Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing

[GaryC 7]

Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Recent talks between former president Jimmy Carter and a militant leader failed to make much of a difference in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday.

Carter's meeting with exiled Hamas militant leader Khaled Meshaal, which drew anger from both the U.S. and Israel, did not produce a cease fire or prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, al-Malki told Agence France-Presse.

"The only thing he achieved was permission on the part of Khaled Meshaal of Hamas to deliver a letter from a detained Israeli soldier to his family. Nothing else," al-Malki told AFP.

Also on Wednesday, Carter stopped just short of saying that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was lying about warning him not to meet last week with Hamas leaders in Syria.

"President Carter has the greatest respect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and believes her to be a truthful person," read a statement issued by the Carter Center in Atlanta. "However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true."

Carter has said that he met with Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, and that Welch told him it was not advisable to meet with Hamas. The former president maintains he was never told not to go.

"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him (Carter) to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President (Bashar) Assad or leaders of Hamas," said the Carter Center, which often speaks on the former president's behalf.

The statement said Carter tried to call Rice before making the trip and a deputy returned his call, since Rice was in Europe.

"They had a very pleasant discussion for about 15 minutes, during which he never made any of the negative or cautionary comments described above. He never talked to anyone else," the Carter Center statement said.

Rice on Tuesday told a very different story.

"I just don't want there to be any confusion," Rice told reporters covering her trip to Kuwait. "The United States is not going to deal with Hamas, and we certainly told President Carter that meeting with Hamas was not going to help" the current situation in the region.

Carter, meanwhile, said Meshaal told him during meetings in Damascus on Friday and Saturday that the militant political organization would "accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians."

Hamas has stated its dedication to the destruction of Israel, and is listed by the State Department, European Union and Israel as a terrorist organization.

The Bush administration has said that Carter's meetings could undermine the peace process started in Annapolis, Md., last year, and that Carter's visit gave tacit recognition to a terrorist group.

Reuters and the Washington Post contributed to this story.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352409,00.html

[Heracles 417]

Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Recent talks between former president Jimmy Carter and a militant leader failed to make much of a difference in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday.

Oh noes. According to liberals everything can be solved through diplomacy.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Recent talks between former president Jimmy Carter and a militant leader failed to make much of a difference in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday.

Oh noes. According to liberals everything can be solved through diplomacy.

Nothing ventured nothing gained. And there's still the option of guns, bombs and missiles for those who get sexually aroused by such things.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Well, we knew that.

[GaryC 7]

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

i about spit out my pizza laughing!

[GaryC 7]

i about spit out my pizza laughing!

I had a good laugh when I saw that also. Carter is such an idiot.

[panamania79 2]

Palestinians: Carter Achieved Nothing

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Recent talks between former president Jimmy Carter and a militant leader failed to make much of a difference in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday.

Oh noes. According to liberals everything can be solved through diplomacy.

Not necessarily.We liberals come in all varieties.

Poor Jimmy,he should stick to "Habitat for Humanity." He's basically a nice man but sometimes in this cruel world,nice just doesn't cut it.

He's just too nice and clueless,poor guy.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Front page of today's Haaretz:

Hamas set to agree on staged truce starting in Gaza Strip

By Avi Issacharoff, Amos Harel, and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Egypt

A delegation from Hamas on Thursday told Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that Hamas is prepared to accept a temporary cease-fire with Israel, to begin in the Gaza Strip. The deal would extend after a predetermined time to the West Bank.

Hamas had previously demanded that a truce apply simultaneously to both areas, but Israel refused. In accepting Egypt's compromise proposal, Hamas can claim that it pushed Israel into agreeing to a cease-fire in both places.

The delegation from Gaza that met with Egyptian mediators included senior Hamas representatives Mahmoud Zahar and Saeed Seyam, who arrived in Cairo after consultations with Hamas leaders in Damascus.

According to Hamas' truce announcement, Israel will immediately cease all military activity in the Gaza Strip: arrests, assassinations and field operations. In return, Hamas will ensure an end to cross-border rocket fire at Israel or other militant operations, including arms smuggling into Gaza.

In addition, Israel and Egypt will permit the opening of the Rafah crossing, and ease cargo shipments into and out of the Strip.

Suleiman has called a meeting for next week with representatives of all the Palestinian factions to discuss the planned truce, as well as resolving the internal Palestinian conflict.

At the end of the meeting next week, Egypt is supposed to announce that a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is in effect.

