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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Carter visits Sderot |
| 2008-04-14 |
| The one time ya want em to shoot, where the hell are they... SDEROT, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter deplored Palestinian militant attacks on Israel as a "despicable crime" as he toured a rocket-battered town on Monday. Take a stand, Jimmy. Move there. Think they'll shoot at an old friend? Carter met with police officials and with the mayor of Sderot, a southern town a mile from the Gaza Strip border. He was shown a house badly damaged by a rocket strike, and rusting piles of projectiles that had hit the town."I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, and my hope is there will be a cease-fire soon," Carter told reporters. Yeah, bring that up when you meet your Hamas pals. You'll get to hear the "Resistance!™" speech and change your mind. Carter brokered Israel's historic peace accord with Egypt in 1979, the first treaty it signed with an Arab country. But he has been unpopular in Israel since publishing a book two years ago drawing comparisons between Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza and apartheid in South Africa. He further angered Israelis with his plans to hold talks in Syria this week with the leader of Hamas, the Islamic group that rules Gaza and is largely responsible for the rocket fire. Hamas has killed some 250 Israelis in suicide bombings and has been blacklisted by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist organization. Maybe Jimmy will tell them to change their name to Maoists... Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said he met with Carter to present Israel's side, even though he said he was "upset" about Carter's scheduled meeting with the Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal. "I don't think he should meet with killers," Moyal said. Don't be too upset when he poses with one of the rocket squads... Carter has been snubbed so far by Israel's senior leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He met Sunday with Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, who told him that meeting Mashaal was "a very big mistake," according to Peres spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch. But, Shimon, you miss the point. It's about ME! Look at ME!! In an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz published Monday, Carter said he intended to use the Mashaal meeting to press for the return of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Did ya bring lots of money? If ya didn't, forget it... He said he would also try to get Hamas to accept a pan-Arab plan for peace with Israel. "The most important single foreign policy goal in my life has been to bring peace to Israel, and peace and justice to Israel's neighbors. I have done everything I could in office and since I left office to do that," the paper quoted Carter as saying. ...and look how well that's worked out. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #11 I don't think Carter's role as peace broker was all that significant. I read that Sadat unexpectedly expressed interest in dealing, and the broker's job fell in Carter's lap. An Arab leader who is willing to break ranks with the Jew-haters and risk his own neck to benefit his country is a hero. Carter, on the other hand... We owe the world an apology for voting to inflict him on a long-suffering world. I voted for Ford, but if leftists can apologize for Bush I suppose I'd better apologize for Carter. |
| Posted by: James 2008-04-14 23:37 |
| #10 give the man some credit Not buying it. Any time I hear the phrase "innocent civilians", warning lights start flashing. Too many times terrorists have claimed that Israeli civilians are legitimate military targets on the grounds they grow up to serve in the military or they voted for the current government. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-04-14 22:47 |
| #9 Sometimes when I look at all my children, I say to myself, "Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin." |
| Posted by: Lillian Carter 2008-04-14 20:29 |
| #8 He sounds like what he is, a pathetic old man trying to get back to the Big Time... AIRPORT CITY, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter defended his plan to meet with the top leader of the violently anti-Israel Hamas movement, saying Monday he hopes to become a conduit between the Islamic militant group and Washington and Israel. Isolating Hamas is counterproductive, Carter said. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip but is ostracized by Israel, the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist group. "I think it is absolutely crucial that in the final and dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and Syria will be involved," he told a business conference outside Tel Aviv. "I can't say that they will be amenable to any suggestions, but at least after I meet with them I can go back and relay what they say, as just a communicator, to the leaders of the United States," he said. The U.S., EU and Israel have blacklisted Hamas for its history of killing some 250 Israelis with suicide bomber attacks and its refusal to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state. Israel's top leaders are boycotting Carter during his nine-day Mideast trip, in part because he plans to meet later in the week in Syria with Hamas' exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal. In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. government has "made clear our views that we did not think now is the moment for him or anyone to be talking with Hamas." U.S. officials will be "happy to hear" Carter's reflections on his visit with Hamas, but that they aren't likely to change the administration's views on the militant group, Casey said. Carter also offered to relay Hamas' views to Israel. If the U.S. agrees to hear what Hamas says, "I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me — they have so far refused," he said. Maybe because they know who and what they're dealing with? Who wants to deal with the Jimmy Carter bullshit anymore besides the people who can play him like the useful idiot violin he is? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-04-14 16:56 |
| #7 I agree with gorb. Carter actually believes he can change Hamas by talk. He did broker the Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel. I don't know exactly what part he actually played, but he does see himself as the one person in the world who can bring everybody together and sing Kumbaya. I don't think he has a clue to the Islamic mindset. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-04-14 16:44 |
| #6 Gorb, I think he understands just fine. They have a common value system |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-14 16:15 |
| #5 Carter has no f-ing clue about the muslim mindset. His efforts are in vain. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-04-14 15:37 |
| #4 give the man some credit he seems to have condemned the paleo shelling of Sderot with no moral equivalency and only a minor added 'hope'. "I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, and my hope is there will be a cease-fire soon" did Condi ever make a statement like that? |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-04-14 13:40 |
| #3 Carter also thinks the US should talk to Hamas, like he did. He wants to be an intermediary between us and the terrorists. He is disappointed that the Israeli government won't talk to him. He still thinks of himself as a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker. Why doesn't he just go back to Georgia and build homes for Habitat for Humanity? |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-04-14 13:31 |
| #2 If we're lucky, Hamas will kidnap him. If we're very lucky, Rice'll let them keep him. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2008-04-14 13:28 |
| #1 Shin Bet also refused to cooperate with the Secret Service. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-04-14 11:44 |