Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter: Mental Health and Insane Lawsuits

Frivolous lawsuits are not just a waste of time and money, they are slanderous and insane-meaning legally incompetent and irresponsible!

Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter

(CLERMONT, Fla.) - Last May Jon Stewart interviewed former first lady Rosalynn Carter, about the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism; an effort to increase understanding of mental illness and decrease its stigma.

Because my degree is in nursing, my vocation is writing and the people I most enjoy spending my time with are those who have been tortured by society for being schizophrenic, bipolar and those who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, I knew that I needed and wanted to be a Fellow so I could do something beyond just listening to those deemed 'outcasts' by society.

I missed the deadline for the 2010 Fellowship; but on 4 February 4, 2011, I completed my paper work and also learned about a class action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, seeking $5 million in 'damages' and alleging that Carter’s 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid was "filled with demonstrable falsehoods, omissions, and knowing misrepresentations intended to promote Carter’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda." [1]

Having been to Israel Palestine seven times since 2005 and possessing a functioning brain, I comprehend that the lawsuit is not just frivolous, without merit, a chilling attack on free speech, it is also insane!

While President Carter does not need me for his Defense, I claim the only mistake he made was not going far enough: for it is not just Apartheid in Israel Palestine but it has also been a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse the so called Holy Land.

While in east Jerusalem, on 8 November 2006, I learned from Dr. Ilan Pappe that in Tel Aviv "on March 10, 1948, eleven men had a meeting in the Red House headed by Ben Gurion. The eleven decided to expel one million Palestinians from historical Palestine. No minutes were taken, but many memoirs were written about that fateful meeting. A systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and within seven months the Zionists managed to expel one half of all the Palestinian people from their villages and towns."

Dr. Pappe is a graduate of Hebrew University and Oxford and is a well-known revisionist or "post-Zionist" Israeli historian who has been both acclaimed and demonized. His book, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples documents the expulsion of Palestinians as an orchestrated crime of ethnic cleansing.

Dr. Ilan Pappe spoke at the Notre Dame Conference center to over 330 International ecumenical Christians during Sabeel's [Arabic for The Way] 6th International Conference: The Forgotten Faithful who are the Palestinian Christians.

Pappe's topic was the "Dynamics of Forgetting" and because of the "fierce urgency of now" [Rev. MLK, Jr.] the world is beginning to remember that once there was a Red House, which birthed a most diabolical plan.

The famous Red House (the Lodzia factory)

Pappe informed us that, "The Red House in Tel Aviv is gone now. It was a typical building in Tel Aviv that had all the characteristics of Mediterranean homes but with the local Palestinian architecture of the '20's. Today a USA Sheraton Hotel stands in its place. The Red House was the home of the Hagganah; a Jewish underground organization but before 1948 it was the home of a socialist movement, from which it received its name."

Haganah is Hebrew for "The Defense" and was a Jewish paramilitary organization formed in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine from 1920 to 1948. It began as a small group of "Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did the group have more than 100 members until after the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921.

The Jewish leadership in Palestine believed that the British, whom the League of Nations had given the Mandate of Palestine in 1920, had no desire to confront the Arabs about attacks on the Palestinian Jews, and thus created the Haganah to protect their farmers and settlements. The initial role of the Haganah was to guard the Jewish Kibbutzim and farms, and to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinian Arabs.

Dr. Ilan Pappe

Between 1920 and 1929, the Haganah lacked a strong central authority or coordination and Haganah units were very localized but poorly armed. They consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their kibbutzim. However, following the Arab 1929 Hebron massacre that led to the ethnic cleansing by the British authorities of all Jews from the city of Hebron, the Haganah's role changed dramatically.

It became a much larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements [all settlements are deemed illegal under international law], as well as thousands of members from the cities. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment. It went from being an untrained militia to a capable army.

The British did not officially recognize the Haganah, but the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads. By 1931, the most right-wing elements of Haganah branched off and formed Irgun Tsva'i-Leumi -the National Military Organization-better known as the Irgun. They were discontented with the policy of restraint when faced with British and Arab pressure and became "terrorists" in their own right.