Israel on Thursday refrained from responding officially to Hamas' announcement. In conversations with Egyptian mediators in recent days, Israel clarified its position on the truce proposal and apparently accepted most of its details.

Now Israel will monitor Hamas' compliance with its commitments to Egypt. If Hamas manages to keep things calm and rein in terrorist activity by the other Palestinian factions, the Israel Defense Forces will be instructed to refrain from taking offensive action in the Gaza Strip.

No such order was given on Thursday. Apparently, however, as of Friday a more cautious approach will be put in place for authorizing such operations, taking into consideration the new situation. Activity will focus on immediate warnings of planned terror attacks, which must be dealt with.

So far, the army has not received orders to lift ¬ even partially ¬ the siege on the Gaza Strip crossings.

Routine IDF activity

Before dawn on Thursday, before Hamas made its announcement, IDF troops from the Givati and Golani brigades operated in the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip. The IDF said this was routine anti-terror activity in these sectors.

During this activity the IDF arrested 30 Palestinians for interrogation in Israel.

There were also several airstrikes against armed Palestinian cells, some of which the

IDF reported hitting.

IDF soldiers operating east of Khan Yunis clashed with Palestinian militants. According to Palestinian sources, three armed members of Islamic Jihad were wounded in the firefight.

On the outskirts of Beit Hanun, a Givati force searching areas from which Qassam rockets are launched at Sderot clashed with armed Palestinians, the IDF said. It said an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at militants, and Palestinian sources claimed a 52-year-old civilian man was killed.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/977839.html

Front page of today's Jerusalem Post:

Apr 24, 2008 20:00 | Updated Apr 25, 2008 3:57

Hamas, softening stance, accepts 'Gaza first' truce

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, YAAKOV KATZ AND HERB KEINON

Hamas's agreement to a cease-fire with Israel will pave the way for the release of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip said Thursday.

Hamas is keen on ending the case of Schalit soon, "to create a better atmosphere" that would consolidate the cease-fire, according to the officials.

"If the cease-fire agreement succeeds, we will see positive developments regarding a prisoner exchange with Israel soon," the officials added. "The ball is now in the Israeli court."

Hamas informed Egypt on Thursday that it was willing to accept a cease-fire with Israel in Gaza on condition that it later be extended to the West Bank. Defense officials in Jerusalem said they were not surprised by Hamas's decision to accept the Egyptian proposal but that it would take some time before Israel formulated its position.

Israel would not agree to a cease-fire in the West Bank - as Hamas has asked - and would agree to the Gaza offer only if Egypt cracked down on smuggling from Sinai under the Philadelphi Corridor and Schalit were released, the defense officials said.

Hamas's decision marks a departure from an earlier position that a cease-fire should be "comprehensive and mutual," that is to include the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip.

Israeli defense officials said it was likely that Defense Minister Ehud Barak would agree to the cease-fire, since he opposed a large military operation in Gaza, currently Israel's only other viable option in face of the rocket and terror attacks. Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman is scheduled to come to Israel next week to discuss the proposal with Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"Those who are against a large-scale operation will likely be in favor of a cease-fire," one official said.

On Wednesday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said there would be no cease-fire with Israel unless it included the West Bank.

Sources close to Hamas said the movement agreed to the "Gaza first" cease-fire after receiving assurances from the Egyptians that they would continue to work to extend the truce to the West Bank. They said Hamas was still insisting on a timetable for applying the cease-fire to the West Bank.

Israel continued Thursday to take a hands off approach to the talks between Egypt and Hamas on a Gaza cease-fire, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev saying once again that the Jewish state was not holding direct or indirect talks with the Islamist movement.

Regev said Hamas knew that for there to be a cease-fire it had to do three things: stop the rocket fire from Gaza, stop terrorist attacks from the Strip, and stop arms smuggling into Gaza.

One diplomatic official said that despite the increased talk of agreement on the matter between Hamas and the Egyptians, the fact that Hamas officials said they expected a truce to be extended to the West bank according to a fixed timetable indicated that the organization was not genuinely interested in a cease-fire.

If the IDF did not take military action in the West Bank against terrorists and the terrorist infrastructure, the official said, it would be just a matter of time before Hamas took over the West Bank as well.

Diplomatic officials, meanwhile, said that Hamas continued to fabricate a humanitarian crisis in Gaza to place international pressure on Israel, and that a million liters of fuel on the Palestinian side of the Nahal Oz crossing had not been picked up by the Palestinians because they were interested in placing the blame for the crisis at Israel's doorstep.

