President Carter's Meeting with Hamas Leader Mishal

I don't know for sure why former U.S. President Carter is such a nuisance when it comes to the Middle East. I can't read the man's mind. But I suspect there are two reasons: 1) he continually seeks to be relevant in retirement and 2) he views the Palestinians as the underdogs and will do anything he can to make life harder for Israel and U.S.-Israel relations. I'm not ready to condemn that man as an anti-semite, though his increasingly venomous hostility toward Israel -- most recently, calling it an Aparteid state -- suggests he just may be.

Anyways, this week, Carter plans to meet with the leader of Hamas, Khaled Mishal, in Damascus, Syria. The Syrians allow Mish'al, and many other Hamas leaders, to live there and conduct their business freely. From Damascus, they plan Hamas strategy, coordinate Hamas training in Lebanon and Iran, and from time to time, approval specific terrorist attacks.

Carter gave an interview about his planned meeting to ABC News, which is scheduled to air on the network's Sunday morning news program. Carter reportedly will say that his meeting is OK because, some day, Israel itself will have to sit down with the group to negotiate peace. That's nonsense. There's no reason to legitimize Hamas and give it a say in peace negotiations. The right policy is to isolate Hamas and pursue its destruction. If the world sticks to that policy, it will happen.

Carter also reported says that he'll "try to induce [Hamas] to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel." What about the group's attacks beyond the Green Line -- in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem? Carter views them as permissible likely because he views these areas as illegally occupied. However, they are disputed areas, according to UN resolutions, subject to negotiation. Carter is prejudging their status by blessing terrorist attacks on Israelis there. And what about that Hamas bombing a few years back in a cafeteria at Hebrew University in "East" Jerusalem that claimed Americans as casualties? Carter certainly wouldn't approve of such an attack, would he? Well, he just did.

Carter says he's "been meeting with Hamas leaders for years." And what good has it done? The group isn't any more flexible in its positions, amenable to unity with Fatah, or ready to agree to a ceasefire.

Carter's meetings serve only two purposes: 1) to bolster his own sense of worth and utility, and 2) to lend political legitimacy to a terrorist group. The world should reject his interference as counterproductive.