Obama, McCain, Hamas: "Losing his Bearings"

Fact: Barack Obama can't handle the truth.

Mentioning his middle name, the name his parents gave him, is a smear.

Mentioning that Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, wants to see Obama become president is also a smear.

I am so sick of Obama's whining. Whenever someone utters something truthful, but something the Obama camp deems to be negative, Obama cries "smear campaign."

That diversion doesn't fly.

NEW YORK -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican John McCain was "losing his bearings" for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic terrorist group Hamas preferred Obama for president.

That brought an angry response from McCain's campaign, which accused Obama of trying to make an issue of McCain's age.

Age is a touchy subject for McCain, who turns 72 in August and would be the oldest person to be sworn in as president if elected.

The two senators have focused more intently on one another in recent weeks as Obama has moved closer to becoming the Democratic nominee. Thursday's back and forth between Obama and surrogates for both candidates foreshadowed a likely argument for the fall campaign.

...At the root of the dispute is McCain's decision to call attention to a Hamas adviser's apparent affinity for Obama. The adviser, Ahmed Yousef, said in a recent interview: "We like Obama and hope that he will win the election."

McCain used those comments in a fundraising appeal and has cited them in interviews.

Asked about the matter Wednesday during a taping of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," McCain said: "It's indicative of how some of our enemies view America. And I guarantee you, they're not going to endorse me."

In an interview Thursday with CNN, Obama accused McCain of trying to smear him by repeating the comments.

"This is offensive, and I think it's disappointing, because John McCain always says, 'Well, I'm not going to run that kind of politics,'" Obama said. "And then to engage in that kind of smear, I think, is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his."

The Illinois senator added: "For him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don't need name-calling in this debate."

Transcript of Wolf Blitzer's interview with Obama.

The comments that McCain tossed out happen to be the truth. If Obama finds the truth disappointing, so be it.

Obama can't slam McCain for acknowledging a fact. It's on the record. It aired on WABC radio on the John Batchelor Show.

Obama shouldn't be critical of McCain. He has a beef with Hamas. A terrorist wants Obama to win the election. That's reality. Deal with it.

McCain isn't distorting anything. He's not lying like Obama does, such as when he deceives people about the meaning of McCain's "100 years in Iraq" statement. McCain hasn't lost his bearings. Since when is telling the truth losing one's bearings?

The supposedly eloquent Obama either intentionally took a shot at McCain's age by saying "losing his bearings," or he's too dense to understand the negative connotation of the words.

Is Obama really as stupid as he is smug?

I think he knew exactly what he was saying.

His arrogance is very unbecoming.

Hamas Puppets Kuku and Fufu

Hamas' propaganda puppets are poisoning the minds of children again, and promoting the elimination of Israel.

When Jimmy Carter held his NEGOTIATIONS with Hamas, he should have demanded that Hamas quit propagating hate and teaching children that Israelis are "the enemies of Allah."

Then again, Carter pretty much sees Israel as the enemy.



MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) has the transcript.

Jimmy Carter and Charlie Rose

Jimmy Carter was talking about his recent Terrorist-palooza Tour with Charlie Rose on his show last night.

Again, Carter said that he in no way was acting in the role of a mediator or negotiator.

Then, of course, he went on to detail his talks with Hamas.

Rose said that it sounded like Carter was talking about negotiations.

Carter babbled that they were not negotiations.

Rose then called them "conversations."

Carter went on to talk about the "commitments" that Hamas made.

Rose questioned the "commitments."

Carter quickly added that Hamas made "commitments to me." What is that? Peace for Jimmy? Promises to Jimmy?

This is insane. Rose eased off and accepted Carter's assessment that he wasn't involved in any negotiations.

Carter claimed to be neutral, but he clearly is anti-Israel.

Rose asked Carter if Israel is engaging in acts of terrorism.

He didn't hesitate to say yes.

Carter gave his idea of what would be a perfect inaugural speech for the next president.

He said America's standing in the world could be changed in ten minutes, if the new president promises not to torture, and not to invade countries, and to be a leader in peace and human rights. A simple speech will change everything. Good grief.

When Rose and Carter get together it's torture.

Rose wondered, "What should we fear the most?"

Carter replied, "Continuing the current policies."

According to Carter, Americans shouldn't fear radical Islam and terrorists or suitcase nukes or anything as much as they should fear the policies of the Bush administration.

Carter is a hack. He's a disgrace.

Jimmy Carter and Pariah Diplomacy

Jimmy Carter has written yet another op-ed piece.

I think Carter's ramblings are appealing to lib publications not because of his status as a former president, but because he is ruthless when it comes to criticizing the Bush administration.

In the New York Times, "Pariah Diplomacy":

A COUNTERPRODUCTIVE Washington policy in recent years has been to boycott and punish political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates. This policy makes difficult the possibility that such leaders might moderate their policies.

...On the way home from monitoring the Nepalese election, I, my wife and my son went to Israel. My goal was to learn as much as possible to assist in the faltering peace initiative endorsed by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Although I knew that official United States policy was to boycott the government of Syria and leaders of Hamas, I did not receive any negative or cautionary messages about the trip, except that it might be dangerous to visit Gaza.

Translation: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a liar.

Carter explains:

We met with Hamas leaders from Gaza, the West Bank and Syria, and after two days of intense discussions with one another they gave these official responses to our suggestions, intended to enhance prospects for peace:

•

Hamas will accept any agreement negotiated by Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel provided it is approved either in a Palestinian referendum or by an elected government. Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshal, has reconfirmed this, although some subordinates have denied it to the press.

•

When the time comes, Hamas will accept the possibility of forming a nonpartisan professional government of technocrats to govern until the next elections can be held.

•

Hamas will also disband its militia in Gaza if a nonpartisan professional security force can be formed.

•

Hamas will permit an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, to send a letter to his parents. If Israel agrees to a list of prisoners to be exchanged, and the first group is released, Corporal Shalit will be sent to Egypt, pending the final releases.

•

Hamas will accept a mutual cease-fire in Gaza, with the expectation (not requirement) that this would later include the West Bank.

•

Hamas will accept international control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, provided the Egyptians and not the Israelis control closing the gates.

In addition, Syria’s president, Bashir al-Assad, has expressed eagerness to begin negotiations with Israel to end the impasse on the Golan Heights. He asks only that the United States be involved and that the peace talks be made public.

Does this sound like Carter is summing up his negotiations with Hamas?

"Intense discussions."

"OFFICIAL responses to our suggestions, intended to enhance prospects for peace."

Carter goes through them, point by point. It's to reconcile that with what he said last week.

