Jimmy Carter Embraces Hamas Official

Former President's Controversial Meeting Angers Israeli Officials, Irks U.S. State Dept.

(CBS/AP)  Former President Jimmy Carter embraced a leading Hamas figure Tuesday, according to participants in a meeting that infuriated Israeli officials already upset by Carter's freelance Mideast peace mission.

Mr. Carter also laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom the Bush administration and many Israelis blame for the breakdown of peace talks seven years ago and the violence that followed.

At a reception in the West Bank town of Ramallah organized by Carter's office, the former president hugged Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, meeting participants said. Embraces between men are a common custom in Arab culture.

"He gave me a hug. We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception," Shaer told The Associated Press. "Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel ... and I told him the possibility for peace is high."

Mr. Carter's office refused to comment, saying he does not discuss closed meetings.

Shaer, who served as deputy prime minister and education minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government that unraveled last year, is considered a leading member of the Islamic militant group's pragmatic wing. After a stint in an Israeli prison last year, he is now a professor at a West Bank university, teaching comparative religion.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Carter's meeting with Hamas "dignified" a group committed to Israel's destruction. "One cannot but wonder how this attitude is supposed to promote peace and understanding," he said.

Israel and the West Bank are the first stops on a visit that also is to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria - where the virulently anti-Israel Hamas movement is headquartered. Shunned by his Israeli hosts and criticized by the White House for his willingness to meet with Hamas, Mr. Carter has urged that both stop isolating the militant group.

"Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in a final peace agreement, they have to be involved in discussions that lead to final peace," Mr. Carter said Tuesday.

The U.S. has also expressed displeasure at Mr. Carter's overtures to Hamas, an Islamic group responsible for the deaths of some 250 Israelis in suicide bombings and labeled a terrorist organization by both countries. Mr. Carter is to meet Khaled Mashaal, the group's exiled leader, in Damascus, Syria, on Friday.

State Department officials have treated the situation one strictly by the book, reports CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson. President Carter is now a private citizen and is, therefore, entitled to meet with anyone he chooses. As a courtesy to the former president, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch did brief Mr. Carter by telephone and, according to department spokesmen, reiterated administration policy that advised against meeting anyone from Hamas, reports Wolfson. That piece of advice was clearly ignored by Mr. Carter, to no one's surprise at the State Department.

"We gave him our advice and he responded in his usual fashion which is to follow his own counsel," said one official.

Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Mr. Carter for his plans to meet Mashaal.

"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 at a press event with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is not meeting with Mr. Carter during his visit, and the only Israeli leader to host him, President Shimon Peres, scolded Mr. Carter for his planned meeting with Mashaal.

Critics say also say engaging Hamas will undermine moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he tries to make peace with the Jewish state. Abbas is in a bitter rivalry with Hamas, which routed his forces in the Gaza Strip last year and seized control of the area.

The Israeli daily Haaretz on Tuesday criticized the government for giving Mr. Carter, a Nobel laureate who brokered Israel's first peace agreement with an Arab nation, a cool reception.

"The boycott will not be remembered as a glorious moment in this government's history," the newspaper said. "Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life to humanitarian missions, to peace, to promoting democratic elections and to better understanding between enemies throughout the world."

Earlier this week, Mr. Carter said isolating Hamas is counterproductive and volunteered to serve as a conduit between the group and the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Mr. Carter acknowledged Tuesday he was not on an official mission and had "no authority at all."

"I'm not a negotiator. I'm just trying to understand different opinions and provide communication between people," Mr. Carter said.

When meeting Mashaal, Mr. Carter said, "I'm going to try everything I can to get him to agree to a peaceful resolution," both with Israel and with Hamas' internal Palestinian rivals.

Mr. Carter said he requested permission to enter Hamas-ruled Gaza but was turned down. He did not provide details. Israel and Egypt control Gaza's border crossings and such a visit would also require the approval of Mr. Carter's U.S. Secret Service detail. There have been no official visits to Gaza by Americans since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in early 2006.

President Bush did not visit Arafat's mausoleum in Ramallah when he visited earlier this year.

Mr. Carter's office also said a request for security protection from Israel's Shin Bet agency had not been met.

