Maryland Conservatarian

Just getting around to this but former President Jimmy Carter was recently in Ireland for (what else) one of those so-called human rights conferences. In addressing the conference, he provided some insights on the current mess among the Palistinians.

"This effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples now is a step in the wrong direction," he said. "All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together."

“Carter was pessimistic this would happen soon. "I don't see at this point any possibility that public officials in the United States, or in Israel, or the European Union are going to take action to bring about reconciliation," he said. Carter: Stop favoring Fatah over Hamas Jerusalem Post

Unfortunately, this lesson in foreign affairs doesn’t extend to explaining just why Israel should be interested in forging a reconciliation between two groups that seek its destruction (and please don’t tell me about the moderate views of Abbas and Fatah on this).

Or why the US should be so hot to engage a group (Hamas) whose leadership hasn’t exactly shown it wants to be engaged by us:

“New Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi delivered a fiery speech at a memorial service Sunday for his slain predecessor…"

"Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam, an enemy of Muslims," Rantisi said… America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon…The war of God continues against them and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas."

(Ed. Note: That was March 27, 2004. On April 17, 2004 Mr. Rantisi was himself killed…without ever seeing that victory at the hand of Hamas.)

But it does extend towards indentifying the culprits:

“Far from encouraging Hamas's move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the US and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, has sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.”

Finally, grounds for impreachment…


But I mock in full knowledge that it could come back to mock me. After all, Mr. Carter has proven most prescient in these matters:

CNN.com - Jimmy Carter: Give Hamas a chance - Feb 1, 2006

“Hamas deserves to be recognized by the international community, and despite the group's militant history, there is a chance the soon-to-be Palestinian leaders could turn away from violence, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday.”