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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Carter defends Middle East mission
By LISA LERER | 4/13/08 1:15 PM EST Text Size:
Former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday defended a controversial decision to meet with Hamas leaders, arguing that it'ss necessary to engage the group in any future Middle East peace process.
I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, he said on ABC's This Week.??
Along with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, Carter said he planned to meet Syrian, Egyptian, Jordanian, and Saudi Arabian leaders as part of a study mission for The Carter Center.
Carter's meeting sparked outrage at home, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, State Department officials, and congressional Democrats harshly criticized his meeting as legitimizing terrorist tactics.
President Carter is a private citizen. We respect his views but the position of the government is that Hamas is a terrorist organization, said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on ABC.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton also distanced themselves from the former president, saying that if elected, they would not meet with Hamas.
Carter shrugged off the White House hopefuls rebuffs.
I was not amazed to find that all political candidates not only those running for president, but those running for the U.S. Senate, for governor or Congress would be critical of any American who met with Hamas, Carter said. But I feel quite at ease in doing this.</div>
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Needless to say meeting with leaders of an organization the U.S. government considers terrorist is stupid enough, but I have to say, no matter what he does, no matter how stupid or not it may be, he does it without caring what his critics will say. Maybe he feels like he doesn't give a damn anymore, or maybe he's too stubborn in his old age. Either way, it's something.
By LISA LERER | 4/13/08 1:15 PM EST Text Size:
Former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday defended a controversial decision to meet with Hamas leaders, arguing that it'ss necessary to engage the group in any future Middle East peace process.
I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, he said on ABC's This Week.??
Along with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, Carter said he planned to meet Syrian, Egyptian, Jordanian, and Saudi Arabian leaders as part of a study mission for The Carter Center.
Carter's meeting sparked outrage at home, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, State Department officials, and congressional Democrats harshly criticized his meeting as legitimizing terrorist tactics.
President Carter is a private citizen. We respect his views but the position of the government is that Hamas is a terrorist organization, said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on ABC.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton also distanced themselves from the former president, saying that if elected, they would not meet with Hamas.
Carter shrugged off the White House hopefuls rebuffs.
I was not amazed to find that all political candidates not only those running for president, but those running for the U.S. Senate, for governor or Congress would be critical of any American who met with Hamas, Carter said. But I feel quite at ease in doing this.</div>
Link
Needless to say meeting with leaders of an organization the U.S. government considers terrorist is stupid enough, but I have to say, no matter what he does, no matter how stupid or not it may be, he does it without caring what his critics will say. Maybe he feels like he doesn't give a damn anymore, or maybe he's too stubborn in his old age. Either way, it's something.
