ISRAEL: The Carter question

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For a man generally regarded as one of the nicest people ever to hold the office, former President Carter has developed a talent for getting people angry. Carter became persona non grata among supporters of Israel when his “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” was published in 2006.

Carter arrives in Israel Sunday as part of a controversial Middle East diplomacy tour. After several days of meetings here with Palestinian and Israeli politicians, he moves on to Damascus, Syria, amid growing speculation that he will break a major U.S. and Israeli taboo by meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

The Carter Center hasn’t confirmed the meeting, but a Hamas official told the Associated Press that Carter’s representatives had requested the appointment.

Either way, the response has been swift and harsh.

Meshaal, once the target of a failed Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan, now lives in Damascus and is regarded as superior to Ismail Haniya, the Gaza City-based leader who briefly served as Palestinian Prime Minister in a short-lived unity government.

In Israel, the fun part is seeing who will and won’t meet with Carter, who after all is a former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have both reportedly cited ‘scheduling conflicts’ but President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and, weirdly enough, several right-wing politicians will meet with him.

If it happens, Carter’s meeting with Meshaal will be a blow to the U.S.-backed effort to diplomatically isolate Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Carter, saying she found it ‘hard to understand what is going to be gained’ by his meeting with Meshaal.

To be continued....

—Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

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