From an interview with Reena Ninan on FOX News:

NINAN: One Israeli official actually said to me, 'We don't know whose behalf he's negotiating.' Why are you doing this? And would you have appreciated someone undermining your administration?

CARTER: First, I'm not undermining anything. And secondly, I'm not negotiating. I have no role to play as a mediator or a negotiator. I'm just here representing myself and the Carter Center, no one else, with no authority at all. I don't want any authority. And my decision was just to talk to people who must be involved in the final peace agreement, who are excluded at this point from any discussions leading to a peace agreement.

WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT?

Carter just laid out Hamas' OFFICIAL responses to his suggestions.

But don't forget, he wasn't acting as a mediator or a negotiator.

No. Of course not.

Carter does have a lot in common with those "political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates."

Pariahs of a feather flock together.

Israel Ambassador Calls Carter a "Bigot"

NEW YORK -- Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot" for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, "went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas," Ambassador Dan Gillerman told a luncheon briefing for reporters.

...The ambassador's harsh words for Carter came days after the ex-president met with Mashaal for seven hours in Damascus to negotiate a cease-fire with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Carter then called Mashaal on Monday to try to get him to agree to a one-month truce without conditions, but the Hamas leader rejected the idea.

The ambassador called last weekend's encounter "a very sad episode in American history."

He said it was "a shame" to see Carter, who had done "good things" as a former president, "turn into what I believe to be a bigot."

Good call.

Carter and Rice: He Said, She Said

ATLANTA (Reuters) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of not telling the truth about warnings she said her department gave Carter not to speak to Hamas before a Middle East trip.

The State Department has said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, issued the warning before Carter, a veteran of Middle East diplomacy, went on his trip last week.

Rice said in Kuwait on Tuesday: "We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contact with Hamas."

"President Carter has the greatest respect for ... Rice and believes her to be a truthful person. However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true," a statement issued by the Carter center in Atlanta said on Wednesday.

"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him (Carter) to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President (Bashar) Assad or leaders of Hamas," it said.

It said Carter attempted to call Rice before making the trip and a deputy returned his call since Rice was in Europe.

"They had a very pleasant discussion for about 15 minutes, during which he never made any of the negative or cautionary comments described above. He never talked to anyone else," the statement said.

Given the fact that Carter "exaggerated" when he said "Hamas is prepared to accept the Jewish state's right to 'live as a neighbor next door in peace'" and presented a false report on his talks with Hamas, I am more inclined to doubt Carter's version of events.

I wish Carter would quit whining and cozying up to terrorists, and instead do something constructive -- like build a house.

Jimmy Carter's Delusions of Middle East Peace

If Jimmy Carter doesn't regret his meetings with Hamas, he should.

The group has humiliated him. And of course, Carter humiliated himself.

JERUSALEM -- Former President Carter said Monday that the Islamic group Hamas was willing to accept the Jewish state as a "neighbor next door," but the militants did not match their upbeat words with concrete steps to halt violence.

Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, instead recycled previous offers, including a 10-year truce if Israel takes the unlikely step of withdrawing from the West Bank and Jerusalem first.

Hamas has repeatedly confounded observers with its conflicting messages. Actions on the ground — seven rockets were fired on Israel from Hamas-ruled Gaza Monday, including one that wounded a 4-year-old boy — contradicted the Islamic militant group's positive words about coexistence and a truce.

And a leader of the Hamas military wing, which carried out a twin suicide bombing on the Gaza border Saturday, said his group would step up attacks against Israel in coming days.

The salvo of rockets came despite a last-minute phone call from Carter, urging a one-month halt to attacks on Israel, to gain some international goodwill and defuse tensions.

"I did the best I could," Carter said of his conversation with Hamas supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, pressing him to declare a one-month truce. "They turned me down, and I think they're wrong."

This is ridiculous. Carter continues to claim that he didn't go to the Middle East to negotiate anything.

He said so again in an interview with Reena Ninan on FOX News.

NINAN: One Israeli official actually said to me, 'We don't know whose behalf he's negotiating.' Why are you doing this? And would you have appreciated someone undermining your administration?

CARTER: First, I'm not undermining anything. And secondly, I'm not negotiating. I have no role to play as a mediator or a negotiator. I'm just here representing myself and the Carter Center, no one else, with no authority at all. I don't want any authority. And my decision was just to talk to people who must be involved in the final peace agreement, who are excluded at this point from any discussions leading to a peace agreement.

One minute, Carter says he has no authority and he's not negotiating anything. Then the next, Carter says he did the best he could and Hamas turned him down. That sounds like negotiations to me.

One-month truce. Ten-year truce. Hamas is ready to accept the Jewish state's right to "live as a neighbor next door in peace." Whatever.

On Monday, Hamas fired seven rockets on Israel, wounding a 4-year-old boy.

The New York Times reports:

Jimmy Carter said here on Monday that in talks in Damascus, Syria, over the last several days, he obtained a significant concession from the militant group Hamas regarding Israeli-Palestinian peace and found Syrian leaders eager for a full peace treaty with Israel.

Mr. Carter said he extracted a promise from Hamas to respect the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip negotiated by Hamas’s rivals in the Palestinian Authority if it were ratified by a referendum of the Palestinian people.

Furthermore, Syrian leaders told him, he said, that “about 85 percent” of the issues between Syria’s government and Israel had been resolved in prior negotiations and that it wanted a peace deal “as soon as possible.”

Given the general pessimism surrounding Israeli-Arab peace, Mr. Carter’s upbeat assessment had a contrarian quality to it, as did his decision to meet in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the Hamas leadership. The Bush administration has shunned Syria and considers Hamas a terrorist group, as does Israel, and had asked him not to hold the meetings.

Israelis have not generally welcomed Mr. Carter on this trip. Many of them consider him hostile to Israel’s interests, especially since the publication of his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” in 2006.

On Monday, Mr. Carter called the agreement on a Palestinian state, obtained from Hamas in writing, important because it appeared to mean that Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last June, would not disrupt negotiations or implementation of any accord if the Palestinian people supported it in a free vote.

“If the agreement calls for a two-state solution and the recognition of Israel and Palestine, Hamas will, in effect, recognize Israel, if the people agree on the plan,” Mr. Carter told the Israel Council on Foreign Relations in a speech here.

In a subsequent interview, Mr. Carter struck a more cautious note, saying, “I’m not claiming it’s a breakthrough.” He added, “I don’t have any control over whether or not Hamas does what they tell me.”

Hamas’s charter calls for Israel’s destruction, and it has consistently refused to recognize Israel. But Mr. Carter says that Hamas is coming around to the idea of a two-state solution.

...Mr. Carter had made several other requests to Hamas but was turned down. Those included a prisoner exchange and the declaration of a 30-day unilateral cease-fire with Israel.

