Free Republic

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Jimmy Carter reportedly hugged — and kissed — a Hamas leader Tuesday in the West Bank on a Mideast visit that will culminate in a meeting with the terror group's exiled leader in Syria later this week. Carter's embrace of Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, at a closed-door reception organized by Carter's office was reported by several news outlets Tuesday. Carter has been widely criticized over the trip by both U.S. and Israeli officials, who have listed Hamas as a terror organization. Carter also laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom he...

Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian deputy PM: wife CNEWS.canoe.ca August 19, 2006 RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israeli soldiers arrested the Palestinian deputy prime minister early Saturday, the army said, the highest-ranking Hamas official to be arrested in a seven-week-old crackdown against the ruling Hamas party. Troops burst into the home of Nasser Shaer - considered to be relatively pragmatic - around 4:30 a.m. and took him away, the deputy prime minister's wife, Huda, said. Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer leaves the local hospital, in the West Bank town of Ramallah Monday, Aug. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi) She...