Posted on 01/27/2006 10:08:46 AM PST by ncountylee
JERUSALEM - The mood was disaster-in-progress when the unflappable Jimmy Carter stepped into the room yesterday to share a few quiet moments with the Toronto Star.
The official returns were flowing in, showing a Hamas victory almost beyond anyone's calibration.
The hard fist of political Islam didn't just enter the Palestinian parliament. It is the parliament.
As the numbers sunk in, CNN, BBC, Sky and Fox went into "breaking news" mode, quickly bulking up with pundits uttering obituaries for peace. The greening of Palestinian politics now had consigned the region to another hopeless eternity, it seemed.
At 81, clear-eyed and calm, America's most beloved ex-president who yesterday sanctified the Palestinian election as head of the 950-strong international observer mission took the earthquake in stride.
With the debate turning to whether the Palestinians' major international benefactors, the European Union and the United States, should allow themselves to maintain contact with a government led by Hamas a group that has not unequivocally abandoned its founding principle of the destruction of the state of Israel Carter let us in on a fascinating anecdote he has never spoken of publicly.
Ten years ago, Carter himself sat down with Hamas in an attempt to bridge the gap between PLO chief Yasser Arafat and the then-fledgling militant Islamic group.
As a personal favour to the late Palestinian leader, and in the spirit of the newly minted Oslo Accords, Carter went hunting for Hamas, to lasso them into the political process.
"Arafat asked me if I would contact Hamas and see if they would accept the new government with him as president, and to find out what their demands might be," Carter said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
Was he smiling?
"Don't forget the North Vietnamese."
Hold it. Time out.
Kerry is the unquestionable poster boy of the North Vietnamese, not Carter, for having given the continued will to the Communists to continue to hold on and outlast the politics in the U.S.
My mistake. I thought Carter had certified one of their elections too.
Write to the Toronto Star. This LIE must not be allowed to stand. No way is Carter a beloved anything.
Truer words were never spoken!!! America has never loved any POTUS being an EX_POTUS more than Peanut Brain.
Hmmmm?? If you can sue for saying Christ is real - maybe we can sue people forsaying Carter is "America's most loved ex-president".
Yep - that's why he only served 1 term and got beat in 48 of the 50 states by Ronald Reagan!
Well.... it IS accurate to say that America is happier that Jimmy is an ex-president than we were to have him as a current president...
Who will turn on the spigot?
Yea, that's the POS that caused interest rates at 20%, caused me to lose 500,000 on a start-up that couldn't raise or borrow money, almost cost me my marriage and created a world that nobody would have believed.
How does that dumb bastard get so much attention?
Carter gets attention because he is a "stong america" hater. He prefers a weak america. Just as when he almost surrendered to the USSR.
I think it's because he looks like Mr. Rogers. However as soon as he opens his mounth, he comes off as Josef Stalin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.