Hamas has also softened its position regarding control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Sinai and is prepared to permit the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority to run the terminal, the sources said.

They added that under the terms of the understandings reached with the Egyptians, Hamas would also be allowed to send representatives to the Rafah crossing, which would be reopened as soon as Israel agreed to the new cease-fire proposal.

Hamas leaders Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siam relayed their movement's position to Suleiman during a lengthy meeting in Cairo on Thursday.

The two Gazans arrived in Cairo after holding consultations in Damascus with the top Hamas leadership. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal flew on Thursday to Qatar to brief Emir Hamad bin Khalifeh al-Thani about Hamas's position on the proposed cease-fire.

Hamas officials said the talks in Qatar also focused on ways of resolving the Schalit case. The Qataris, together with the Egyptians, have been mediating over the past few months between Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire agreement and a prisoner swap.

Meanwhile, Hamas called on the Palestinians to storm the border crossings Friday as part of an effort to end the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this year, Hamas talked about sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans to the border crossings with Israel.

Ashraf Abu Dayyeh, a Hamas spokesman in the Strip, called for a "popular uprising" at the border crossings to demand an end to the blockade.

"We decided to declare a popular uprising in light of the continued siege imposed on the Palestinians and the growing suffering of our people, especially in the Gaza Strip," he said. "The angry masses will march toward the Beit Hanun [Erez] checkpoint with Israel and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt immediately after Friday prayers in the mosques."

Abu Dayyeh said the Palestinians had no choice but to "erupt" against the continued closure of the Gaza Strip.

"The Palestinians, who are deprived of the basic elements of life, are going to march toward the border crossings to say that they want to live," he said, adding that the demonstrations were aimed at sending a message to the world that the Palestinians could no longer tolerate the blockade.

Also on Thursday, a Palestinian civilian was killed and three Islamic Jihad gunmen were wounded by an IAF strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

More from the Jerusalem Post:

Apr 24, 2008 20:15 | Updated Apr 24, 2008 20:23

Why we hosted Carter

By DAVID KIMCHE

There was much soul-searching in the office of the Israel Council for Foreign Relations. Should former president of the United States Jimmy Carter be invited to speak about his visit to Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia? Should we not follow the example of the prime minister, the foreign minister and the defense minister who decided to boycott him?

His harsh criticism of Israel's actions in the occupied territories and his accusation that our policy bordered on apartheid were, in the opinion of some of the colleagues at the council, ample reasons for not inviting him.

Boycotting can sometimes be a very effective weapon. But not always.

Back in the 1980s, when the PLO was our most vicious enemy, the government passed a decree forbidding its representatives from participating in organizations that accepted PLO delegates.

The result was that Israel refused to attend dozens of international conferences - from sessions of the International Postal Union to a large variety of different groupings, some of which were very important for us - because of the presence of the PLO.

What we were doing was tantamount to boycotting ourselves. Instead of harming the PLO we were isolating ourselves. Our foreign minister at the time, Yitzhak Shamir, certainly no lover of the PLO but a man driven by a very healthy common sense (in my opinion one of the better foreign ministers that Israel has fielded), realized that we were shooting ourselves in the foot and had the boycott decree canceled.

Who would we be punishing by sticking our fingers in our ears and refusing to listen to what Jimmy Carter had to report on his Middle Eastern tour? Carter or us? More importantly, the Council for Foreign Relations, which is an independent apolitical body, believes in hearing different views, not necessarily those that are identified with official Israeli thinking.

Over the years, it has hosted many distinguished guest speakers, some of whom were highly critical of Israel's policies - UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, for example, or Quartet emissary James Wolfensohn, or Amr Moussa when he was foreign minister of Egypt, to name just a few.

There were two other considerations that clinched the decision to invite Carter. The treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel was, perhaps, the most important event in the 60 years of Israel's existence as a modern state; it changed the entire strategic equation of Israel.

Without the single-minded determination of Carter, it is doubtful if the tremendous obstacles blocking the agreement would have been surmounted, and for that we are indebted to him. And, in addition, we are, after all, speaking of a former president of the United States, our closest ally, and that, in itself, was ample reason to invite him. The fact that the president of Israel and our deputy prime minister, Eli Yishai, met with him also had an effect.

The large hall in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was packed; no more room even for standing. Ambassadors, former ministers, dozens of journalists and a huge turnout of council members came to hear what the former president had to say.

