SDEROT, Israel, April 14, 2008
Jimmy Carter Deplores Palestine Attacks
Former President Visits Israeli Town Battered By Palestine Rockets
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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, listens to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, second left, as he looks at home-made rockets that were fired at Israel, at the police station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Monday, April 14, 2008. (AP)
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier take part in a joint news conference, April 11, 2008, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Former President Jimmy Carter (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
Carter met with police officials and with the mayor of Sderot, a southern town just 1 mile from the Gaza Strip border. He was shown a house badly damaged by a rocket strike and piles of rusting projectiles collected after hitting the town.
"I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, and my hope is there will be a cease-fire soon," Carter told reporters.
Carter brokered Israel's historic peace accord with Egypt in 1979, the first treaty it signed with an Arab country. But he has been unpopular in Israel since publishing a book two years ago drawing comparisons between Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza and apartheid in South Africa.
He further angered Israelis with his plans to hold talks in Syria this week with the leader of Hamas, the Islamic group that rules Gaza and is largely responsible for the rocket fire. Hamas has killed some 250 Israelis in suicide bombings and has been blacklisted by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist organization.
Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said he met with Carter to present Israel's side, even though he said he was "upset" about Carter's scheduled meeting with the Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal.
"I don't think he should meet with killers," Moyal said.
Sderot residents seemed unmoved by Carter's appearance in their town. He left Sderot with a gilded rocket fragment presented to him by town officials.
Later, stopping at Barzilai Medical Center in nearby Ashkelon, doctors detailed the injuries and post-traumatic stress caused by the Palestinian rocket attacks, which have killed 13 people over the past seven years. Carter visited privately with three Gaza children who Israel has allowed in for treatment at the hospital, two of them suffering from congenital diseases and the third hurt in a traffic accident.
Carter has been snubbed so far by Israel's senior leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He met Sunday with Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, who told him that meeting Mashaal was "a very big mistake," according to Peres spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch.
Speaking at an event organized by an Israeli financial newspaper, Carter criticized the U.S. administration's policy of not talking to countries like Iran, saying it was counterproductive. He said he hoped to become a "communicator" between Hamas and U.S. leaders.
"I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me
they have so far refused," he said.
In an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz published Monday, Carter said he intended to use the Mashaal meeting to press for the return of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. He said he would also try to get Hamas to accept a pan-Arab plan for peace with Israel.
"The most important single foreign policy goal in my life has been to bring peace to Israel, and peace and justice to Israel's neighbors. I have done everything I could in office and since I left office to do that," the paper quoted Carter as saying.
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- Hamas got recognition when Bush and Rice wanted an election and Hamas won. You should be asking what were Bush and Rice thinking. They got what they wanted (an election) but not the results. Hey - someone didn''''t tell them it wasn''''t Florida...
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Posted by IOWEIGN at 09:08 AM : Apr 15, 2008
+ report abuse
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you must be a hugo chavez fan.. - Reply to this comment
- Is Mr. Carter just really ignorant of what is happening in the world today, or has his ego gotten so huge that he believes he can undo seven hundred years of radical islamic thinking. Why hasn''''t the state department revoked his passport? My God, he''''s a former President! He is giving Hamas a recognition that will give them cause to assert themselves again. In case no one noticed, they are on the way out. Well, they WERE until Mr. Carter had this latest bout with senility.
Am I just way off base, or does anyone agree with me?
Posted by jdatbs77 at 11:51 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Hamas got recognition when Bush and Rice wanted an election and Hamas won. You should be asking what were Bush and Rice thinking. They got what they wanted (an election) but not the results. Hey - someone didn''t tell them it wasn''t Florida... - Reply to this comment
- I got a laugh outta this.
"Sderot residents seemed unmoved by Carter''s appearance in their town. He left Sderot with a gilded rocket fragment presented to him by town officials. "
It''s like they were saying "Here, have a gilded fragment, from rocket fired by your buddies Hamas to kill our citizens, so you can always remember what your ineptitude and bungling has cost us for over 30 years!" - Reply to this comment
- Is Mr. Carter just really ignorant of what is happening in the world today, or has his ego gotten so huge that he believes he can undo seven hundred years of radical islamic thinking. Why hasn''t the state department revoked his passport? My God, he''s a former President! He is giving Hamas a recognition that will give them cause to assert themselves again. In case no one noticed, they are on the way out. Well, they WERE until Mr. Carter had this latest bout with senility.
Am I just way off base, or does anyone agree with me? - Reply to this comment
- Try giving back the occupied territories, booting all your settlers out, and returning to pre-1967 boundaries and only then MIGHT you have a chance at peace.
