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"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING NEWS AND COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Carter to hobnob with Hamas
Is there simply no way of preventing a hopelessly misguided ex-
president from traveling the world and thwarting current
American policy whenever he pleases? Apparently not. That
would be Jimmy Carter, by the way, whose current Middle East
tour is slated to include a “very important” meeting with
Hamas, an organization which is universally considered a
terrorist group and with whom, therefore, American policy says
no negotiations should be conducted.
No worries, says Carter, it’s not a negotiation, it’s just a friendly
little meet-and-greet for the purpose of information sharing
and he feels “quite at ease in doing this.” The problem with
having such a meeting between a bloodthirsty band of
terrorists and an American ex-president is that it lends a
certain degree of legitimacy to Hamas and says that, hey, they’
re just like any other elected government and we ought to deal
with them even though we don’t think they’re particularly swell.
In Carter’s own words: “I think that it’s very important that at
least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their
views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce
them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel . . .
and things of this kind.”
It all sounds so beguilingly commonsensical--unless you know
anything at all about Hamas. Carter certainly does, but in his
ego-stoking quest for peace he apparently has an amazing
ability in his brain to compartmentalize away any information
-- such as reality, for instance -- that would deter his mission.
Someone ought to stick a copy of the Hamas Charter in his face
anyway and beg him to avoid a humiliating and possibly
damaging trip to Hamasastan. Speaking of the Hamas Charter,
here’s a couple of choice highlights which all by themselves
would settle the matter if reason were to prevail:
“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.”
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
These and other nuggets of Hamas ideology make it pretty clear
where they’re coming from. They’re not about “flexibility,” but
unfortunately, Carter is all about “vain endeavors.” Often cited
as the country’s worst president, at least in the modern era, he
never ceases to try and build on his one widely perceived
success, which was to jockey a peace agreement between Israel
and Egypt.
But reasoning with Egypt is not remotely comparable to
reasoning with Hamas. That’s because Hamas exists for one
reason and one reason only: to destroy Israel.
But wait just a minute, some astute readers may say. Hasn’t
Hamas in recent times modified its demands such that
coexistence with Israel would be possible if Israel would
withdraw from all Palestinian occupied territories back to the
borders as they were before the ‘67 war and if Israel would
grant all Palestinians the “right of return?” Well, okay, yes it
has, but the one nattering and insurmountable problem of such
a scenario is that it would be national suicide for Israel, which
kind of makes it not particularly worthwhile as a point from
which to start negotiations.
We know what happened when Israel pulled out of tiny Gaza.
The formerly occupied territory became a base for terror
operations practically overnight and rockets have rained down
on Israel on a daily basis ever since. So much for trading land
for peace. As for the “right of return,” Palestinians -- most of
whom would never have lived there to begin with -- would
simply overrun the country and the next thing you know, no
more Israel, which, of course, is Hamas’ ultimate goal.
As of this writing, Carter has so far had a meeting in the West
Bank with an ex-minister in Hamas’ government and still has
plans to meet with top terror Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, in
Syria. In Carter’s desperation to build a respectable legacy in
what remaining time he has left on earth, he instead continues
to further mire himself on the wrong side of history.
Is there simply no way of preventing a hopelessly misguided ex-
president from traveling the world and thwarting current
American policy whenever he pleases? Apparently not. That
would be Jimmy Carter, by the way, whose current Middle East
tour is slated to include a “very important” meeting with
Hamas, an organization which is universally considered a
terrorist group and with whom, therefore, American policy says
no negotiations should be conducted.
No worries, says Carter, it’s not a negotiation, it’s just a friendly
little meet-and-greet for the purpose of information sharing
and he feels “quite at ease in doing this.” The problem with
having such a meeting between a bloodthirsty band of
terrorists and an American ex-president is that it lends a
certain degree of legitimacy to Hamas and says that, hey, they’
re just like any other elected government and we ought to deal
with them even though we don’t think they’re particularly swell.
In Carter’s own words: “I think that it’s very important that at
least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their
views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce
them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel . . .
and things of this kind.”
It all sounds so beguilingly commonsensical--unless you know
anything at all about Hamas. Carter certainly does, but in his
ego-stoking quest for peace he apparently has an amazing
ability in his brain to compartmentalize away any information
-- such as reality, for instance -- that would deter his mission.
Someone ought to stick a copy of the Hamas Charter in his face
anyway and beg him to avoid a humiliating and possibly
damaging trip to Hamasastan. Speaking of the Hamas Charter,
here’s a couple of choice highlights which all by themselves
would settle the matter if reason were to prevail:
“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.”
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
These and other nuggets of Hamas ideology make it pretty clear
where they’re coming from. They’re not about “flexibility,” but
unfortunately, Carter is all about “vain endeavors.” Often cited
as the country’s worst president, at least in the modern era, he
never ceases to try and build on his one widely perceived
success, which was to jockey a peace agreement between Israel
and Egypt.
But reasoning with Egypt is not remotely comparable to
reasoning with Hamas. That’s because Hamas exists for one
reason and one reason only: to destroy Israel.
But wait just a minute, some astute readers may say. Hasn’t
Hamas in recent times modified its demands such that
coexistence with Israel would be possible if Israel would
withdraw from all Palestinian occupied territories back to the
borders as they were before the ‘67 war and if Israel would
grant all Palestinians the “right of return?” Well, okay, yes it
has, but the one nattering and insurmountable problem of such
a scenario is that it would be national suicide for Israel, which
kind of makes it not particularly worthwhile as a point from
which to start negotiations.
We know what happened when Israel pulled out of tiny Gaza.
The formerly occupied territory became a base for terror
operations practically overnight and rockets have rained down
on Israel on a daily basis ever since. So much for trading land
for peace. As for the “right of return,” Palestinians -- most of
whom would never have lived there to begin with -- would
simply overrun the country and the next thing you know, no
more Israel, which, of course, is Hamas’ ultimate goal.
As of this writing, Carter has so far had a meeting in the West
Bank with an ex-minister in Hamas’ government and still has
plans to meet with top terror Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, in
Syria. In Carter’s desperation to build a respectable legacy in
what remaining time he has left on earth, he instead continues
to further mire himself on the wrong side of history.