Carter outlines Hamas' terms for peace deal

Silverback · Post by **Silverback** » April 21st, 2008, 5:56 am

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Hamas is prepared to accept peace with Israel if the Palestinians approve any agreement negotiated with Israel.

Carter's comments came after controversial meetings Friday and Saturday in Damascus, Syria, with exiled militant Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal.

"If President (Mahmoud) Abbas of the Palestinians and Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert reach an agreement for peace, and if it is submitted to the Palestinians and the Palestinians approve it... Hamas will accept it," Carter said in a Monday interview with CNN.

Carter's series of meetings with top Hamas officials this past week have drawn condemnation from the U.S. and Israeli governments for engaging in diplomacy with a group they consider a terrorist organization.

Carter's tour of the Middle East has also included a meeting in Cairo with two senior Hamas politicians before his meetings with Meshaal.

"I'm not a negotiator, I'm just trying to understand different opinions and communicate, provide communications between people that won't communicate with each other," Carter said Tuesday at the beginning of his trip.

Most Israeli officials have refused to meet Carter during his trip, angry over his insistence that Israel should talk to Hamas. Many Israelis dislike Carter's observations about Israeli policies toward Palestinians in his recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

U.S. and Israeli officials believe Carter's meetings with Hamas will achieve little, and could actually harm the Middle East peace process.

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Silverback · Post by **Silverback** » April 21st, 2008, 5:57 am

How does Jimmy get away with this? He was a HORRIBLE POTUS and he is an even worse citizen. I wonder how many people you have to kill to get on Jimmy's bad side?

Jim · Post by **Jim** » April 21st, 2008, 6:12 am

As usual, the Great Ape and I are of one opinion. If you kill Americans and Jews, you are his (Jimminy Cracker's) buddy. He was on NPR this morning babbling about his success. I'll never forgive him for giving away the Panama Canal.

Invictus · Post by **Invictus** » April 21st, 2008, 7:46 am

Silverback wrote:How does Jimmy get away with this? He was a HORRIBLE POTUS and he is an even worse citizen. I wonder how many people you have to kill to get on Jimmy's bad side?

That dude is permanantly OFF my Christmas list after he robbed me of a mustard stain in Haiti...

I can't believe he would even open a dialogue with freakin Hamas.
That might not be in the same category as Hanoi Jane, but it's sure getting close...

Paladin · Post by **Paladin** » April 21st, 2008, 9:09 am

Invictus wrote:
Silverback wrote:How does Jimmy get away with this? He was a HORRIBLE POTUS and he is an even worse citizen. I wonder how many people you have to kill to get on Jimmy's bad side?
That dude is permanantly OFF my Christmas list after he robbed me of a mustard stain in Haiti...

I can't believe he would even open a dialogue with freakin Hamas.
That might not be in the same category as Hanoi Jane, but it's sure getting close...

He is standing in the door right now. He is a miserable excuse for a human being and an even poorer excuse for an American. I would revoke his passport and hold him responsible with what happens in the Middle East. Fuck that peanut farming Prick! Take his fucking Geratol away too! I hate that SOB with a passion after what he did to America during his tenure!

RTO · Post by **RTO** » April 21st, 2008, 9:25 am

Yup. If you think it's bad now, just wait till someday he goes to the great peanut farm in the sky and we have to listen to about two or three months of what a great man and President he was on the media 24/7....

Paladin · Post by **Paladin** » April 21st, 2008, 9:40 am

RTO wrote:Yup. If you think it's bad now, just wait till someday he goes to the great peanut farm in the sky and we have to listen to about two or three months of what a great man and President he was on the media 24/7....

Don't you know that the Devil never dies until the very end of the world

:D

Jim · Post by **Jim** » April 21st, 2008, 10:02 am

I think this story is appropriate:

John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets", and ten roosters, whose job it was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning J ohn noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would
run for cover.

But to Farmer John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result...The judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Vote carefully this year...the bells are not always audible

Looon · Post by **Looon** » April 21st, 2008, 10:59 am

I agree with all of the above.

If i did something like this, I would be arrested and put on trial as a traitor......

K.Ingraham · Post by **K.Ingraham** » April 21st, 2008, 11:27 am

Meanwhile, Zimbabweans suffer & starve because of his 1979 feel-good campaign against Rhodesia.
Not to suggest that the Rhodie apartheid regime deserved to survive, it didn't, but sometimes you need to consider what's next in line when you push for regime change.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » April 21st, 2008, 11:46 am

K.Ingraham wrote:Meanwhile, Zimbabweans suffer & starve because of his 1979 feel-good campaign against Rhodesia.
Not to suggest that the Rhodie apartheid regime deserved to survive, it didn't, but sometimes you need to consider what's next in line when you push for regime change.

Batista must go!
Samoza must go
The Shah must go!
Saddam must go!

Yeah, right!

K.Ingraham · Post by **K.Ingraham** » April 21st, 2008, 11:59 am

I was in Panama for all that canal giveaway fiasco, as well as the Sandinista takeover.
When Carter was leaning on the other regional leaders to help push Somoza out, the 'president' of Mexico was said to have asked Carter repeatedly - "Yes, Somoza bad, but what do you have lined up to take his place?"
Carter's reply was a blank stare and to ask "so, will you help us oust Somoza or not?" The Panamanian press was concerned, but since Jimmy was giving them the canal, they didn't grouse too much.
Carter was conspicuous by his absence from the bloody civil war that was his "peace & justice" legacy to Nicaragua.

Neither he nor Clinton were held accountable for abandoning Haiti after that regime change either.

Darksaga · Post by **Darksaga** » April 21st, 2008, 1:11 pm

If I remember correctly Hamas was elected to a major part of the Palestinian Parliment much like Hizbollah in Lebanon.

What I see happening is a peace deal is signed and then the fighting continues with the blame shifted onto Fatah thereby removing Hamas's secular rival.