Carter’s Role In Legitimizing Hamas

Weekly Standard: Former President May Have Altruistic Motives But His Visit Is Imprudent And Dangerous

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Matthew Levitt.

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Imagine the Alice in Wonderland scene that will take place later this week, when U.S. Secret Service agents entrusted with protecting former president Jimmy Carter stand guard over a meeting with the head of a designated terrorist group responsible for near daily attacks targeting civilians, including numerous attacks in which American citizens have been injured and killed. The former president may have altruistic motives, but his meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is both imprudent and dangerous.

Last week, Hamas confirmed press reports that Mashaal will host Carter in Damascus for a meeting on April 18. Hamas must have taken special pleasure announcing the presidential meeting the same week the State Department issued the latest version of its annual Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. Fifth from the top is Hamas, a charter member of this select group, reinstated every year since the list's inception in 1995. Carter's visit sends the message that Hamas need not fret over the designation -- he is willing to accept the group as it is, terrorism notwithstanding, and others may well follow.

The former president is not alone in his call for engaging Hamas; his former national security adviser is among the prominent voices advocating the idea. Since Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, the theory goes, it must be brought into the political process, not isolated, or else there is no hope for peace. But Hamas is dead set against a two-state solution, as its refusal to disavow the use of violence makes clear. Whenever negotiators have come close to some type of Israeli-Palestinian agreement Hamas has carried out attacks specifically aimed at derailing progress toward peace. According to declassified U.S. intelligence, cells under Mashaal’s supervision "have been implicated in efforts by Hamas to plan large attacks that would undermine the road map peace plan." Engaging Hamas will not help the peace process; it will legitimize the group most violently opposed to such progress.

Because of its commitment to violence targeting civilians, engaging Hamas in overt diplomacy when the group remains dedicated to the use of violence is unwise, even if well-intentioned. Hamas rains rockets and mortars on Israeli civilians living near the border with Gaza on a daily basis, the group recently carried out a suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Dimona, it continues to hold an Israeli soldier captive and recently threatened to kill him, and it lauds the attacks other groups carry out from the Gaza Strip it controls. According to an Israeli report released this week, Hamas is engaged in its most significant arms buildup to date, including some 80 tons of explosives, roadside bombs, and longer range rockets capable of targeting Israeli communities deeper in Israel. Hamas stockpiles most of its weapons in the Gaza Strip, but maintains weapons caches in the West Bank as well, such as the stockpile of 200 kilograms of fertilizer and gunpowder seized in Qalqilya this week.

Indeed, directly engaging Hamas would not only empower a terrorist group designated by the United States and the European Union, it would pull the carpet out from under Palestinian moderates who are truly interested in pursuing peace and are trying to contest support for Hamas through non-violent means. American and European officials alike have shunned Hamas over the group's continued use of terrorism and political violence, despite the group's electoral victory in January 2006, united in their shared position that politics and terrorism cannot go hand in hand -- elections notwithstanding.

The theory that Hamas is not going to go away and must therefore be directly engaged is similarly flawed. Engaging Hamas without the group having to first commit to non-violence would signal Hamas and likeminded groups from Lebanon to Iraq that they need not moderate their tactics to be recognized by the international community. Last June, Hamas militants aimed their weapons not at Israel but at fellow Palestinians and took over the Gaza Strip by force. The message Carter's visit sends to violent Islamist groups throughout the region is clear: Terrorism and politics truly go hand in hand; there is no need to forfeit the former to engage in the latter.

Mashaal, himself a U.S. designated terrorist, embodies this message, publicly playing the role of Hamas political leader while privately playing a hands-on role in Hamas terrorism. Announcing the August 2003 designation, the Treasury Department noted that some cells in the Hamas military wing based in the West Bank are under Mashaal’s control. Mashaal, Treasury found, "has been responsible for supervising assassination operations, bombings and the killing of Israeli settlers." He "maintains a direct link" to Hamas in the Gaza Strip "to execute Hamas military activities."

This is not to say we can close our eyes and imagine Hamas away. The fact is that communication is not the same as engagement. There are plenty of ways for the United States to communicate with Hamas without openly engaging the group as a legitimate actor. Whether through Egyptian, Palestinian, or other interlocutors, there are multiple ways the U.S. could -- and surely does -- communicate with Hamas. Bestowing on Hamas in general, and Khaled Mashaal in particular, the legitimacy of an audience with a former president of the United States suggests something much more than just a desire to communicate or even engage with Hamas -- it suggests a level of acceptance for the organization and its tactic of targeting civilians. No good will come of it.

