[I Love Nigeria]

former American President Jimmy Carter, a gentle-giant, and a perfect gentleman, a man that I have always admired and continue to admire, is forthrightly honest.

A couple of days ago, he described current American Middle East policies as CRIMINAL!

AND, this was in essence, the essence... of what I had said in this article above.... President Carter's comments are pasted below -ILN

Carter slams U.S. policy on Palestinians
FORMER United States (U.S.) President Jimmy Carter has accused his country, Israel and the European Union (EU) of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the HAMAS-controlled Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel has agreed to allow a number of Palestinians who have been trying to flee the Gaza Strip to enter Israel for urgent medical treatment.

They are among dozens of people stranded at the Erez border crossing for days - some in a desperate state.

They have been trying to flee Gaza after it was taken last week by Hamas militants from their rivals Fatah.

The United Nations (UN) said food supplies in Gaza will be exhausted in seven to 10 days unless Israel allows normal shipments through. It has 100 container loads with supplies ready at the Karni border crossing.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, according to the Associated Press (AP), also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept HAMAS' 2006 election victory was "criminal."

He said HAMAS, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organised in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate FATAH movement.

HAMAS fighters routed FATAH in their violent take-over of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in HAMAS and set up a FATAH-led administration to govern the West Bank.

Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funnelling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking HAMAS in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.

The U.S. and European countries cut off the HAMAS-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognise Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organisations.

In the latest crisis, the U.S., Israel and much of the West have been trying to shore up Abbas in hopes that the West Bank can be made into a democratic example that would bring along Gaza.

During his speech to Ireland's yearly Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Centre observed the 2006 election that HAMAS won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and HAMAS triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt FATAH ran multiple candidates for single seats.


Far from encouraging HAMAS' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning HAMAS and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between HAMAS and FATAH," he said.

Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the FATAH-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer HAMAS in Gaza" - but HAMAS routed FATAH in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."

Ran Yaron, a doctor with the Physicians for Human Rights, told Israel Radio Wednesday that 15 Palestinians' lives were in danger and that the necessary treatment was not available in the Gaza Strip.

Israel had allowed in two Palestinians wounded in a shootout at the terminal, the army and medical officials said. Three other people wounded in the Palestinian infighting last week also were allowed to pass. The army did not provide details of the identities of the wounded, who were taken to Israeli hospitals.

As the stand-off stretched on, the scene inside the tunnel grew increasingly desperate Tuesday.

Women, children and young men sat between two high concrete walls, about 10 yards apart, looking tired and grimy. Suitcases and trash were strewn on the ground. Some families sat on mats, others on bare asphalt, including several men with bloody bandages on their legs. A breeze barely stirred between the walls, and the tunnel, which has no toilets, reeked of urine and sweat.

In Washington, President George W. Bush and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to bolster Abbas in his battle with HAMAS, calling him a moderate voice and the only true leader of the Palestinian people.

"I am going to make every possible effort to co-operate with him," the Israeli prime minister said. Bush called Abbas "the president of all the Palestinians" and "a reasonable voice among the extremists."

Talking to reporters in Washington, Olmert pledged to free tax money Israel has collected for the Palestinians but has frozen since HAMAS took power. He did not give an amount, but the total is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Olmert also said he would act to ease travel restrictions in the West Bank and also would consider releasing Palestinian prisoners and shoring Abbas' security forces.

In the Israeli incursion into southern Gaza, the troops exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen, killing two of them, the army and militant groups said. Another three Palestinians were wounded in the shootout, HAMAS, Palestinian Resistance Committees and Islamic Jihad said. One soldier was moderately wounded, the army said.

Troops acting undercover in the village of Karara were discovered by the gunmen who fired at them, prompting the army to send six tanks, two armoured personnel carriers and a bulldozer to the area, HAMAS and the Palestinian Resistance Committees said. The army said the entrance of the troops had been planned, was not a broad operation, and was meant to counter militant activity, including arms smuggling.