Posted on 04/13/2008 5:15:42 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Former President Jimmy Carter said he feels "quite at ease" about meeting Hamas militants over the objections of Washington because the Palestinian group is essential to a future peace with Israel.
Carter, interviewed Saturday for ABC News' "This Week," airing Sunday, also said he would oppose a U.S. Olympic boycott and hopes all countries will join in the Beijing games.
He spoke from Katmandu, Nepal, where his team of observers from the Carter Center monitored an election that appeared likely to transform rule by royal dynasty into a democracy with former Maoist rebels in a strong position, judging by incomplete returns.
Several State Department officials, including the secretary, Condoleezza Rice, criticized Carter's plans to talk in Syria this week with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and the group. Carter said he had not heard the objections directly, although a State Department spokesman said earlier that a senior official from the department had called the former president.
"I feel quite at ease in doing this," Carter said. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process."
Although he said the meeting would not be a negotiation, he outlined distinct goals.
"I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire — things of this kind," he said.
The State Department says it advised Carter twice against meeting representatives of Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.
"I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said Friday, after reports of the planned meeting surfaced.
Carter said he'd be meeting Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudi Arabians and others "who might have to play a crucial role in any future peace agreement that involves the Middle East."
Asked whether it was right to meet a group that has not renounced violence or recognized Israel, he said, "Well, you can't always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them."
Pressure to drop the meeting has come from his own party. Democratic Reps. Artur Davis of Alabama, Shelley Berkley of Nevada, Adam Schiff of California and Adam Smith of Washington state wrote a letter to Carter saying the meeting could confer legitimacy on a group that embraces violence.
"I've been meeting with Hamas leaders for years," Carter said.
The Carter Center said his "study mission" was taking him to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan this week.
Carter, a broker of the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his conflict mediation as president and since.
As president, Carter led the boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. "That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people," he said, rejecting the idea of boycotting the Beijing games to protest China's crackdown in Tibet. He did not address whether just the opening ceremonies should be boycotted.
Do you think that Carter will get a featured spot at the convention ?
Did they all sing the Carter-era “We Are Fam-ah-lee” together?
“I’ve got all my terrorists with me”
I hope there is an “accident” while there and the p.o.s. never gets back home.
OUTSTANDING FReeper comments BUMP!
JIMMAH is an Obama’s fellow!
Vote OUBAMA !
He is such a slimy little man. In all respects.
Methinks that Jimmah, has been traumatized for life from being attacked by a "killer rabbit" in 1979, and has not been mentally stable since.
What other excuse could one attribute to anyone who is obviously emotionally and psychologically imbalanced such as he?
STORY--EXCERPT:
"The rabbit incident happened on April 20 while Carter was taking a few days off in Plains, Georgia. He was fishing from a canoe in a pond when he spotted the fateful rabbit swimming toward him. It was never precisely determined what the rabbit's problem was.
Carter, always trying to look at things from the other guy's point of view, later speculated that it was fleeing a predator. Whatever the case, it was definitely a troubled rabbit. "It was hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared and making straight for the president," a press account said.
The Secret Service having been caught flatfooted--I'll grant you an amphibious rabbit assault is a tough thing to defend against--the president did what he could to protect himself. Initially it was reported that he had hit the rabbit with his paddle. Realizing this would not play well with the Rabbit Lovers Guild, Carter later clarified that he had merely splashed water at the rabbit, which then swam off toward shore. A White House photographer, ever alert to history's pivotal moments, snapped a picture of the encounter for posterity.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_019.html
Yes, I have a relative that lives down the street from him and has known him since he was at the peanut silo. (rich daddy) She refuses to admit she knows him or lives near him.
I'll never forgive him for giving away the Panama Canal. Both my dad (WWII) and my bro (Gulf War) went through the Panama Canal...Both were impressed at the AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT.
He’s at ease with terrorists because they share the same goals: destroy Western Civilization.
He's an embarassment to peanut farmers, as well.
And he's no George Washington Carver.
Notice how everytime Jimmah is not getting news coverage he takes a trip. I think he is as big a news hog as Gore and Clinton. And as usual, when Carter makes news it is bad for our country and usually the rights of people worldwide.
Now that you mention it... please tell us more.
He fooled enough good, but naive people to get his one term. And this country is still paying for it.
The overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the 444 day hostage taking was the catalyst for the rise of the Islamo-facist death cult.
Agree with above that Bush needs to pull his passport; but, W is just not man enough to do it, I guess.
What an f'ing hypocrite!! Sorry for the profanity, but this guy is just such a POS!!
What happened to the 1980 summer games in Moscow, peanut brain??
Abbreviated mideast ping
The privledge of the elite. Were I to meet with Hamas leaders, at best I’d be on the no fly list, worst in prison. In either case the legal bills would be significant.
Report: Olmert and Livni Snub Carter...http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125875
As was John Kerry.
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