Reality Hits Jimmy Carter in the... Face
By Andrew Cochran
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki delivered a Niagara Falls-magnitude of cold water to Jimmy Carter today, pronouncing his meeting with Hamas leaders worthless. More quotes:
"The only thing he achieved was permission on the part of Khaled Meshaal of Hamas to deliver a letter from a detained Israeli soldier to his family. Nothing else. Hamas offered nothing to president Carter. They reiterated the same positions. There was no change on the part of Hamas."
Actually, Carter did have two achievements: (1) He made it possible for Congress to save some money by cutting federal funding to the Carter Center; (2) He forced Congress to take a bipartisan stance on his trip and on Hamas, as Members from both parties sprinted to microphones to denounce him. His blatantly anti-Israeli and simplistic "hate-Bush" stance enabled Hamas terrorists to enjoy some propaganda in the Arab world by showing an ex-U.S. President renouncing the laws of his country governing dealings with Foreign Terrorist Organizations and designated terrorists. You can read the more urbane and scholarly views of
our Contributing Experts on his trip. I also invite our readers to review
the numerous Counterterrorism Blog posts about the activities of Hamas deputy political director Mousa Abu Marzouk (or "Marzook"), one of Carter's "hosts," while he was in the U.S. before he was convicted and deported. To quote from
our panel on Decemmber 11 on the Holy Land Foundation case,
"And in 1994, Marzook convened a meeting in Mississippi to mediate a dispute between the HLF and Hamas member Mohammed Salah. According to government wiretaps, Marzook designated HLF over Salah as Hamas’s primary fund-raising arm in the U.S."
That's Jimmy Carter's new buddy - maybe he'll fund the Carter Center after Congress takes the American taxpayer out of it.
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