I think someone needs to explain to Carter what "negotiate" means.

His claims of obtaining a significant concession and extracting a promise of an agreement on a Palestinian state, obtained from Hamas in writing, sounds like he was taking it upon himself to negotiate. Carter says that Hamas turned down his several other requests and the declaration of a cease-fire.

OF COURSE, HE WAS NEGOTIATING AND ACTING AS A MEDIATOR.

He was acting against the wishes of the Bush administration. Carter says he was just talking to people.

I don't consider his meetings with Hamas to be just typical talking to people, chit chat.

...Mr. Carter said in the interview that he found the Hamas leadership, including Mr. Meshal, to be clear-thinking, educated people who gave no sign of fanaticism, although he did condemn in harsh terms their use of violence. During his meetings, he said, they did not break for prayer or talk of holy land or God. “It was secular talk,” he said.

Mr. Carter also said that what he learned about Syrian intentions toward Israel might prove more significant than the Hamas agreement.

He asserted that Mr. Assad had said that there were only a few details left to work out on a full peace treaty but that the Bush administration was discouraging Israel from proceeding because of the Americans’ other concerns about Syria, especially related to Iraq.

“All of our group were surprisingly impressed with his strength and knowledge of the details in contrast to what we had heard from propaganda,” Mr. Carter said of the Syrian president. He emphasized that for Syria, a deal with Israel had to be brokered by the United States.

Once again, Carter has high praise for terrorists.

They're "clear-thinking, educated people who gave no sign of fanaticism."

I guess Carter didn't watch any Hamas TV programs for kids, like the puppet show of a child stabbing Bush to death and turning the White House into a mosque. No, nothing fanatical about that. That's the product of clear-thinking, educated people.

It sickens me that Carter is charging the U.S. government with spreading propaganda about Syrian president Bashar al-Assad while he disseminates Assad's lines about the Bush administration discouraging Israel from proceeding with a peace treaty because of the Americans' concerns about Syria related to Iraq.

Carter paints Assad as the good guy and Bush as blocking peace efforts.

What an anti-American tool!

This is another disgrace for Carter. He doesn't understand the terrorists' goal. It's not peace. It's the destruction of Israel.

I think Carter may be clinically delusional.

The fact is by continuing the terrorism and lobbing the seven rockets at Israel on Monday, the day Carter was bragging about the Middle East being on the verge of peace, Hamas spit in Carter's face; sort of the way Carter spit in the face of the Bush administration.

What goes around comes around.

Hamas and Israel and Jimmy Carter

Contradicting Jimmy Carter's babbling, Hamas won't recognize Israel.

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.

Carter is wearing his rose-colored glasses, or he's just lying.

Then there's this:

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- 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.

Ten-year truce?

Yeah, right.

What's what this "offer to former President Carter" stuff?

Carter claimed he wasn't going to the Middle East to negotiate any agreements.

In any event, there's definitely a failure to communicate.

Hamas is NOT prepared to accept the Jewish state's right to "live as a neighbor next door in peace."

Carter and Hamas: Peace in Our Time

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Monday Hamas leaders told him they would accept a peace agreement negotiated by their rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if Palestinians approved the deal in a vote.

"They said they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians ... even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement," Carter said in a speech, after talks in Syria and Egypt with Hamas leaders.

"It means that Hamas will not undermine Abbas's efforts to negotiate an agreement and Hamas will accept an agreement if the Palestinians support it in a free vote," he said.

...He said "there's no doubt that both the Arab world and the Palestinians, including Hamas, will accept Israel's right to live in peace within the 1967 borders".

Yeah, right.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, but miracle worker Jimmy Carter has changed that. Years and years of bloodshed could soon be over thanks to Jimmy.

Hamas won't undermine Abbas' negotiations and any agreement must be accepted by the Palestinian people in a free vote.

Sure, that'll happen. No problem. Peace at last!

This is absolutely meaningless.

On Saturday, while Carter was in the region working his magic, Hamas carried out a terrorist attack.

And we're supposed to believe that Carter has convinced Hamas to take a step toward peace?

Has hell frozen over yet?

Jimmy Carter and Hamas Suicide Bombers

So, Jimmy, how are those talks with Hamas going?

Is it peace yet?

JERUSALEM -- Hamas bombers attacked an Israeli-Gaza border crossing under the cover of fog Saturday, detonating two jeeps made to look like Israeli military vehicles and packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives.

The twin blasts, just hours before the Jewish Passover holiday, wounded 13 Israeli soldiers in what Hamas said was an attempt to break the nearly yearlong blockade of the territory. Four Hamas assailants died, Israeli officials said.

Meanwhile, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with senior Hamas leaders in Damascus, Syria, for a second day to hear their views, defying U.S. and Israeli warnings that doing so would grant the group legitimacy. The U.S. and Israel have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization.

An Israeli army commander said the Hamas operation was the most ambitious since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, even though another planned attempt at the border was averted Saturday. The attack was the fifth on a crossing by Gaza militants since last week, and Hamas threatened to target the passages again.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak later visited the area. "When the time comes, Hamas will bear the consequences," Barak warned, in comments quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on its Web site.

Despite such attacks, Hamas has said it seeks a truce on the Gaza-Israel border, and Egypt has been trying to broker such a deal. Hamas' motives for its ostensibly contradictory actions were not clear.

Hamas officials said they talked to Carter about ways to lift the Gaza closure and the possibility of swapping an Israeli soldier held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

So, Jimmy is meeting with Hamas leaders even as the terrorist group launches more attacks. I guess Jimmy's not making much progress at all.

"Despite such attacks, Hamas has said it seeks a truce on the Gaza-Israel border, and Egypt has been trying to broker such a deal. Hamas' motives for its ostensibly contradictory actions were not clear."

Not clear?

It's very clear.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. It has no intention of making peace.

Talk is cheap.

Unfortunately, Jimmy Carter continues to cheapen himself.

Why Hamas Likes Jimmy Carter and the Democrats

Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily reports:

Former President Jimmy Carter is a "noble person" whose planned meeting with Hamas would help the terror organization "engage with the world community," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, told WND today in an exclusive interview.

"Carter can achieve something no one else can. He is open-minded and has a very noble cause to come and meet with all people," said Yousuf, the chief political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Yousuf, who is usually the Hamas figure responsible for coordinating meetings with foreign officials, said Carter "should get credit because he is the one who really understands the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict and knows what is needed to achieve peace."

He indicated Carter's visit could help end Hamas' international isolation.

