"Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" is the last of my books purchased because of right wing outrage.  Angry for three days then silence. This book, written by former President Jimmy Carter, gives a history of the region now known as Israel, the issues present when he was in office, and the status of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

For those who didn't pay attention, when Jimmy Carter was in office he negotiated a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. That agreement proved successful and is still in place today. He has continued to travel the world including the Middle East in an "unofficial capacity".

The first hundred pages of the book is a history of people living in the general area of where Israel now stands.  It's interesting as essentially the Israelis have always been a minority in their "homeland". Then he goes into details about the positions held by Begin and Sadat and the difficulty of putting the agreement together.  Finally he spends more time on the Oslo Accords, the Geneva Initiative, and other peace efforts.

When I first bacme politically aware, I remember the Reagan administration (and the Democratic Congress) continually
subsidizing the construction of "settlements". Basically the U.S. Taxpayer provided loans so that the Israelis could build homes in the middle of Palestinian areas to try and make the situation on the ground fit their rhetoric.  Even as a young pro-Reagan Monetarist Libertarian, I thought this was bullshit.

One part of the book that jumped out was Carter talking with Assad back in 1990 about resolving the status of the Golan Heights.
[In 1967 Israel preemptively invaded three countries seizing the Golan Heights from Syria, the East Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.]  A the time the Bush administration had no interest in such talks.  But reminded me that Syria plays a part final status negotiations with Israeli.  Last summer the Republican presidential candidates were eager to invade Syria.  I wondered if that included shoring up the border claimed by Israel.  Or perhaps the the US would fight with the IDF to expand its Israel's incursion into Syria.  Anyway, Syria could become way more of a pickle than anyone wants.

Back to the book.  Based on his conversations in the region, President Carter believes the people want to a two-state solution
based on pre-1967 borders.  I agree that this is the path.  The governments that are the obstacle. Meanwhile Israel continues to seize land and water supplies, and actively holds back Palestinian economic activity. The U.S. needs to stop writing blank checks for Israel. That country depends on foreign aid to exist, we can lean on them hard if we chose to do the right thing instead of the politically well organized thing.

Palestine Peace Not Apartheid is worth a read.  Regardless of your viewpoint, the history lesson is worth the time.  And since 2006 the situation for the Palestinians is only worse.