The Shin Bet said it never received a request to provide security. Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said the embassy never relayed a request for Shin Bet protection because Mr. Carter was on a private visit.

A statement from the Carter delegation said the former president's U.S. security detail "was always, without exception, assisted" by the Shin Bet in previous visits after he left office. However, the statement did not directly blame Israel.

Several former State Department officials who have followed Mr. Carter's efforts in the Middle East for years also see a pattern in his refusal to follow the official policy guidelines, reports Wolfson. The former president, they note, seems to have an inclination to periodically insert himself into various aspects of peacemaking in the region, a tendency which rankles some officials and others who have watched him in the years since he left the White House. Clearly, however, Mr. Carter feels his status as a Nobel Peace Prize winner and his own efforts brokering the 1979 Camp David Accords which led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt give him as much latitude as he wishes to exercise.

[libsrweak]

LibH8er,,,, Tell us, just how is the Bush / McBush foreign policy doing in achieving peace with Israel who doesn''''t want peace ???

Posted by j-whitman at 07:26 PM : Apr 16, 2008
+ report abuse

******

its doing a lot better than carter''s policies with iran and clinton''s policy with palestine

[cfin5]

Posted by FloydZepp at 12:24 PM : Apr 16, 2008-----Don''t forget the 7.9 Billion "1980" dollars that Carter wired to the Ayatollah to get our hostages back. Why those terrorists were so famous over there one of them is now the President of Iran!

[colonieny]

The fact is Jimmy C. has taken millions and millions of dollars from the OIL rich Arabs who back terrorism and Hamas.
......... He has lost his mind, moral compass, and our respect.

[j-whitman]

LibH8er,,,, Tell us, just how is the Bush / McBush foreign policy doing in achieving peace with Israel who doesn''t want peace ???

[libh8er]

What cha up to today, Jimmah? Are you being led around to smooch more terrorist booty??? You, like all nosepicking, bedwetting libs, are a disgrace to the United States.

[quetzal0666]

Cleo Noel. Google the name. Learn something harsh. ..

ok a jew working for the state department gets killed?
your point is???

[dorlockt]

In 2002, the US began providing limited financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (about $100 million annually), and has encouraged European nations to contribute as well, leading to a total contribution of more than one billion dollars.

Posted by factsearcher at 09:51 AM : Apr 16, 2008

Pork-barrel spending from the left.

[colonieny]

Cleo Noel. Google the name. Learn something harsh.

[colonieny]

To halo: You are so typical for far left. There are no facts just story lines. "The Jews are stealing Arab land." Not true. So not true. Do you know anything about OSLO agreement ? Not much more than a decade ago, Is. welcomed back ARAFAT from "Exile" where he had been creating terroristic upheavel in Leb and Jordan ( also personally torturing Christian young girls, like cutting off their breasts, arms and legs). Training a new Pal police force, giving them arms, setting up taxes to get them money. And what did the Arabs do ?
Then there is vacating GAZA. You have no historical memory. Just STORY lines.

[colonieny]

To Ioweign: NAZI.

[factsearcher]

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SINCE 2000 TOWARDS PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST REGARDLESS OF RELIGION AFFILIATION

In 2002, the US began providing limited financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (about $100 million annually), and has encouraged European nations to contribute as well, leading to a total contribution of more than one billion dollars.

[factsearcher]

QUOTES

"Israel is entitled to the land they have. . it should not be a part of the peace process." U.S. Senator James Inhofe February 2002
"Israel has got responsibilities. Israel must deal with the settlements. Israel must make sure there is a contiguous territory that the Palestinians can call home." President George W. Bush, June 3, 2003
"Palestinian leaders must bring an end to the violence against Israelis, and find a way, with the help of others, to rein in militant groups. Israel must be prepared to meet its obligations, as outlined in the Bush administration''s road map, and in the Mitchell plan, with respect to settlements." Presidential candidate John Kerry, October 2003.
All recent U.S. Presidents have maintained a policy that Israel must give up some of the land that it conquered in the 1967 war in order to achieve peace that the Palestinians must actively prevent terrorism; and that Israel has an unconditional right to exist.

