidents have been willing to confront Israel's forces in the United States, politically speaking.

I think that Obama has done more than anyone else in recent years in saying that I'm going to start immediately as soon as I get in office working on this and his choice of an envoy has been very significant because if you look back at the U.N.-U.S. envoys that have been in the Middle East, in charge of the Middle East in the past, almost all of them have been highly and closely affiliated with Israel, sometimes even professionally working for Israel.

But George Mitchell is a balanced and honest broker compared to the others. And I have high hopes that he will be the key representative of Obama and Obama will take a balanced position, which is what the international community does and what the official position of the U.S. government is.

MR. KHAN: A very quick thought before we take a break, sir. Do you think that Barack Obama's silence during the pre-inauguration period when Gaza was in flames has hurt him in any way?

PRES. CARTER: I don't think he was silent. I know the day that I came to Washington to meet with him, I think the sixth day of December, when I met with him at night, he pointed out that he had made a public statement condemning the suffering of the women and children and others under attack in Gaza. It wasn't as strong a position as I may have made, but it was stronger than any of his predecessors would have made.

MR. KHAN: So we are going to ask you more questions in a moment. We have to take a short break now. More on our discussion with former U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, in just a moment – as we pause, let me remind you, you can join the conversation with your questions and comments by logging onto livestation.com and entering the chat room. We're taking a poll in there to find out if you think a two-state solution is still possible. We asked our chat room viewers, is a two-state solution still possible? The results are 65 percent of you said, yes, a two-state solution is possible, while 35 percent think the two-state solution is no longer possible. That's 65 for and 35 say, no, it's not possible.

Sir, just before the break, we were talking about the position the U.S. government has on the situation. I know that you also think that there are other parties that might get involved here, perhaps Syria is one that might be part of this and has been ignored.

PRES. CARTER: That's true. I visited Syria every time I've been to the Mideast in recent years. And I always go by and see the new president there, Bashar al Assad, whom I've known since he's been a college student, as a matter of fact, when he used to visit his father.

He is very eager to have normal diplomatic relations with the United States, which he hasn't had under George Bush as president. I hope that will be one of the earlier developments of the Obama administration, to open up ties of communication and diplomatic relations with Syria.

Also I think that it's very crucial for comprehensive Middle East peace to have an agreement on the Golan Heights. And, as you know, the Bush administration did not approve of those negotiations that were taking place indirectly under the Turkish leadership. I was familiar with those talks from quite early in the timeframe. And they were done in a Turkish hotel, I understand, with the Israelis in one room and the Syrians in a different room and the Turks going back and forth.
But the framework or the basic formula for Golan Heights peace has been well-known for the last 20 years. And there is not very much flexibility there. And I believe that the next Israeli prime minister, with the United States' support, will move and have a consummation of that peace agreement.

MR. KHAN: So we have on the line from Kenya, Mohammed (sp). Mohammed, good to hear from Kenya, go ahead. Go ahead, Mohammed. Please ask your question.

Q: How are you?

MR. KHAN: Good, thanks. Go ahead.

Q: The question is – I just want to put it to President Jimmy Carter and the other people who are watching from the Al Jazeera that, do you think it is possible that we can get one state so that we can do it, for example, the Israeli – the head of state and the Palestinians also, the prime minister, so they can share the land? As you can see, there is two small lands.

MR. KHAN: Okay. Mohammed, on that point, I think, President Carter, you've already said it would be disastrous from Israel's perspective. Even this idea of power-sharing –

PRES. CARTER: I think it would because you'd have to have either one of three things. One, Israel would have to have, you might call, ethnic cleansing, to move – force Palestinians to leave Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza. And, obviously, Egypt and Lebanon and Jordan don't want them to come in. Or you would have to have a one government where you deprive the Palestinians of the right to vote, which would be apartheid like South Africa, which the Israelis don't want, either. The third thing is to let the Palestinians have a majority vote – the Arabs have a majority vote – which means you no longer have a Jewish state, so-called, as a special haven for Jews. And I don't think the Israeli's would accept any one of those three things, so a two-state solution is the only option left.

MR. KHAN: Let's get to Kevin, who's on the line from South Africa. Go ahead, Kevin.

OPERATOR: Your call has been placed on hold.

MR. KHAN: Oh – (chuckles) – he put us on hold. You mentioned George Mitchell is a good choice in your eyes. What about first lady – sorry, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who, as first lady, made positive statements about the need to improve the lives of the Palestinians and then seemed to flip-flop, according to many people, when she was fighting for the Senate position in New York.

PRES. CARTER: Well, the Senate position from New York is a completely different political environment than serving under President Obama, and no matter how her feelings might be personally, as secretary of state – I don't know what they are – she could certainly not violate the basic proposals that Barack Obama decides are best for this country.

