Jimmy Carter’s efforts to undermine the foreign policy of the United States continue apace. Yesterday he met with Bashar Assad of Syria:
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Saturday predicted an improvement in U.S.-Syrian relations under President-elect Barack Obama and expressed hope that full diplomatic relations would be restored. …
“I don’t have any doubt that the situation will improve between the United States and Syria after we have a new president,” said Carter. “It’s my hope that we can also see full diplomatic relations and friendship restored between Damascus and Washington at an early day in the new year.”
Carter never hesitates to offer advice to Israel:
In his meeting with Assad, Carter discussed prospects for peace in the Middle East.
He said Israel is sincere in wanting peace with Syria but stressed that no “genuine peace” could be achieved unless Israel withdraws from Arab territories it occupies in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.“You can’t expect genuine peace between Israel and any of its neighbors until it has peace with all of its neighbors,” he said.
“All” means Hamas, among others:
Carter is expected to meet in Damascus on Sunday with the exiled leadership of the militant Palestinian group Hamas. His first meeting with Khaled Mashaal in April drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration, which labels Hamas a terrorist group.
However, the former U.S. president said he intends to continue meeting with Hamas leaders “because the Carter Center is deeply interested in seeing peace come to this region, which needs dialogue with all the parties.”
Carter did meet with the head of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, today. He explained that “peace requires dialogue.” But Carter doesn’t repose his hopes for peace only in Syria and the terrorists of Hamas. Even more bizarrely, he is counting on Iran to help settle things down:
In a lecture he gave Friday in Beirut, Carter said Iran and Syria — both supporters of Hezbollah and militant Palestinian factions like Hamas and Islamic Jihad — could have a major role in Mideast peacemaking efforts.
Yes, as soon as Iran stops undermining the government of Iraq, supporting multiple terrorist organizations, developing nuclear weapons and threatening to blow Israel into oblivion, I’m sure its “peacemaking efforts” will be very helpful.
Jimmy Carter needs to get off the stage. I suspect that once Obama is inaugurated and Carter’s clueless freelancing is embarrassing a Democratic administration rather than a Republican one, his fellow Democrats will find a way to put him out to pasture.
UPDATE: Carter’s confab with his Hamas friends was timely; it came on the same day as a mass rally in Gaza, attended by hundreds of thousands of Hamas supporters:
No word yet on whether Carter joined in the rally, a celebration of Hamas’ 21st anniversary. The AP reports:
Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers marshaled hundreds of thousands of supporters to a huge anniversary rally on Sunday, a show of muscle featuring a skit of a mock-captive Israeli soldier begging for his freedom. …
In the skit, Hamas paraded a Palestinian speaking Hebrew and dressed in an Israeli soldier’s uniform–a reference to Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Hamas-allied militants in June 2006.
“I miss my Mom and Dad,” said the man playing the Israeli soldier, kneeling as he spoke. “Tell Olmert, why don’t you take care of your soldier?”…
A spokesman for the Israeli government, Mark Regev, called the skit “another example of (Hamas) cruelty and inhumanity.”
In comments aired Sunday, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said a six-month truce with Israel would not be renewed after it expires this week. …
Hamas, founded in Gaza in December 1987, is sworn to Israel’s destruction and was involved in dozens of suicide bombings that killed more than 250 Israelis. It seized Gaza by force in June 2007 after months of fighting with Abbas’ Fatah forces. …
Hamas also bragged of attacks conducted against Israel in the past 21 years, inflating the numbers.
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