[factsearcher]

QUOTES

"The United States will always stand with Israel, always remember that only a strong Israel can make peace. That is why we were, after all, your partners in security before we were partners for peace; our commitment to your security is ironclad .. it will not ever change." President Bill Clinton, December 1998

[factsearcher]

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SINCE 2000 TOWARDS PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST REGARDLESS OF RELIGION AFFILIATION
In 2002, the US began providing limited financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (about $100 million annually), and has encouraged European nations to contribute as well, leading to a total contribution of more than one billion dollars.

[cfin5]

This ought to give the Clinton campaign plenty of ammo against Obama seeing Carter lay a wreath at that "Yessir IRfat''s tomb.

[obama8years]

Jimmy Carter Endorses Obama
Jimmy Carter is Pro-Hamas
Rev Wright is Pro-Hamas
Is Obama just giving the jews lip service and will support Hamas when in Office. He did say in his book, that if the winds of politics change he will take sides with the Muslims. Rev wright had pro-hamas material in the church bulletin. Rev Wright and Farakahn both went over seas to visit Mommar Kadafi.
Obama pastor of 20 years gave Louis Farakahn a Lifetime acheivement Award. Of course he would give that racist an award. Vote for anyone but Obama, write in a name if you have too.

[ioweign]

IOWEIGN, and Yassir Arafat received a Nobel also, so now you know the type of company Carter is keeping. If you truly believe a person is faultless or perfect simply because they receive this award, then you sir, are beyond help.

Posted by robertkjjj at 08:22 AM : Apr 16, 2008

Don''t fret, Bush will get his recognition but it will come from The Hague...

[taylor2124]

You know what''s funny? Each time any person criticizes Carter, someone goes off topic and criticizes Bush, as if two wrongs made a right. I never voted for Bush. I voted for Gore in 2000, and did a protest write-in in 2004. I recognize many of Bush''s faults. But what do Carter and Bush have to do with each other? Bush having many faults does NOT in any way excuse Carter''s misbehavior, his interference in foreign affairs, and his coddling of dictators and terrorists. Oh, and you should remember that Bill Clinton was furious with Carter during the 90''s. Many times Carter also went against HIS policies as well, especially in North Korea. I assure you: leaders in both parties intensely dislike Carter and just wish he would float away into an old folk''s home. They just don''t say so because he is an ex-President. Jimmy Carter coddles dictators, and sitting Presidents coddle Carter. Despicable.

[robertkjjj]

IOWEIGN, and Yassir Arafat received a Nobel also, so now you know the type of company Carter is keeping. If you truly believe a person is faultless or perfect simply because they receive this award, then you sir, are beyond help.

[ioweign]

BAPTISTS TORTURED BY HAMMAS - CARTER- WHO TAKES MONEY FROM OIL RICH ARABS, IGNORES.

"The Islamic Outreach" (NICE NAME) head- Sheik Abu Saquer on 8 26 07 proclaimed that there was no need to have Christians in GAZA. There were only about 3,000 living there before Israel left.
Now that HAMAS is in control, what has happened to them ?
All Christian Women must wear Muslim dress in public. No Church Services allowed. (none)// The YMCAS were burned down, and he directors killed. Beatings and rapes, as expected for non believers. for example:
Mr. Rami Ayyad one local leader of the Christians, and Christian book store owner - the only one in GAZA, brave soul, was tortured and murdered by HAMAS police, 10 11 07. His family given refuge in Israel, his book store destroyed. A blazing book burning of Christian Books followed - sounds like NAZIS ?) By the way - to CARTER- Ayyad was a practicing BAPTIST ! Will you ask about what happened to your fellow BAPTIST ?

GET THIS: ////////////////////
So said "Islamic Outreach" . " All Christians engaging in missionary activity in GAZA will be dealt with HARSHLY."
CARTER takes millions of dollars each year from rich ARAB OIL, just to be a traitor to his own people, and AMERICA. SHAME, it is like getting money from NAZI and having a visit. Have you heard of PM Chamberlain ?


Posted by colonieNY at 02:49 AM : Apr 16, 2008



Did you know Jews killed Jesus Christ ?