MR. KHAN: Would people trust her, though, considering that change of position?

PRES. CARTER: Oh, I think so. And I think she'll be loyal to Obama, and I don't know what her motivations would be. I think when she expressed sympathy for the Palestinians, that was much more out of the political environment of New York state than it was after she became a senator there. So I think that she might very well feel deeply about the suffering of the Palestinian people.

MR. KHAN: Sir, we had an e-mail that came in from a viewer by the name of Robert Barnes (sp) who wrote in saying: "I'm an American and do not support what our government has been doing. The attack on Gaza was genocide with the whole world watching. AIPAC controls our government, not the people of America. AIPAC has become the puppet of Israel." How confident are you that President Obama can overcome the power of the lobbyists? He's said he doesn't want lobbying influence.

PRES. CARTER: Well, AIPAC has never claimed to be committed to peace. If you look up AIPAC on Google, AIPAC is committed to support the policies of the Israeli government and they've been very effective. And it's almost politically impossible for any member of the U.S. Congress to come out and publicly condemn Israel. They would have a difficult time getting re-elected in our country. But there is an emergence, in recent months – I'd say the last three or four years – of an increasing number of Jewish organizations within America who are for peace. And J Street is one small group, but there are a lot of others.

When I wrote this other book about Palestine, "Peace, not Apartheid," I received the next month 6100 letters – an outpouring of letters about the book – and 71 percent were positive, for me. And a majority of those writers who identified themselves as Jewish also said good things about the book – it's time somebody wrote a book that tells both sides of the issue, otherwise, we'll never see peace for Israel, if only one side is presented in the United States. And as you know, there's a vociferous and intense debate that goes on in Jerusalem, which you never see that kind of debate go on, in the news media or in anything else, in the United States.

MR. KHAN: And of course, that book was controversial, as you say. And one critic – I mean, and it makes you a target for the hard-line – you know, the right-wing or conservative crowd, as such. One critic said – described you as, "a person who has stuck his thumb in the eye of every president who has followed him." Do you ever worry that you jeopardize official U.S. diplomacy by using Carter diplomacy?

PRES. CARTER: Well, I'm always very careful to use diplomacy in a very proper fashion. For instance, when I have been to the Mideast the last two times last year, including last month, I make publicly clear the fact that I'm not a mediator, not a negotiator. I'm just a fact-finder who goes over there representing not the U.S. government but the Carter Center. And I also always make sure that the president of the United States and the secretary of state knows where I'm going and with whom I'm going to meet.

And the day after I return home, I always meticulously send them a full trip report on everything I do on the trip to the White House, the State Department and also to the United Nations secretary general. So I don't do anything secretly. I'm not a diplomat. I don't negotiate. I just represent for my own organization.

MR. KHAN: Sir, another e-mail that came in, this time from Belgium, from Geoff Kimullen (ph) in Hofstader, who says: "There is need for economic cooperation between Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. At some point, it can be extended to others as well. Cooperation is more efficient than making war. If there is an economic future guaranteed for all, there is no need for aggression." Now, I wonder if there's been enough focus on the potential success of an economic plan.

PRES. CARTER: Not yet. There had been in the past. I think King Hussein was one of those that promoted that, as well as his brother. And I have always advocated the fact that if Lebanon and Syria and Jordan and Israel and Egypt could just get together, just the tourism that would flood in, collectively, in a peaceful environment, just to study Christianity and other religions would be incredible. And obviously, the great resources there – natural resources and mineral resources – would be a boon for the economy and for jobs for everyone. So if we can ever get peace, which I pray will happen during my lifetime, then I think we'll have a very wonderful benefit from it economically.

MR. KHAN: Now, of course, the Camp David peace agreements – you negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, but a lot of people say that that, perhaps, let Israel off the hook. And the critics say that it made Israel stronger and Egypt – that the headache of Egypt was taken away. And I wonder if, when you look back on it, that it might have been done differently?

PRES. CARTER: I can't deny that, because when I was elected president, there had been four wars in the region in 25 years, primarily between Egypt and a few other Arabs versus Israel. And I thought it was best to bring peace to the people. And the Camp David Accords was two parts; one was between Israel and Egypt, which is what you mentioned. The other part was a commitment by Israel – by Menachem Begin – confirmed by the Knesset, their parliament, that Israel would withdraw, militarily and economically and politically from the West Bank and Gaza, and that they would acknowledge U.N. 242 as prevalent, that is, you couldn't acquire territory by war. So Israel carried out the commitment made on peace with Israel (sic) – withdrawing from the Sinai, but they didn't carry out the other part that they agreed to do that is concerning the Palestinians.

MR. KHAN: Sir, unfortunately, I have to stop you there. We're out of time. Many more questions, but hopefully another time.

PRES. CARTER: I look forward to it.

This interview ran on Al Jazeera.

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