Hamas Rejects Carter Plea to Recognize Israel

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 2:25 PM


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A senior Hamas official praised former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday, a day after he met with the group, but said he failed to persuade the Islamic rulers of Gaza to accept international demands, including recognizing Israel.


Carter visited Gaza on Tuesday and urged Hamas leaders to accept the demands to end an international boycott, which was imposed when the militant group overran Gaza two years ago.


Carter's meeting was itself unusual because of the boycott. The United States, European Union and Israel consider Hamas a terror group and refuse to deal with it directly.


Ahmed Youssef, the deputy Hamas foreign minister, said Gaza's Palestinians were pleased to receive Carter.


"The people think this is a historic visit," Youssef told The Associated Press on Wednesday, describing Carter as "somebody very knowledgeable about the conflict and very sincere in the way he understands the conflict."


But Youssef said Hamas turned down Carter's policy requests.


"The visit has not led to a significant change. Hamas finds the conditions unacceptable," he said. "Recognizing Israel is completely unacceptable."


According to Hamas ideology, there is no room for a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. The militant group has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, killing hundreds.


Even so, some Hamas officials have indicated they could support creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, implying a form of tacit acceptance of Israel.


Youssef said the other two international conditions _ renouncing violence and accepting past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians _ are irrelevant. He said Israel broke a cease-fire, killing many Palestinians, and the state outlined in the partial peace accords "would have no substance, no borders and nothing that a real state is."


Carter has said that despite the world boycott, Mideast peacemaking efforts must include Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, expelling forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government now effectively rules only the West Bank.


Though as president Carter brokered the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, the first between Israel and an Arab country, he is perceived by many Israelis as anti-Israel, siding with the Palestinians in their conflict.


He antagonized many Israelis with his 2007 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," in which he argued that Israel must choose between ceding the West Bank to the Palestinians or maintaining a system of ethnic inequality similar to that of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Most Israelis strongly reject the comparison.

I think Israel can cut a deal with Fatah, but as far as Hamas, its just a matter of time before the IDF goes into Gaza and finally wipes Hamas out.

This is not news, as Hamas charter makes it pretty clear their direction and their extreme racial/ethnic/religious antipathy for Jews.

The closest that Hamas has ever come towards recognition is the notion of an extended (40-year) truce.

Even Fatah has not ever agreed to recognize Israel in its current form - what they hope for is a two state solution where they stack the deck with the hopes of controlling both states. The best that I expect is a 2 1/2 state solution where the West Bank is an autonomous de-militarized state and Gaza is a Hamas-run cess pool.

(06-18-2009 10:20 AM)WMD Owl Wrote:  I think Israel can cut a deal with Fatah, but as far as Hamas, its just a matter of time before the IDF goes into Gaza and finally wipes Hamas out.

Well, if there is one group of people who know all about wiping an entire people out, it is the Jewish people. I suspect they learned a lesson or 2 so they can actually finish the job.

(06-18-2009 01:41 PM)RobertN Wrote:  

(06-18-2009 10:20 AM)WMD Owl Wrote:  I think Israel can cut a deal with Fatah, but as far as Hamas, its just a matter of time before the IDF goes into Gaza and finally wipes Hamas out.

Well, if there is one group of people who know all about wiping an entire people out, it is the Jewish people. I suspect they learned a lesson or 2 so they can actually finish the job.

Robert get a visa to Gaza and go join the party.

(06-18-2009 01:41 PM)RobertN Wrote:  

(06-18-2009 10:20 AM)WMD Owl Wrote:  I think Israel can cut a deal with Fatah, but as far as Hamas, its just a matter of time before the IDF goes into Gaza and finally wipes Hamas out.

Well, if there is one group of people who know all about wiping an entire people out, it is the Jewish people. I suspect they learned a lesson or 2 so they can actually finish the job.

Robert, do you say this **** because you believe it or just to be annoying?

(06-18-2009 09:33 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  

(06-18-2009 01:41 PM)RobertN Wrote:  

(06-18-2009 10:20 AM)WMD Owl Wrote:  I think Israel can cut a deal with Fatah, but as far as Hamas, its just a matter of time before the IDF goes into Gaza and finally wipes Hamas out.

Well, if there is one group of people who know all about wiping an entire people out, it is the Jewish people. I suspect they learned a lesson or 2 so they can actually finish the job.

Robert, do you say this **** because you believe it or just to be annoying?

:)