Jimmy Carter has forfeited any claim to objectivity in the Arab-Israeli conflict. His opinion article "Reiterating the keys to peace" (Views, Dec. 21) reveals why.

He has essentially bought the Palestinian narrative hook, line and sinker. In his view, while Palestinians (and their Arab neighbors) allegedly yearn for coexistence with Israel, Israelis are too busy subjugating Palestinians to give a darn about peace.

President Carter, wake up and smell the coffee. Three consecutive Israeli prime ministers - Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and now Ehud Olmert - have openly supported a viable two-state settlement. Each was rebuffed by Palestinian leaders unwilling, or incapable, of abandoning their maximalist demands and meeting Israel halfway.

Israel does not require lectures on the need for peace. The Jewish people introduced to the world the prophetic vision of a world in which "nation shall not lift up sword against nation." No country yearns for peace more than Israel, which has not known a single day of true peace since its founding in 1948 - and today faces the combined forces of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Iran, all calling for Israel's annihilation.

When a genuine peacemaker like the late Anwar Sadat comes along, Israel will be ready, as it was in 1979. At the time, as Carter knows better than anyone, Israel made enormous territorial concessions for peace. But a country just one-seventh the size of Carter's native Georgia, living with the likes of Syria, not South Carolina, as its neighbor, doesn't have much margin for error, a key point that Carter fails to acknowledge in his haste to "solve" the problem.

David A. Harris, New York, Executive director, American Jewish Committee