Not sure...and they missed their chance with Pelosi.
Posted on 04/16/2008 11:58:23 AM PDT by Nachum
JERUSALEM (AP) - Jimmy Carter rebuffed a call Wednesday from an Israeli lawmaker to halt his contacts with Hamas, and senior leaders of the Islamic militant group rushed to Egypt in anticipation of a meeting with the former U.S. president. Carter, who was scheduled to fly to Egypt after wrapping up the first leg of a weeklong Mideast peace mission, has drawn criticism from the U.S. and Israel for meeting Hamas officials. The group, which opposes peace negotiations and is committed to Israel's destruction, is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the U.S.
All of Israel's senior political leaders declined to meet Carter, and only the country's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, made time to meet with him.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, announced Wednesday that two of its Gaza leaders, Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siyam, were on their way to meet Carter in Cairo.
"Jimmy Carter wants to hear out our point of view," said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator in Gaza.
A Carter spokesman refused to comment on the claim, but meeting the officials would be in keeping with Carter's schedule so far: On Tuesday he met a Hamas leader in the West Bank, and on Friday he is scheduled to meet the group's top official, Khaled Mashaal, in Syria.
"I don't think it is possible to have an ultimate peace agreement without the involvement of Syria. And I don't think it will be possible without the involvement of Hamas," Carter told a group of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, repeating what has become the theme of his visit. "To have them excluded from conversations or consultations I think is counterproductive," he said.
The group included Israelis who lost friends or family in Palestinian attacks, as well as Palestinians who lost loved ones to fighting with Israeli soldiers.
Earlier Wednesday, hardline Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman tried to dissuade Carter from meeting Hamas' top leader in Syria.
"Meeting a terrorist like Khaled Mashaal only encourages and increases terrorism," Lieberman told Carter, according to a Lieberman spokesman.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who brokered Israel's historic peace agreement with Egypt three decades ago, is on what he calls a private peace mission to the Middle East.
In addition to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. He is scheduled to return to Israel late Sunday, and said he would present a report summing up his tour.
"I'm not a mediator ... I'm just exploring possibilities for peace," he said Wednesday.
Carter said Israelis and Palestinians should adopt an unofficial framework for a peace agreement known as the "Geneva Accord," drafted by dovish Israelis and Palestinians in 2003 without government authorization. That agreement endorsed the formation of a Palestinian state on almost all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
The sides should "adopt the Geneva Accords as Bible, Holy Scripture, so that all can speak with a common voice," Carter said.
Thank God.
It’d be so great if Israel would, because of Carter’s actions, label him a terrorist right along with Hamas.
Airstrike readied....
I just wonder what it is with these terrorist states and their ability to use American (I use that term loosely) liberal high thinkers like Carter and Sean Penn to spread their hate.
Best idea of the day. How can we influence Israel to do this?
Not sure...and they missed their chance with Pelosi.
So Carter says the Geneva Accords are Holy Scripture? Freak.
Not one, not two, but three meetings with Hamas.
Although not reported, I think Abbas boycotted a meeting with Carter too, or Carter didn’t want one.
Are they gunna bake cookies & talk about boys?
Nachum,
I’ve looked, but can find no recording that Carter met with President Abbas.
If not, that would be a bigger, more telling story, than whether some Israeli politicians didn’t meet him.
He’s probably going to tell them which targets to bomb in the US in order to get our attention.
If it takes him 444 days to get them to reject their goal of destroying Israel, the trip will have been worth it. Otherwise, they can keep President Peanut Brain for all I care.
Still looking...Carter did visit the biohazard site otherwise known as Arafat’s grave but still I see no meeting with Abbas.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
..................
§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004).
“Carter is being used as a propaganda tool and he is too senile and stupid to realize it.”
He knows exactly what he is doing.
Carter is not stupid. The man was a nuclear engineer, ran a nuke sub, I believe.
He’s just an anti-semetic bastard who wants to destroy Israel.
(He is also a large part of the reason I became a conservative.)
This is so cool, only the 83 year old Jimmuh would appeal to Muslims and Jews using the Christian Bible as a reference. LOL!
Carter is doing his level best to establish new records for arrogance and narcissism. And, by golly, he'll probably do it!
“Jimmy Carter wants to hear out our point of view,” said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator in Gaza.
And of course, this idiot won’t discuss what he says to these people with the press or our gov’t...
Don't bet on that. Jimmuh's only remaining power is to attract the media's attention on hot issues. He's a press whore monger, and he's still mad at losing 40% of the Jewish vote to Reagan in 1980. He's a little bitter man, the type that can learn every fact yet not understand any part of it.
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.