"If he comes and meets Hamas, this will also enhance the image and understanding between America and the Muslim world," said Yousuf, speaking by phone from Gaza. "Carter's visit is a good step and a positive step in the right direction. It would engage with the world community. To what degree he succeeds depends on the people in Europe and the U.S."

Yousuf blasted the Bush administration for "trying to block every attempt to lift sanctions against Hamas."

He accused "Zionists" and U.S. Jewish groups of "trying to sabotage [Carter's Middle East] trip ... . Some reports said American Jewish groups tried to stigmatize him with being connected to terrorism or working against Jewish ambitions at home."

Asked if he believes Democrats would engage Hamas if the party takes the White House next year, Yousuf replied, "I do believe Democrats will make a drastic change in American foreign policy. I hope they are able to fix the damage done by [President] Bush and the Republicans and engage again in a very positive way with the Arab and Muslim world, where most of their vital interests lie."

Yousuf slammed Bush for "engaging in a terrible crusade against the Muslim world."

We know that Hamas loves Carter. He's a useful idiot for Hamas. Of course, Carter is revered as a peacemaker by Hamas because he's so biased against the Israelis.

And of course, Yousuf slams Bush because the President isn't an appeaser of terrorists.

This interview provides an incredible revelation: HAMAS IS HOPING THE DEMOCRATS TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE.

Yousuf says, "I do believe Democrats will make a drastic change in American foreign policy. I hope they are able to fix the damage done by [President] Bush and the Republicans and engage again in a very positive way with the Arab and Muslim world, where most of their vital interests lie."

That's not an endorsement Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton should welcome.

...Carter did meet Israeli President Shimon Peres in a low key talk that was closed to members of the media.

Israel's Haaretz daily newspaper quoted sources in Peres' office stating the Israeli president rebuked Carter over his last book, titled, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," in which he claimed Israel was an apartheid state, and told Carter his activities in the Israeli-Palestinian arena in recent years caused grave damage to Israel and to the peace process.

I hope this is accurate and Peres did blast Carter for his disgraceful book and his activities.

I keep thinking of this saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Hamas views Carter as an enemy of Israel. Thus, Hamas embraces Carter as a friend. Hamas also sees the Democrats as serving its interests.

Those interests aren't in America's best interests.

Jimmy Carter, Hamas, and the Beijing Olympics

A Palestinian boy wears a Hamas headband during a protest organized by the Hamas movement calling for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip April 11, 2008. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)

There was a time when I had a great deal of respect for Jimmy Carter. Yes, he was a disaster as president, but I thought he was honorable and decent, a man of character. Not anymore.

I see Jimmy Carter as an old, desperate, selfish man.

WASHINGTON -- Former President Carter said he feels "quite at ease" about meeting Hamas militants over the objections of Washington because the Palestinian group is essential to a future peace with Israel.

Carter, interviewed Saturday for ABC News' "This Week," airing Sunday, also said he would oppose a U.S. Olympic boycott and hopes all countries will join in the Beijing games.

He spoke from Katmandu, Nepal, where his team of observers from the Carter Center monitored an election that appeared likely to transform rule by royal dynasty into a democracy with former Maoist rebels in a strong position, judging by incomplete returns.

Several State Department officials, including the secretary, Condoleezza Rice, criticized Carter's plans to talk in Syria this week with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and the group. Carter said he had not heard the objections directly, although a State Department spokesman said earlier that a senior official from the department had called the former president.

"President Carter is a private citizen. We respect his views," Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, said Sunday on ABC.

"The position of the government is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't negotiate with terrorists. We think that's a very important principle to maintain," Hadley said. "The State Department made clear we think it's not useful for people to be running to Hamas at this point and having meetings."

Carter demurred.

"I feel quite at ease in doing this," he said. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process."

Although he said the meeting would not be a negotiation, he outlined distinct goals.

"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, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire — things of this kind," he said.

The State Department says it advised Carter twice against meeting representatives of Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.

"I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said Friday, after reports of the planned meeting surfaced.

It's true that Carter is a private citizen, but he's not your average private citizen. He was president of the United States.

And he feels "quite at ease" with undercutting the policy of the current administration.

There's something seriously wrong with Carter if he can feel "quite at ease" with that.

Carter said he'd be meeting Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudi Arabians and others "who might have to play a crucial role in any future peace agreement that involves the Middle East."

Asked whether it was right to meet a group that has not renounced violence or recognized Israel, he said, "Well, you can't always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them."

Carter claims that he's not negotiating.

Then what is it that he's doing? Having casual chats about peace agreements in the Middle East?

Pressure to drop the meeting has come from his own party. Democratic Reps. Artur Davis of Alabama, Shelley Berkley of Nevada, Adam Schiff of California and Adam Smith of Washington state wrote a letter to Carter saying the meeting could confer legitimacy on a group that embraces violence.

"I've been meeting with Hamas leaders for years," Carter said.

Carter says he has been meeting with Hamas leaders for years.

Perhaps that's why he feels so comfortable getting cozy with terrorists. Perhaps that's why he spouts opinions that verge on the anti-Semitic.

In spite of Carter's years of meetings, Hamas is no closer to rejecting terrorism.

Carter can add that to his list of failures.

The Carter Center said his "study mission" was taking him to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan this week.

"Study mission."

Good grief.

Apparently, Carter's idea of a "study mission" is spitting in the face of the American government.

Carter, a broker of the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his conflict mediation as president and since.

Carter isn't acting as a peacemaker. He's serving to legitimize terrorists. He's complicating matters. He's an obstacle to peace.

As president, Carter led the boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. "That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people," he said, rejecting the idea of boycotting the Beijing games to protest China's crackdown in Tibet. He did not address whether just the opening ceremonies should be boycotted.

Carter is clueless. He was clueless as president and he's grown more clueless.

Boycotting the Moscow Olympics punished American athletes, not the Soviet Union. It didn't change a thing in Afghanistan. Carter reveals how myopic he is when he says, "That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people."

How many people have been treated brutally and killed by the Chinese government?

It's ridiculous for him to suggest that the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan was a greater affront to humanity than China's abysmal record on human rights. If Carter had any sense of history and personal honor, he would admit that the Olympic boycott he led was a mistake.

I believe since Carter left office he's been on a crusade to alter his page in American history. His presidency was an unmitigated disaster. I don't think he's come to terms with being rejected and tossed out of office. He clings to the Camp David Accords but that accomplishment doesn't erase his complete impotence in dealing with the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet Union, and domestic issues.

Carter is not a humble man. He has a massive ego. He acts as if he has all the answers.

For all the talk from the Left that George W. Bush behaves in a messianic manner, it seems to me that Carter is the messianic one.

There's no defending Carter meeting with Hamas, or his pro-Palestinian bias.

