Posted By: Carol  on Thursday, April 24, 2008

I'm surprised there are no comments.

I didn't have a strong negative reaction to the news reports of Carter's meeting with Hamas.  I guess it's probably true that Hamas is on speaking terms with Bin Laden.  I don't know if that's enough to make it a bad idea to meet with Hamas.

The news report I saw said that Carter had gotten Hamas to agree to a 10 year cease fire if Isreal went back to their 1967 borders.  Israel in the past has said they won't go back to their 1967 borders, but they do agree to ceding some portion of the post-1967 land to the Palestinians. As a lawyer, that sounds like a possible settlement to me.

The hard part of any settlement in the Middle East is that no matter what the leaders agree to, there are individual who will commit acts of violence; and possibly band together to commit acts of violence together because they prefer hatred and violence to peace and co-existence.

Carter's a smart guy and an experienced statesman.  But he is a democrat and some people are going to hate anything he does just based on that.

Something's got to happen in the Middle East.  The Iraq War is never going to be "won."  Israel has lived in a state of war since before I was born.  Because of 9-11 America has now signed on to live in perpetual war.  I find that unacceptable.

So I wasn't upset by the news reports that Carter was talking to Hamas.

Posted By: Doug Erickson  on Thursday, April 24, 2008

I am amazed that the political scum find it objectionable to have a STATEMAN like President Carter engaging the dominant players in the Middle East in a dialogue.  Most of these so-called critics don't even have a basic understanding of the cause of the problems in the first place.  Carter is to be commeneded for his statemanship, his objectivity, and his courage to stand up to the Israeli propoganda machine.

Posted By: Bob Anderson  on Thursday, April 24, 2008

Carter is first and foremost a gentleman and a decent guy.  His ability to address and meet head on with the world's problems is unmatched.  The White House could take lessons from this man.  I salute James Earl Carter and wish him well.  Given time, he will make significant changes in the Middle East situation - with or without current White House support.