Jimmy Carter says. "Hamas wants PEACE!"

[Tigermike 3,078]

Not only is Jimmy Carter a terrorist sympathizer and an Israel hater, he’s also awesomely, mind-bogglingly stupid: Hamas open to peace deal with Palestinian backing. Yeah and they lived up to all those other peace deals as well didn't they?

Hamas will recognize Israel right to live:Carter

(AFP)

21 April 2008

JERUSALEM - Former US president Jimmy Carter said on Monday the Islamist Hamas movement told him it would recognize Israel's right to live in peace if a deal is reached and approved by a Palestinian vote.

(And the peanut farmer believed them.)

Carter made the comments following two meetings in Damascus with exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal that angered Israel and the United States, which consider the movement a terror group despite its victory in 2006 elections.

'They said that they would accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians and that they would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbour, next door, in peace,' Carter told the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.

Hamas would agree to such a peace deal, yet to be negotiated, provided it is 'submitted to Palestinians for their overall approval even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement,' Carter said in Jerusalem.

It was unclear whether Hamas would require the referendum to include Palestinian refugees living outside the West Bank and Gaza but Carter said the group would also accept an agreement negotiated by a unity government made up of Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

While in the Middle East Carter met with senior Hamas leaders from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Syria, but was unable to secure a ceasefire or a prisoner exchange for an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006.

Carter insisted no progress had been made in US-sponsored peace talks since they were restarted in November, with Palestinians increasingly angry over the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The United States has criticised Carter's decision to meet with Hamas and played down the message he conveyed.

'It seems to me that what Hamas needs to do is pretty clear. Renounce violence would be a good step towards showing you actually want peace,' US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Manama.

Carter's willingness to meet with Hamas has also drawn sharp criticism from Israel, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other leaders refused to meet him.

'Carter is detached from reality, on the one hand because his efforts are unilateral -- he only talks to one side -- on the other hand he doesn't take into account what happens on the ground,' said Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told public radio.

'He talks to Khaled Meshaal and tries to reach an agreement, while the murderous attacks continue against the state of Israel,' Mofaz added.

Carter insisted Hamas and Syria both had to be involved in any attempt to resolve the Middle East conflict.

'The problem is not that I met with Hamas in Syria, the problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet these people,' the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.

Carter said Hamas rejected his proposal for a unilateral, 30-day ceasefire, saying 'they couldn't trust Israel to follow up by lessening attacks on Gaza and in the West Bank.'

Speaking to reporters after the conference, Carter said he was 'not in any role to get that reciprocal agreement because I can't talk to Israeli officials.'

'So I told them (Hamas) don't wait for reciprocation, just do it unilaterally. This will bring a lot of credit to you around the world for doing a humane thing. They turned me down.'

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after ousting forces loyal to Abbas. Since then Israel has carried out near-daily raids on the coastal strip as Palestinian militants have launched rockets at southern Israel.

Carter also said Hamas had agreed to allow Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006, to write a letter to his parents.

The former US president wrapped up his nine-day trip to the Middle East, which also took him to the West Bank, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan. (Now he will report back to Barack Obama.)

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Update 2 minutes ago

Mashaal offers truce if Israel withdraws from 1967 lands

By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago

DAMASCUS, Syria - The leader of Hamas says his Palestinian militant group is offering Israel a 10-year truce if it withdraws from all lands it seized in the 1967 war.

Khaled Mashaal says he made the offer to former President Carter in talks on Saturday.

Mashaal says Hamas would accept a Palestinian state limited to the lands Israel seized in 1967 — an implicit acceptance that Israel would exist alongside that state.

But Mashaal says the group would never outright formally recognize Israel.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal says his militant Islamic group will not recognize Israel.

But Mashaal says Hamas will accept a Palestinian state on Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The statement amounted to a tacit acceptance of Israel's right to exist alongside a Palestinian state, but without explicit recognition of the Jewish state.

Earlier, former President Jimmy Carter said that Hamas is prepared to accept the Jewish state's right to "live as a neighbor next door in peace." Carter met twice with Mashaal over the weekend.

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[CCTAU 3,355]

Hamas does want peace. But they only want it if it comes with Israel's demise. So technically you could say that they do want peace.