Jimmy Carter, Hamas, and an "Unsanctioned Diplomatic Trip"

UPDATE, April 12, 2008: Obama declines to criticize Carter on Hamas

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday it was not his place to criticize former President Jimmy Carter if he were to meet with Hamas, although Obama said he would not meet with the militant Palestinian group.

Hamas says the meeting will take place but Carter has not provided any details of whom he plans to meet during his nine-day trip to the Middle East, which begins on Sunday. The Bush administration and close U.S. ally Israel oppose the meeting.

"I'm not going to comment on former President Carter. He's a private citizen. It's not my place to discuss who he shouldn't meet with," Obama told reporters while campaigning in Indianapolis. "I know that I've said consistently that I would not meet with Hamas."

Carter has not publicly backed either candidate in the Democratic race but hinted recently that he supports Obama.

Carter's planned trip creates awkwardness for the Illinois senator, whose critics have sought to raise doubts about whether he might be inclined as president to put greater pressure on Israel to make concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians.

Such doubts could cost Obama support with some U.S. Jewish voters.

Obama doesn't have a spine when it comes to criticizing the disgraceful Jimmy Carter.

That's very weak on Obama's part. He should condemn Carter for meeting with Hamas.

What's Obama afraid of? Losing a super delegate?

Obama is doing what's politically expedient, what he thinks is in his own best interest.

Note to Obama: It's a mistake to look like such a suck-up.
_______________


Jimmy Carter continues to add to his achievements as being one of the worst ex-presidents in U.S. history.

From FOX News:

The State Department confirmed Wednesday that former President Jimmy Carter is planning to visit Syria on an unsanctioned diplomatic trip in mid-April.

A State Department official in Israel told FOX News that Carter is scheduled to arrive in Israel on April 12, and is expected to visit Syria and Saudi Arabia while in the region.

Meanwhile, a State Department spokesman in Washington, D.C., told FOXNews.com that he is aware that Carter was planning a stay in the region, but would not disclose details of the trip.

That spokesman noted, however, that “the State Department has expressed our concerns and advised President Carter that past engagement with the Syrian regime has not produced positive results.”

FOXNews.com first reported Tuesday on an item in the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat that said Carter was preparing an unprecedented meeting on April 18 with with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

The State Department official in Israel did not confirm whether President Carter planned to meet Meshal during his time in Syria....

Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas’ top political adviser in Gaza, did not have any information on a meeting between Carter and Meshal, according to World Net Daily.

...The State Department has designated Hamas a “foreign terrorist organization.” Chief spokesman Sean McCormack once said of the prospect of meeting with Meshal, “That’s not something that we could possibly conceive of.”

Meshal, who lives in Syria to avoid being arrested by the Israeli government, leads Hamas from his seat in Damascus, where he is a guest of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Should Carter meet with the Hamas chief, he would be the first Western leader of his stature to do so. Though Meshal met with Clinton officials in the 1990s, the Bush administration has sought to isolate Hamas, enforcing rigid sanctions on its government in Gaza and refusing to meet with its leaders unless it recognizes Israel and abandons terror.

Once again, the disgraceful Jimmy Carter is seeking to undercut President Bush and his administration.

Although Carter wants us to believe that he's not anti-Israel, he is so pro-Palestinian that he most definitely comes off as an advocate for the Palestinians.

Carter's book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, clarified his stance on the conflict.

He has gone beyond being an apologist for Hamas and terrorists. He is firmly entrenched in their corner. In short, Carter is an enemy of Israel.

He should quit pretending to be the wise elder statesman, the peacemaker.

He was never wise and he was never a statesman. He wasn't much of a peacemaker either. (I'll give him the elderly though.)

QUESTIONS:

1. When Carter was president and he allowed Islamic extremism to take root and flourish in the Middle East, did former President Gerald Ford step in and take unsanctioned diplomatic trips to the region?

2. When Carter was president and Americans spent 444 days in captivity because he was utterly impotent when it came to handling the Iranian hostage crisis, did former President Richard Nixon negotiate with Iranian officials without the State Department's approval?

3. When Carter was president and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan did any former U.S. presidents have unsanctioned meetings with Leonid Brezhnev?

ANSWERS:

1. NO

2. NO

3. NO

Bush Murdered in Hamas TV Puppet Show

Jimmy Carter really should talk to his Hamas buddies and convince them to start producing more positive, less violent TV programming for children.

Last year, a tape surfaced of Hamas' program using a Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur to indoctrinate children.

Here's another bit of Hamas TV for kids:

Memri1
by luvnews

MEMRI provides a transcript:

Child Stabs President Bush to Death and Turns the White House into a Mosque in a Hamas TV Puppet Show

Following is an excerpt from a puppet show, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 30, 2008.

Bush: Who are you? What brings you to my home? How did they let you in, boy? My guards! My soldiers! Get this boy out of here.

Child: Nobody will take me out of here.

Bush: Who are you to come here and threaten me?! You are on my own turf, you little child, you! Get out. My dear, bring your father, your grandfather, or your mother, so I can talk to them. Get somebody older and smarter than you. What, you came here on your own?

Child: You killed daddy in the Iraq war. It's true, you killed him in the Iraq war. As for my mom – you and the criminal Zionists killed her in Lebanon. You and the criminal Zionists also killed my younger and older brothers in the Gaza holocaust. I'm an orphan, you criminal!

Bush: What are you talking about? Where did you come from? Don't I have enough troubles already? Where did you come from?

Child: I have come to take revenge with this sword – revenge for my mother and my sisters. You are a criminal, Bush! You are despicable. You made me an orphan! You took everything from me, Bush! I must take revenge on you, with this sword of Islam, the Prophet's Al-Battar sword.

Bush: No... No, my dear. I give you my word that this is it. I repent, just don't kill me. Where are my guards? Where are my people? Help! Help! He wants to kill me. Help!

Child: There are no guards, and your people have surrendered, Bush. I have not come alone, Bush. I have brought thousands of thousands of children from Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. You have denied all these children their fathers and mothers. That's why I have come to take revenge on you and on all the criminal traitors who collaborated with you.

Bush: Okay, fine, that's enough. I will give you whatever you want from me.

Child: What can you give me? All I want is one thing. Bring back my father and mother. I don't want anything from you. I don't want anything from you, just bring back my father and mother. I place my trust in Allah. I need to kill you.

Bush: No, my dear. Enough. I will give you anything you want. I also... Enough with that. Come with all your friends to the White House. I will give you food and toys. We will sit in the White House and talk. You will get whatever you need.

Child: You are impure, Bush, so you are not allowed inside the White House.

Bush: What are you saying?! Why am I not allowed into the White House?

