Carter: “I’d Rather Not Tell Fox News Anything…” – With Video
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The lovely Reena Ninan tries to talk to Dhimmi Carter…
JERUSALEM  Former President Jimmy Carter is set to meet Thursday with Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader with control over militants in the Gaza Strip.
The meeting expands the list of top officials of the terror group with whom Carter is meeting this week against the wishes of the Bush administration, U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials.
Reps. Howard Berman, D-CA, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Gary Ackerman, D-NY, chairman of the Mideast Subcommittee, wrote Carter Wednesday imploring him not to meet with any Hamas officials.
“[T]his visit will undermine the Middle East peace process and damage the credibility of Palestinian moderates,” they wrote, adding that the “legitimacy and prestige that Hamas will derive from your visit will be seen in the region as a clear demonstration that violence pays.”
Rep. Artur Davis, D-AL, told FOX News, “I don’t think Israel should try to negotiate with Hamas because Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.” Davis added that Carter’s overtures stood athwart a tradition of support for Israel in America.
A Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radhwan, said in an interview that Carter’s visit “reflects the recognition that the Hamas movement cannot be ignored,” according ot a transcript from MEMRI TV. “We will benefit from this meeting by explaining our cause, our positions, and our principles and by presenting our just cause,” the spokesman said.
A Hamas official told FOX News that the Islamic militant group will meet with Carter in Cairo about their demand that Israel open Gaza’s crossings and stop military raids in the territory.
The U.S., Israeli and other governments brand Hamas a terror group and have refused to negotiate with the organization.
Carter, speaking briefly with FOX News on Wednesday, said the search for Mideast peace should include reaching out to groups such as Hamas. The former president was the broker of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt three decades ago.
“I’m going to try to get Syria to be constructive in the entire peace process, that would include Iraq and Lebanon, as well,” he said.
The meeting with Zahar would be significant because he is the in control of militants in Gaza and is crucial to cease-fire negotiations with Israel. Egypt is trying to broker those talks.
Zahar is also instrumental to talks on the release of the captured Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, whose 2006 capture by Hamas was a catalyst to the monthlong fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, which also captured Israeli soldiers. Hamas wants some 450 Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit’s release.
Carter sidestepped a question about about how his talks are shaping up Friday with Hamas’ exiled leader, Khaled Meshal.
“I’d rather not tell FOX News what I want to talk to,” Carter said. “I don’t know yet. We haven’t firmed up anything. So it’s premature to talk about that yet.”
The news follows a stinging rebuke Tuesday from a bipartisan group of more than 50 U.S. lawmakers. The congressmen sent a letter beseeching Carter not to meet with Meshal.
The letter was sponsored by Reps. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Shelley Berkeley, D-Nev., and signed by top House leaders who often find themselves opposed on issues, including House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. The letter listed 26 Americans who had been killed in terror attacks by Hamas.
“President Carter, do not meet with the man who ordered their deaths,” the congressmen demanded.
They joined widespread criticism of Carter that has erupted from top Israeli officials and the Bush administration; the State Department says it advised Carter against the trip, although Carter has said he heard no such advice.
Carter also reportedly hugged and kissed another Hamas leader Tuesday in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Carter’s embrace of Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, at a closed-door reception organized by Carter’s office was reported by several news outlets.
“He gave me a hug. We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception,” Shaer told The Associated Press. “Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel … and I told him the possibility for peace is high.”
Shaer, who served as deputy prime minister and education minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government that unraveled last year, is considered a leading member of the Islamic militant group’s pragmatic wing. After a stint in an Israeli prison last year, he is now a professor at a West Bank university, teaching comparative religion.
Carter laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom he praised as a man who fought for “just causes” in the world. The Bush administration and many Israelis blame Arafat for the breakdown of peace talks seven years ago and the violence that followed.
President Bush did not visit Arafat’s mausoleum in Ramallah when he visited earlier this year.
Israel and the West Bank are the first stops on a visit that also is to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria  where the virulently anti-Israel Hamas movement is headquartered.
(Fox)
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