Jimmy Carter, Hamas, and the Beijing Olympics

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.