Child: Because it has been turned into a great mosque for the nation of Islam. I will kill you just like Mu'az killed Abu Lahab. I will kill you, Bush, because that is your fate.

Child stabs Bush repeatedly

Child: Ahhh, I killed him.

And that's how you raise the next generation of terrorists.

It's sick, and very sad.

Hey, Jimmy Carter! Read This!

JERUSALEM -- An 8-year-old boy and his older brother were seriously wounded Saturday when a rocket from Gaza slammed into the Israeli border town of Sderot, police and medics said.

The younger boy's legs were at least partially severed by the explosion, Israel's Army Radio reported. His 19-year-old brother was also badly hurt. A medic, who only gave his first name as Gil, said he heard a loud explosion and rushed toward the scene.

"I found two injured people, one boy very seriously wounded in the legs," the medic told Army Radio.

Israel threatened retaliation.

"Israel will take resolute and decisive measures to protect our citizens," government spokesman David Baker said. "We will not allow Israeli families to be victimized by Palestinian rockets in the heart of their own cities."

The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing two rockets toward Sderot around the time of the attack. Two rockets had fallen earlier in the day, but caused no damage or injuries.

The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip had vowed to persist in their attacks despite an Israeli cutback in power supply to the coastal territory that was meant to pressure Palestinians to stop the launchings.

The Israeli army and government have been reluctant to launch a large military campaign in Gaza against the rocket operation for fear both soldiers and Palestinian civilians would suffer a great number of casualties. But analysts say any serious rocket attacks will put great pressure on the political echelon to approve such a broad operation.

Jimmy Carter's Pro-Palestian Bias

During an interview with Charlie Rose on November 30 2006, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Carter's true colors were evident.

He acted as a PR man for the anti-Israel contingent.

He insisted that "Israel wants to confiscate Palestinian land."

He legitimized Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Carter said, "Hamas can't recognize Israel until it stays within its borders."

He even claimed that he hadn't seen any proof that Hamas was responsible for lobbing missiles at Israel.

Sorry but that's not someone who's an unbiased peace broker.

Carter doesn't seem to understand that peace can't come at the price of appeasing terrorists.

Moreover, Carter doesn't seem to understand that his Hamas buddies are terrorists.
________________________

Watch the interview.

Islamic Jihad Targets Israeli Children

Those poor Palestinians!

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian rocket exploded Monday next to a day care center crowded with toddlers in southern Israel, sparking anger and panic in the frequently targeted town of Sderot and bringing warnings of retribution from Israeli leaders.

No one was hurt, but the blast and the panic underlined Israel's ineffectiveness in the face of the primitive rockets, which fall daily despite frequent Israeli airstrikes and occasional ground offensives.

Terrified mothers rushed to comfort their screaming babies, schoolchildren ran for cover, and angry parents said they wouldn't send their children back to school until they get classrooms outside town.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to provide "better security for the residents," indicating he would step up the Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants.

"We will not limit ourselves in regards to targeting the rocket launchers and those who dispatch them," Olmert said at a news conference in Jerusalem. "The instruction given to the army is to destroy every 'Qassam' rocket launcher and anyone who is involved in their launching against the residents of Israel."

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for launching seven rockets at Sderot. Hamas, the larger Islamic group that rules Gaza, was bracing for retaliation.

"We are taking this new threat by Olmert seriously," Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said. "We are warning of coming massacres against the people in Gaza."

Let me see if I understand.

A Palestinian rocket explodes near an Israeli day care center but Hamas is proactively painting the Palestinians as the victims.

"We are warning of coming massacres against the people in Gaza."

Hamas is expecting "massacres."

If some rebels along the U.S. border were lobbing rockets into Mexico and terrorizing innocent Mexicans, I'm certain American authorities would root out the lawbreakers and put an end to it.

What's Hamas doing to stop the terror?

Crying on Jimmy Carter's pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli shoulder?

The onus is on Hamas and the Palestinians to put an end to the terrorists' bombardment of Israel.

According to the AP:

Sderot, a working-class town of 22,000, has been battered by thousands of the crude projectiles launched in recent years from the Gaza Strip, just a mile away. The unguided rockets rarely cause serious injuries or damage, but they sow panic.

22,000 rockets!

That's a war zone!

...On Monday, rockets exploded near several schools in town, just a day after the school year began. Images of students ducking into shelters, young schoolchildren wailing uncontrollably, and teachers shielding terrified toddlers with their own bodies outraged parents.

Batya Katar, head of the Sderot Parents Association, said parents were pulling all 2,500 of the town's students out of school.

"Buses are already on the way to pick up students who haven't been taken home," she told The Associated Press by telephone, the voices of panicked parents clearly audible in the background.

"Of course I'll take them out. Should I leave them in the hands of Hamas?" Nahum Bitton said as he arrived to fetch his children.

The Education Ministry announced that studies would continue, but Katar said parents would not allow their children to return to school until the government moved them to classrooms out of rocket range.

"The school year is over. We can't hold on any more," Katar said.

Imagine sending your children to school and having to worry about them becoming victims of terrorist attacks.

I couldn't put them in harm's way like that. I wouldn't do it.

Schools shouldn't have to be moved, but Israel is dealing with terrorists bent on murdering its citizens, including children.

Obviously, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza two years ago didn't stop the terror.

What did that compromise get them?

It didn't bring peace.

Jimmy Carter and other apologists for Palestinian terrorism make me sick.

___________________________

UPDATE:

JERUSALEM -- Israeli leaders decided Wednesday against a large-scale military response to repeated rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, but they said they would consider cutting off electricity or other vital supplies to the impoverished area if the attacks persist, meeting participants said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened the gathering of his Security Cabinet, a group of top ministers and defense officials, to discuss the latest wave of rockets. Pressure has been mounting for a tough response since a rocket landed next to a crowded nursery school in the southern town of Sderot on Monday. There were no injuries.

In a statement, Olmert's office said Israel would continue its policy of pinpoint operations at destroying Palestinian rocket squads. But meeting participants said they had ruled out a broad ground offensive for the time being.

"The Cabinet decided that it will continue its intense military action against those involved in terror and launching rockets, and nobody among those responsible and their partners will be immune," the statement said.

Islamic Jihad, a radical Palestinian militant group, carried out this week's rocket fire. But in the statement, Israel said it holds Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June, responsible for the "continuous, horrendous and indiscriminate attacks toward the Israeli civilian population."

Nahoul and Saraa Barhoum

I love you
You love me
We're best friends
Like friends should be
With a great big hug
And a kiss from me to you
Won't you say you love me too?

There's something wrong with a group that uses children's TV programming to preach martyrdom and murder.

It's sick to work at raising the next generation of suicide bombers.