[joyous88]

They have peace today in Northern Ireland because

someone with courage , not Bush, started a discussion

with the so-called terrorists there.

and a terrorist is the person out of power at the time

of the name-calling

[joyous88]

This is a stupidly ridiculous piece of propaganda,

it must have originated on GW Bush''s desk.

Bush in the beginning,refused to compromise or talk

to the North Koreans, he is now forced to make deals

with them. He has continued to ostrasize Cuba,

refusing to talk with Fidel Castro, we can all see how

much that ridiculous move has accomplished after the

last 50 years.

Now while giving lip service to freedom and democracy

he refuses to engage with the democratically elected

government ''Hamas'' while hugging a country that

commits equally disgusting human rights violations at

will ''Israel''

Bush does not want to give any credibility to the

elected government in Iran, they now have a start,

like North Korea, on nuclear weapons, yet ever

stubborn, Bush continues on this insane path.

Carter is the only person making a real attempt at

peace in the middle east, he should be made President

of the United States, he has done more good in a few

months than Bush has done in eight years.

[it_oldtimer]

Go Jimmy! It''s about time SOMEBODY had the balls to at least talk openly to "the opposition".

[obama8years]

Read About Rev Wright and Obama ties to Hamas

canadafreepress.com/index.php/ article/2462

Isnt Jimmy Carter for Hamas and Rev Wright is Pro Hamas and Jimmy Carter is for Obama. Things are starting to make sense.

[juwboy]

brianbwb:

Yes, Hamas was elected legitimately in "free and fair" elections but one of their first acts was the elimination of their political opponents so that free and fair elections can never be held again.

In 1933, Hitler was also elected legitimately and immediately proceeded to eliminate his political opponents so that free and fair elections could never be held again.

If Gaza is a democracy, why are the families of former Fatah members denied treatment in Gaza''s hospitals?

[juwboy]

dgwooster, read my Comment at 5.41AM, 4/17, to find out why you''re wrong.

Peace didn''t break out in Northern Ireland where it mattered -- in the towns and on the streets. Sectarian violence has continued DAILY since the so-called "Peace Agreement". All you have to do is check the Northern Ireland News pages at the BBC site and also the Belfast Telegraph site.

If everything''s so peaceful there, why are they still planning and building "peace walls" to keep Protestants and Catholics apart?

The Good Friday "agreement" was an agreement between POLITICIANS only and both of the Northern Ireland political parties that signed the agreement, the UUP and SDLP, are now moribund as a direct result of their participation in the talks.

The only tangible achievement was an end to the bombing of ENGLISH cities by the IRA.

I''ll repeat. The violence goes on.

[dgwooster]

Interesting how the writer never pointed out that the US engaged terrorists from Northern Ireland in negotiations recently.

And what happened? Peace broke out.

[glock4me]

Israel should stop messing around and wipe out those terrorist scumbags. They have repeatedly shown the ability to totally kick a$$ while completely surrounding and fighting multiple enemies (e.g., 1947, 1967, 1973... 2009 maybe?)

Carter is such a dope, nope that''s dupe. Reminds me of the preacher in the movie who insists the savages are amenable to discussions while attacking the settlers, goes out with arms outstretched, Bible in upthrust hand, spouting "brotherly love" stuff, and gets gunned down by the people he was trying to talk into peaceful resolution of their differences. Doesn''t bother me to see the preacher killed, but hate to see the settlers have to pay the price for his incompetent and ineffectual meddling. Guess Jimmy didn''t take brother Billy to see that movie in Plains.

[sheila1346]

I must say I am surprised how ignorant of the facts most people are about the situation in the middle east. The only possible way to begin to even discuss change in the middle east is to do exactly what President Carter is doing. I believe he has great courage to do what he is doing. The Hamas government was elected by a vote of the people of Palestine and there for they must be seen as the legitimate government. I have great respect for the Israelis and for Israel but their government like our own is way out of control and they intend to commit genocide on the Palestinian people unless someone stands up and tells them they must stop.