Posted by gce65 at 10:57 PM : Apr 14, 2008
gce65,
Help me understand your logic. Before Israel occupied territory in 1967, the Arabs attacked them in 2 wars 1948 and 1967 (although, arguably, Israel stuck first in 1967, but let''s be honest, an attack by the Arab armies was imminent). Each time, they stated that they were going to drive the Israelis into the sea. So explain to me how returning to the "pre-1967" borders will suddenly lead to peace. It certainly did not suffice for peace "pre 1967." The Hamas charter calls for no peace with Israel. So who are you to suggest that this move would lead to peace? - Reply to this comment
- beehive21:
Did Ford get re-elected (or elected at all)? Did George HW Bush get re-elected? Nope. Take a history lesson.
PS: And for lowest approval ratings,
Truman was lowest at 22% during the Korean War.
George W. Bush is second lowest at 24%.
Nixon is third lowest 24% during Watergate.
Carter is fourth lowest at 28% during the Iran hostage crisis. - Reply to this comment
- beehive21:
Did Ford get re-elected (or elected at all)? Did George HW Bush get re-elected? Nope. Take a history lesson. - Reply to this comment
- The Israelis are so two-faced. They criticized Carter all last week for arranging to meet with a Hamas representative in Damascus but then they arrange a PR tour for him along the way.
Try giving back the occupied territories, booting all your settlers out, and returning to pre-1967 boundaries and only then MIGHT you have a chance at peace. Until then, you live in the hypermilitarized, paranoid police state you''ve created. - Reply to this comment
- Jimmy was the lowest rated Pres. and the only one, too not get reelected, Geo has been posting lower numbers ?
- Reply to this comment
- A sermon last Friday, aired on Hamas'' Al-Aqsa TV, by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament, Yunis al-Astal, openly declared:
That Rome would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe."
"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion," al-Astal preached, "so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da''wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world." FoxNews
Why be diplomatic with a terrorist organization bent on conquering the world? - Reply to this comment
- Israel was granted a small peice of land, by the UN, for which they were immeasurably grateful. However, the Arabs attacked them immediately afterward.
Posted by ephd at 08:51 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Israel was granted the land by the UN''s authority, but who in the hell is the UN to give away a third party''s land?
If I wrote a deed to your house and "gave" it to someone else, would you just leave peacefully and not say a word?
No - the UN had no right to give away ANYTHING that didn''t belong to them. - Reply to this comment
- Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas..."is" a despicable crime.
Posted by guadalcanal3 at 06:33 PM : Apr 14, 2008
How is "diplomacy" a crime?
***?!?!?!?! - Reply to this comment
- "I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me they have so far refused," he said.
That''s where the Bush cabal gets it''s policy of "don''t meet with your enemies".
It''s too bad that Israel views America as "the enemy".
But they''ll be right there waiting for their welfare checks - won''t they? - Reply to this comment
- If we could all pull back and look at it objectively Israel would be seen by all as the aggressor.
Posted by timothyone at 06:04 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Timothyone,
You are incorrect! It is true that looking just at recent statistics, one would conclude that Israel is the aggressor. However, this is would not necessarily be the case if one looks at the history of your countries "A and B." Israel was granted a small peice of land, by the UN, for which they were immeasurably grateful. However, the Arabs attacked them immediately afterward. They lost. They attacked again in 1967. They lost. They attacked in 1973. They lost. Each time they lost, Israel took land that had been used as a strategic base in the previous attack. Who is the aggressor in that picture? And now, these Arabs have the nerve to point out that Israel ignores UN resolutions calling for an end to the occupation. If the Arabs had honored the UN resolution forming Israel, and not attacked Israel repeatedly, they would not be in the position in which they now find themselves. - Reply to this comment
If Bill was the first Black President, then our Jimmy here was the first Transvestite President. Be proud.- Reply to this comment
- I don''''t see why you folks are not bashing Israel; after all, they falsely persecuted and murdered all of their prophets, including the Christ.
Posted by mcv57 - Reply to this comment
- I don''t see why you folks are bashing Israel; after all, they falsely persecuted and murdered all of their prophets.
- Reply to this comment
- There won''''t be true peace over there in the Middle East until Christ returns.
Posted by liberalbias1 at 04:00 PM : Apr 14, 2008
Better pack a lunch, it could a long wait. - Reply to this comment
- liberalbias1: "There will be so peace in the mideast until Christ returns"...Are you crazy???...Do you know how many wars were declared in the name of Christ???...especially with the Muslums???
- Reply to this comment
- Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas..."is" a despicable crime.
- Reply to this comment
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