Jimmy Carter: "The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved"

i'm watching an interview with jimmy carter in jerusalem conducted a short while ago by al jazeera...

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has called for Hamas to be included in peace negotiations, saying they are willing to "live as a neighbour next door in peace" with Israel if Palestinians approve a deal.

Carter said on Monday that Hamas leaders told him they would accept a negotiated peace agreement, if voted for by the Palestinian people.

His comments, delivered in an address to the Israel Council on Foreign Relations and a subsequent news conference at the King David Hotel in West Jerusalem, came after he met several Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, the group's exiled political bureau chief, in Syria last week.

Carter said Hamas leaders had told him they would accept a peace agreement negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president whose Fatah faction controls the West Bank, if Palestinians approved the deal in a vote.

carter doesn't beat around the bush when describing the worthless duo of george and condi, who coupled with israel, have zero intention or desire to seek peace...

Carter, who has angered Israel by meeting Hamas, also said the peace efforts had "regressed" since a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.

"The problem is not that I met with Hamas in Syria," he said.

"The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved."

and that's to say nothing of the fact that israel continues to flip the middle digit to palestine, despite the agreements of annapolis a few months ago...

The Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry yesterday [April 18] published construction bids for 100 homes in two Jewish settlements, one of them deep inside the West Bank, in violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion.

Palestinian officials said the new construction in the settlements of Ariel and Elkana is undermining US-backed effort to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008. According to the bids, 52 new residential units will be built in Elkana and 48 in Ariel.

The Housing Ministry said that the 52 housing units in Elkana would replace the old ones built there when the settlement first began, while in Ariel 48 units would be built within an existing neighborhood. Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman said the residential units had been approved for construction eight months ago.

According to Nachman, the plots are in the center of the settlement and some of them are intended for the construction of permanent residences for settlers evacuated from Gush Katif settlement in 2005.

Since a US-hosted Mideast peace conference in November, Israel has announced several new building projects in areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. However, yesterday’s announcement marked the first time the Israeli government approved construction deep in the West Bank.

i'm increasingly of the opinion that, after he passes on, jimmy carter should be considered for sainthood...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet