The ill-considered decision by Jimmy Carter to lend his prestige as a former President of the United States to Hamas has handed the terrorist organization a major propaganda tool. Hamas is busily cashing in on their propaganda windfall in the global press.
GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas said on Wednesday that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter would meet two of its leaders from Gaza in Egypt, in further defiance of Israeli leaders, who have shunned him over his contacts with the Islamist group.
Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters senior leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Saeed Seyam would travel to Cairo later in the day for talks with Carter, who began a Middle East visit on Sunday."Mr Carter asked for the meeting. He wanted to hear the Hamas vision regarding the situation, and we are interested in clarifying our position and emphasizing the rights of our people," Taha said.
Longtime readers know that I have no use for Carter in any way shape or form. But this is beyond stupid, even for him. Meeting with a group that launches terror rockets onto Israeli civilians daily and who seized power in Gaza by force of arms is despicable. Even as poor a President as Carter was should realize that this is a really bad idea. Shame on you, Jimmy.
remember when jimmy said he was on a newkuler submarine and everybody thought it was so cute.
Is there anyway to revoke his passport or his Secret Service detail? I really don’t want this fool to be trotting around the world, and I certainly don’t want any of my taxes going with him.
A word of caution:Old Man Jim is a polarizing figure – i think everyone can agree there hardly exists a person whose feelings towards the former president could be described as lukewarm. I am naturally suspicious of anyone who employs reasoning that consists merely of: 1) person X is bad, ergo 2) anything they do is bad. Ignoring the people who are firing rockets from Gaza into Israel has hardly produced positive results, and the Israelis cracking down more and more severely in an effort to limit Hamas’ power has yielded results that can, at best, be described as having the opposite effect: case in point, Jimmy Carter is now going to sit down with Hamas. All of this leads me to conclude that nothing that has been done so far has worked. If you insist on playing to the more extreme elements of ANY group, they will continue to trend towards extremism. If you play to the more moderate elements, and give them some sense of legitimacy, they must (from that point on) act in a way that makes them seem worthy of that attention, or risk returning to the previous status quo. Also, by engaging moderate elements (not giving into demands, not trading with them – merely LISTENING), you quite possibly drive a wedge between the moderate and extremist elements. If the moderates then police or limit the extremist elements of their group, that is one less job/angle that either the US or Israel has to worry about. I fail to understand the so-called "wisdom" of refusing to merely listen to people we do not agree with – you learn more that way than only listening to people with whom you agree. And before anyone decides that somehow I am advocating giving support of any kind to groups such as Hamas (they have done nothing yet to deserve it), merely listening and meeting with people does not give them power OR legitimacy; they gain attention, certainly, but that added attention means added scrutiny as well, and with more people paying attention, any further negative action will produce considerably more public backlash. I would argue that our most skeptical state department representatives should have been visiting with these "leaders" a long time ago to hear in their words what their complaints/issues/requests are. Know your enemy: what better way to know and understand them than actually getting it from the proverbial horse’s mouth?
Oh Lord won’t you please call Jimmy home!
Oh? I see. With Arafat then?
I guess I’d appreciate your forebearance too!
Yeah, I can stick it out just that little bit longer.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – <a href="http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2008/04/web-reconnaissance-for-04162008.html"> Web Reconnaissance for 04/16/2008 </a> A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
Daniel,
The horse already spoke.
From the Hamas charter:
Preamble:…"Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors."
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
That is about as moderate as Hamas gets.
Just prosecute the senile old fart under the Logan Act and be done with it. And while we’re at it – we could include Pelosi, Reid, and any other member of congress (D) or (R) who went with La Pelosi to Syria last yeaer. This sh** is only going to stop when people stop getting away with it!
Stick to Habitat for Humanity Jimmy and history may be kinder to you.
Daniel: "I fail to understand the so-called "wisdom" of refusing to merely listen to people we do not agree with – you learn more that way than only listening to people with whom you agree. "
You make the mistake here of assuming that international diplomacy is anything like neighborhood relations. When you have a problem with your next door neighbor, you sit down with them and try to work something out. At the local level that works fine. That is not how international politics works. In the game of diplomacy, merely requesting a meeting states that you recognize the legitimacy of the other and are willing to make concessions to change their behavior. You’ve already conceded defeat, now you are just haggling over the price. This is why negotiating teams will often spend years seeming to waste time arguing over the seating arrangements, the shape of the negotiating table, or other seemingly trivial bits. Both sides are waiting for the other to blink and admit defeat.
In this case Jimmy is once again trying to impose his own foreign policy by admitting defeat.
Kudos to Israel for refusing to indulge this evil clown in his diplomacy charade. He went over there to lend propaganda support to Hamas, pure and simple and hardly out of character.
Carter was an idiot as president – age has not improved him.