Irgun Commander Menachem Begin

The Irgun split in 1940, and their offshoot became known as the Lehi-which is understood as Freedom Fighters of Israel, and also known by the British as the Stern Gang after its leader, Abraham Stern.

Because the British Occupation had severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine, in 1939 the Haganah created the Palmach – which was the Haganah's strike force, which organized illegal Jewish immigration of over 100,000 Jews to Palestine.

In 1944, in response to the assassination of Lord Moyne, who was the British Minister of State for the Middle East, by members of the Jewish Lehi underground, the Haganah worked with the British to round up, interrogate, and, in some cases, deport Irgun members. This action was called the Saison/hunting season and they seriously demoralized the Irgun and reduced its activities.

But the Saison could not prevent the Irgun, Haganah and the Stern Group from working together. The three groups had different functions, which served to move the British out of Palestine and to make Palestine a Jewish state rather than create a Jewish home in Palestine.

Menachem Begin, was an Irgun commander and in a 1944 meeting he admitted, "In fact, there is a division of roles; One organization advocates individual terrorism (the Lehi), the other conducts sporadic military operations (the Irgun) and there is a third organization which prepares itself to throw its final weight in the decisive war." [2]

Sculpture of David Ben Gurion

Dr. Pappe explained that, "On March 10, 1948, eleven men had a meeting in the Red House headed by Ben Gurion. The eleven decided to expel one million Palestinians from historical Palestine. No minutes were taken, but many memoirs were written about that fateful meeting. A systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and within seven months the Zionists managed to expel one half of all the Palestinian people from their villages and towns.

"The New York Times followed Israeli troops and reported the truth of the expulsion and separation of men and women, and of the many massacres. The world was well informed in 1948, but a year later not a trace was reported in the USA press or books. It was as if nothing ever happened!

"From March to October 1948 the USA State Department stated what was happening was a crime against humanity and ethnic cleansing!

"When ever one ethnic group expels another group they should be treated as War Criminals and the victims should be allowed to return. This is never mentioned in the USA about Palestine!

"Israel is so successful in their ethnic cleansing because the world doesn't care! The ethnic cleansing continues via the apartheid policies of the Israeli government and because of the denial of the truth by the USA media.

"To claim Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East is bullshit!

The Six Day War of 1967 escalated the ethnic cleansing and today in Jerusalem every Palestinian who fails to pay taxes, or has a minor infraction will loose their citizenship.

"In 1948 the mechanism of denial and ethnic cleansing as an IDEOLOGY, not a policy but a formula began. When Zionism began in the 19th century it was meant to be a safe haven for Jews and to help redefine Judaism as a national movement, not just a religion. Nothing wrong with either of those goals!

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

"But by the late 19th Century it was decided the only way these goals could be achieved was by ridding the indigenous population and it became an evil ideology.

"Israeli Jewish life will never be simple, good, or worth living while this ideology of domination, exclusiveness and superiority is allowed to continue. The mind set today is that unless Israel is an exclusive Jewish State, Palestinians will continue to be obstacles. However, there has always been a small vocal minority challenging this.

"The only thing that can save Palestinians is for the world to say, ENOUGH is ENOUGH! The way to challenge and change the ethnic cleansing is to pursue true democracy and the use of sanctions and divestment, for money talks."

Money is the currency with the loudest voice and people have rights and governments have obligations.

People with functioning brains comprehend that democracies uphold freedom of conscience, speech and the press; but frivolous lawsuits are not just a waste of time and money, they are slanderous and insane-meaning legally incompetent and irresponsible!

Read more...

1. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-bookworm/2011/02/update_lawsuit_filed_against_p.html

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagganah

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Eileen Fleming is the Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org, Eileen is a Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com, Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and the soon to be released "BEYOND NUCLEAR: Some of my Experiences of Mordechai Vanunu and the Holy Land: 2005-2010" youtube.com/user/eileenfleming. Eileen is a unique leader in her state and she intends to run for a Florida Congressional seat in the future, to help speed the process of change that is so demanded today. Like many who walk in similar steps, Eileen, like other writers at Salem-News.com, is an outspoken advocate for humanity and she has no tolerance for the oppressive forces of the world.

You can send Eileen Fleming an email at this address: ecumei@gmail.com