Jimmy Carter's pals in Hamas are doing exactly that.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face.

Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can't, the young star of Hamas television's best-known children's show said, she would be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land.

With the show's producer helpfully offering written tips during an interview, Saraa didn't get into how she hopes to die for her cause, be it homicide bombing, fighting the Israeli military or some other way. She carefully sidestepped any suggestion that she is subtly calling for the destruction of Israel.

"Israel says that we are terrorists," Saraa said minutes before an interview with her was interrupted by an errant Israeli airstrike that slammed into an apartment building on the adjacent block. "But they are the ones that must stop their attacks against us and our kids."

Saraa is the sweet face of "Tomorrow's Pioneers," a weekly, hour-long Hamas television children's show best known for bringing the world a militant Mickey Mouse look-alike and then having him killed off by an Israeli interrogator.

With her jarring mix of innocent charm and militant rhetoric, Saraa is at the center of the militant Islamist group's increasingly sophisticated campaign to become the dominant force in Palestinian politics.

..."Tomorrow's Pioneers" sparked an international furor in April when it began featuring Farfour, the Mickey Mouse look-alike who sounded more like Iran's firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than a Disney character.

Mustafa Barghouti, then serving as the Palestinian Authority's information minister, called the show a "mistaken approach" to helping Palestinians and tried unsuccessfully to force the show off the year.

The Israeli government and activists who monitor Palestinian programming accused Hamas of poisoning the minds of young children with the show.

After two months, Farfour was beaten to death on the show by an Israeli interrogator. Nahoul, a larger-than-life bee, is now carrying his message.

"A lot of people in Palestine have died as martyrs, and lots of Palestinians hope to be martyrs," Saraa said of Farfour's demise. "This is one of the ends."

This is really disgraceful.

In addition to the anti-Semitism, there's the violence and the glorification of suicide.

Can you imagine Kermit being beaten to death on Sesame Street? Maybe he could be beheaded by an al Qaeda terrorist. Big Bird could vow to strap explosives under his feathers and blow up terrorists as he kills himself.

American preschoolers would be horrified and so would their parents.

On Tomorrow's Pioneers, such terrible lessons are routinely being taught to Palestinian children.

It's absolutely disgusting.

Asked if she hoped one day to be a martyr, Saraa instinctively nodded her head.

"Of course," Saraa said. "It's something to be proud of. Every Palestinian citizen hopes to be a martyr."

Saraa helps deliver similar messages to Palestinian children from a Hamas TV set filled with colorful numbers and pictures of kittens. During the show, Saraa fields calls from Palestinian children who warble songs about Islam, taking control of Jerusalem and finding answers in the barrel of a machine gun.

I don't understand how parents can allow their children to watch this stuff.

...The show has provided new fodder for Israeli activists, who say that Saraa is the true face of Hamas, an extremist group that's using an innocent front to conceal its real agenda.

Hamas television officials defend the show, saying it's designed to help young children connect with their country and their God.

What does that say about Islam?

Programming that urges children to be martyrs is designed to help the young ones connect with their God?

The way to connect with God is by blowing yourself up and killing as many Infidels as possible in the process?

Wow. What a religious experience!

Indoctrinating children in this manner is abusive. It's despicable. It's Hamas.




"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

--GOLDA MEIR
_________________________

On a related note:

At University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the first of three seminars intended to "present accurate information, to help diminish negative perceptions, address stereotypes and create a greater sense of community through education and dialogue" is being held tomorrow.

The series is called, "Combating Islamophobia: A Seminar of Educators. Teaching with diversity in mind."

Jimmy Carter: Worst Ex-President Ever

I can't help but rant about Jimmy Carter. The guy's behavior is so out of line that it just drives me nuts.

Yes, I think he qualifies as one of the worst U.S. presidents ever.

I haven't extensively researched how other former presidents conducted themselves after leaving office, and I don't intend to. (Where's Michael Beschloss when you need him?)

But if you look at the post-World War II presidents, Carter wins the title of worst ex-president, hands down.

Carter is up to his spiteful attacks again.

This time he's on foreign soil. That always makes things worse.

Terrorist apologist Carter was speaking in Ireland at a human rights conference. (Oh, the irony!)

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate Fatah movement.

...Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.

The U.S. and European countries cut off the Hamas-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.

...During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" — but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."

I am so sick of Carter's drivel and his infatuation with Hamas.

"Superior skills and discipline."

Good grief.

Carter has a crush on Hamas.


Hamas is to Carter as Sanjaya is to Ashley Feri.

I think that Nobel Prize really went to Carter's head. He trots around the world and bounces around network and cable news channels, spewing his garbage.

He wants to be seen as an elder statesman, respected and revered. Talk about looking through a distorted lens! Only radical libs, fans of terrorists, and terrorists can view Carter in those terms.

In reality, when it comes to foreign policy and terrorism, Carter has the smarts of Rosie O'Donnell.

The man was a disaster as president. On both domestic and foreign policy matters, Carter was a miserable failure. As if he didn't do enough damage to the United States and to the world while he was president, Carter is bent on continuing to chip away at our country. He does the bidding of terrorists. He harbors an almost shocking hostility toward Israel.

I really think his viciousness as an ex-president stems from selfishness.

Carter is bitter because he can't stand the fact that history will not look kindly on his failed presidency. So, he lashes out.

The problem is Carter doesn't make his comments in a vacuum. He's on the world stage.

His words carry weight and that makes his irresponsible assaults on the United States unforgivable.

Gaza Turmoil: Blame Bush

Like with everything else that has happened in the world since he took office on January 20, 2001, the state of emergency in Gaza is George Bush's fault.

At least that's the way The Washington Post sees it.

Five years ago this month, President Bush stood in the Rose Garden and laid out a vision for the Middle East that included Israel and a state called Palestine living together in peace. "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror," the president declared.

The takeover this week of the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group dedicated to the elimination of Israel demonstrates how much that vision has failed to materialize, in part because of actions taken by the administration. The United States championed Israel's departure from the Gaza Strip as a first step toward peace and then pressed both Israelis and Palestinians to schedule legislative elections, which Hamas unexpectedly won. Now Hamas is the unchallenged power in Gaza.

After his reelection in 2004, Bush said he would use his "political capital" to help create a Palestinian state by the end of his second term. In his final 18 months as president, he faces the prospect of a shattered Palestinian Authority, a radical Islamic state on Israel's border and increasingly dwindling options to turn the tide against Hamas and create a functioning Palestinian state.