I had feared demonstrations or, at the very least, hostile questions, but my fears were groundless. I had in the past disliked Jimmy Carter's penchant to show largesse in voicing criticism against us and paucity when it came to criticizing the Palestinians, but in his speech at the King David Hotel he tried to be more even-handed.

He called the firing of Kassams on Sderot "despicable" - a strong word indeed - and "an act of terrorism," and said he had used these expressions in his talk with the Hamas leaders.

Hamas, he declared, should recognize Israel and renounce violence: "We insisted on these things."

There were no earth-shattering revelations in his speech. Yet there were renewed commitments that are worth recording. For example, the statement by Khaled Mashaal that Hamas would "accept a peace agreement negotiated between President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert if submitted a) to the Palestinian people in a referendum monitored by the Carter Center and other international bodies or B) to a newly elected Palestine National Council;" or that Hamas is prepared to negotiate an agreement with Abbas to create a government of national consensus "composed of technocrats belonging neither to Fatah nor to Hamas, but approved by both. This nonpartisan group would govern at least until the scheduled elections in 2010."

Carter's efforts to achieve a prisoner exchange, and a truce between Hamas and Israel, were stymied by the progress Hamas has already achieved in its negotiations with the Egyptians on these two subjects.

Carter decries the fact that neither the US nor we are willing to talk to Hamas. "The current strategy isolating and suppressing Hamas is not working. It only exacerbates the cycle of violence," he said, adding: "Peace is not sustainable unless a way can be found to ensure that Hamas will not disrupt the peace negotiations."

This is a subject that has divided our government. Some ministers, such as National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon, have openly expressed their belief that it is necessary to talk to Hamas; others have expressed support for a truce, especially now that Hamas has agreed to a separate truce in Gaza from Judea and Samaria.

Carter's comments on his meeting with President Bashar Assad of Syria were intriguing, especially in view of the rumors of the last two days of messages from Israel to the effect that we would be willing to withdraw from all of the Golan. "Senior [syrian] government officials pledged to complete an agreement on the Golan Heights and peace with Israel as soon as possible... Since the Syrian government considers that about 85 percent of the issues have been resolved in prior negotiations, it believes the agreement should be completed soon."

According to the former president, the Syrians claim that there has been agreement on the borders, riparian rights as they apply to the Sea of Galilee, security zones, and - most interestingly - the presence of international forces.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

[GaryC 7]

Your a trusting soul WOM. I don't think any of that will result in peace as long as Hamas is around. But feel free to hope.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Your a trusting soul WOM. I don't think any of that will result in peace as long as Hamas is around. But feel free to hope.

I didn't write the articles I posted. Israelis did.

But feel free to keep trying to ignore that fact.

Trust in your Fox News instead.

[GaryC 7]

Your a trusting soul WOM. I don't think any of that will result in peace as long as Hamas is around. But feel free to hope.

I didn't write the articles I posted. Israelis did.

But feel free to keep trying to ignore that fact.

Trust in your Fox News instead.

I know you didn't write them, duh. It really doesn't matter who did. Peace in the ME will not come about as long as Hamas or another group that will not recognise Israel is running things. That is a basic fact that cannot be ignored.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Your a trusting soul WOM. I don't think any of that will result in peace as long as Hamas is around. But feel free to hope.

I didn't write the articles I posted. Israelis did.

But feel free to keep trying to ignore that fact.

Trust in your Fox News instead.

I know you didn't write them, duh. It really doesn't matter who did. Peace in the ME will not come about as long as Hamas or another group that will not recognise Israel is running things. That is a basic fact that cannot be ignored.

No, that's your *opinion.*

Are you saying all the Israelis who disagree with you are less familiar with the situation that you are ?

[GaryC 7]

Your a trusting soul WOM. I don't think any of that will result in peace as long as Hamas is around. But feel free to hope.

I didn't write the articles I posted. Israelis did.

But feel free to keep trying to ignore that fact.

Trust in your Fox News instead.

I know you didn't write them, duh. It really doesn't matter who did. Peace in the ME will not come about as long as Hamas or another group that will not recognise Israel is running things. That is a basic fact that cannot be ignored.

No, that's your *opinion.*

Are you saying all the Israelis who disagree with you are less familiar with the situation that you are ?

So you think if Palistinians have a leader that will not recognise Israel there is a chance for peace? How so? The two are counterintuitive. In order to live in peace you have to recognise each others right to exist.