"The two-state vision is dead. It really is," said Edward G. Abington Jr., a former State Department official who was once an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas, whose bouts of vacillation have irritated U.S. officials, yesterday dissolved the Palestinian government in response to Hamas's takeover of Gaza. U.S. officials signaled that they will move quickly to persuade an international peace monitoring group -- known as the Quartet -- to lift aid restrictions on the Palestinian government, allowing direct aid to flow to the West Bank-based emergency government that Abbas will lead.

"There is no more Hamas-led government. It is gone," said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the administration must still consult with other members of the Quartet. He said that humanitarian aid will continue to Gaza, but that the dissolution of the Palestinian government is a singular moment that will allow the United States and its allies to create a "new model of engagement."

The glee that The Post takes in the chaos in the Middle East is disgusting.

The lib rag delights in saying Bush was wrong. He failed. Things didn't work out. No peace for the Palestinians. Ha, ha!

Here's a newsflash: There hasn't been peace in the region since Israel was created. All efforts by all U.S. presidents to establish peace have failed. All past visions of peace in the region have been shattered.

Israel, for its part, made compromises, abandoning its settlements in the Gaza Strip. Those compromises weren't enough.

The Post mocks that, stating, "After his reelection in 2004, Bush said he would use his "political capital" to help create a Palestinian state by the end of his second term. In his final 18 months as president, he faces the prospect of a shattered Palestinian Authority, a radical Islamic state on Israel's border and increasingly dwindling options to turn the tide against Hamas and create a functioning Palestinian state."

In other words: Yippee! No peace in the Middle East.

Are you happy, libs?

What a bunch of sickos!

Why would any decent human being rooting for the failure of peace to take hold?

Why doesn't The Post point out that Jimmy Carter wrote an op-ed PIECE THAT APPEARED IN THE POST, calling for the Hamas government to be respected and given a chance?

Nooo. This is all the result of Bush's flawed vision. It's another Bush screw-up.

Instead of blaming Bush, why not blame the Palestinian people for electing Hamas, a terrorist regime?

Blame the people for being unwilling to live in peace. Blame them for embracing terrorists.

The Associated Press reports:

In Gaza, it was a day of major victories for Hamas and its backers in Iran and Syria — and of devastating setbacks for the Western-backed Fatah. In one particularly humiliating scene, masked Hamas fighters marched agents of the once-feared Preventive Security Service out of their headquarters, arms raised in the air, stripped to the waist and ducking at the sound of a gunshot.

"The era of justice and Islamic rule has arrived," Hamas spokesman Islam Shahawan said.

The violence has killed at least 90 people in the past five days, including 33 on Thursday alone. Witnesses, Fatah officials and a doctor reported executions by Hamas militants of defeated Fatah fighters Thursday; Fatah said seven of its men were shot in the head gangland-style. Hamas denied any such killings.

If gangland-style executions mark the beginning of "the era of justice and Islamic rule," then I would say Islamic rule is barbaric and Islamic justice is no justice at all.

What's happening in Gaza can't be blamed on Bush's policies. It can't be blamed on the failed efforts of previous U.S. administrations.

Blame the people of the region.

...Fatah officials, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said Hamas shot dead seven Fatah fighters after they had surrendered. A doctor at Shifa Hospital said he examined two bodies that had been shot in the head at close range.

A witness named Amjad who lives in a high-rise building that overlooks the Preventive Security complex said men were killed in front of their wives and children.

"They are executing them one by one," Amjad said in a telephone interview, declining to give his full name for fear of reprisals. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."

The killers, he said, ignored appeals from neighborhood residents to spare the men's lives.

...Hamas TV showed smoke billowing from the top two floors of the mortar-pocked, five-story intelligence building. Five masked gunmen posed inside for the TV camera, including one who raised two assault rifles in triumph.

Another gunman, wearing a Hamas headband around his helmet, stood in a pose of prayer, a hand to each side of his head, screaming "Allah is Great" at the top of his voice.

"Allah is Great."

Very nice.

Does Allah look kindly on execution-style killings?

Is killing men in front of their wives and children something to celebrate? Is that done for the glory of God?

No, don't blame Bush's vision for the fighting and bloodshed in Gaza.

Blame the supporters of an ideology that's rooted in hatred and a twisted notion of justice.

Libs should find no joy in the violence.

This isn't the time for Dems to be exploiting the Gaza upheaval and spinning it for their personal political gain.

This isn't the time for lib media outlets to be trumpeting Bush's failure.

If anything, the "Allah is Great" Hamas crowd have shown just how peace-loving and good they really are.

I can see it now: Hamas leaders win Nobel Peace Prize.

Hamas' Mickey Mouse Club

Hamas is using a Mickey Mouse look-alike to indoctrinate children.

Yes, it's a product of anti-Semitic, disgraced former President Jimmy Carter's Hamas buddies.

Click here to watch.

Hamas TV has a new children's show which features a Mickey Mouse lookalike. But this Mickey does not romp about with Pluto, nor does he woo Minnie Mouse. Instead – he teaches his young viewers to fight the "Zionist Occupation" and dream of a world dominated by Islam.

The squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike, named Farfur, is the star of a weekly children’s program called Tomorrow’s Pioneers on the official Hamas TV station (Al-Aqsa TV), which broadcasts from Gaza via satellite to the entire Arab world. Farfur and his co-host, a young girl named Saraa’, teach children about such things as the importance of the daily prayers and drinking milk, but also instruct them to hate Israel and the US and support "resistance" – a euphemism for terror.

Farfur tells children that they must pray in the mosque five times a day until there is “world leadership under Islamic leadership.” The earnest and soft-spoken Saraa’ explains that the nucleus of the Islamic leadership of the world will be from “all of Palestine,” including Israel. Farfur refers to Israel as “the oppressive invading Zionist occupation,” which the children must "resist."

Saraa’ announces that after death, the children will have to answer to Allah for what they did or did not do for the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and for Palestinian prisoners: “I remind you that Al-Aqsa and the prisoners are a responsibility on our shoulders, and Allah will ask us on Resurrection Day what we gave for their sake," she tells the tots viewing the show.

This is really sick stuff, appealing to children in this way.

"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

--GOLDA MEIR


(h/t RJay)
____________________________

UPDATE:

There was a controversy about the translation of this Hamas Mickey Mouse Clone Club video.

Watch.

It turns out that the uproar over the translation was ill-founded.

Something positive came of the circulation of this clip of Hamas children's programming. The Mickey Mouse Islamic extremist propagandist is off the air.

From The Jerusalem Post:

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas's television station for "review," Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday.

Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Do you think Jimmy Carter got in tough with his Hamas pals are told them not to mess with Mickey Mouse?

Who knows?

Who cares if the Mickey Mouse Clone is off the air?

It certainly doesn't mean that adults are suddenly teaching Palestinian children to love and live in harmony with the people of Israel.