Carter offers to be Hamas go-between By BETH MARLOWE, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
AIRPORT CITY, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter defended his plan to meet with the top leader of the violently anti-Israel Hamas movement, saying Monday he hopes to become a conduit between the Islamic militant group and Washington and Israel. Isolating Hamas is counterproductive, Carter said. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip but is ostracized by Israel, the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist group.I think it is absolutely crucial that in the final and dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and Syria will be involved, he told a business conference outside Tel Aviv.I can't say that they will be amenable to any suggestions, but at least after I meet with them I can go back and relay what they say, as just a communicator, to the leaders of the United States, he said.The U.S., EU and Israel have blacklisted Hamas for its history of killing some 250 Israelis with suicide bomber attacks and its refusal to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.Israel's top leaders are boycotting Carter during his nine-day Mideast trip, in part because he plans to meet later in the week in Syria with Hamas' exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. government has made clear our views that we did not think now is the moment for him or anyone to be talking with Hamas.U.S. officials will be happy to hear Carter's reflections on his visit with Hamas, but that they aren't likely to change the administration's views on the militant group, Casey said.The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee criticized Carter for meeting with Hamas. Carter in effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others, Rep. Howard Berman of California told The Associated Press.Carter also offered to relay Hamas' views to Israel. If the U.S. agrees to hear what Hamas says, I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me — they have so far refused, he said.President Shimon Peres, Israel's ceremonial head of state, was the only leader to meet with Carter since he arrived Sunday. Peres, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, criticized Carter for planning to meet with Mashaal, calling it a very big mistake," a Peres spokeswoman said.A schedule released by Carter's aides showed no plans for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak.The cold shoulder is a highly unusual brush-off to a former U.S. leader — especially one so closely linked to Mideast peacemaking.Carter brokered Israel's historic peace accord with Egypt in 1979, the first treaty it signed with an Arab country. But his popularity fell in Israel after he published a book two years ago drawing comparisons between Israeli policies in Palestinian areas and apartheid in South Africa. The planned talks with Mashaal only fueled Israeli anger.In an interview published Monday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Carter said he intended to use his meeting with Mashaal to press for return of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. He said he would also try to get Hamas to accept an Arab plan for peace with Israel.The most important single foreign policy goal in my life has been to bring peace to Israel, and peace and justice to Israel's neighbors. I have done everything I could in office and since I left office to do that, the paper quoted Carter as saying.
On Monday, Carter toured Sderot, the southern Israeli town targeted most frequently by Palestinian rocket squads in the Gaza Strip. He was shown a house badly damaged by a rocket strike and piles of rusting projectiles collected after hitting the town. More than 1,000 rockets have exploded in Sderot in the past year.I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, and my hope is there will be a cease-fire soon, Carter told reporters.
Israeli FM: Israel, Arabs in same camp By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
DOHA, Qatar - In her first visit to a Gulf nation, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sought Arab support against Iran and militant groups, warning Monday that extremists like Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to sabotage regional peace efforts. Livni told delegates at a democracy and trade conference in Qatar that Israel and Arab states are mired in the same struggle with extremists who refuse to recognize our democratic rights.When I say our, I mean the rights of Israelis, moderate Palestinians, moderate Arabs and pragmatic Muslim regimes alike, Livni said Monday during a panel discussion.
We, the moderates of the region, are all members of the same camp, she said.It was Livni's first visit to Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf state that supports the Palestinian movement Hamas and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.The two countries maintain low-level trade relations, however, and Qatar publicly offered to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas earlier this year.Hamas officials visit Qatar regularly. Last year, Qatar also invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit.On Monday, Livni said Iran — whose nuclear ambitions worry Israel and Iran's Arab neighbors across the Gulf — is an example of extremist ideology.
The three-day conference was attended by mostly European delegates, and several Arab politicians were conspicuously absent.Livni said she'd visit any Arab country that would invite me.Associated Press Writer Jessica Desvarieux contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.
House chair condemns Carter, Hamas talks By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
WASHINGTON - The new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday criticized fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter for plans to meet with Hamas, saying the former president holds warped views on the Middle East. By meeting with the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza and does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Carter in effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., said in an interview with The Associated Press.The Bush administration also has criticized Carter's plans to meet in Syria this week with the leader of Hamas, and the plans have angered Israel. There's been less public criticism from other Democrats.
Both the U.S. and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Carter said Monday he hoped to become a communicator between the U.S. and Hamas and said Washington's policy of not meeting with people it labeled terrorists is counterproductive.Jimmy Carter's view of the forces at work in the Middle East and how he likes to attribute blame and responsibility is so warped to my way of thinking that I'm skeptical of any initiative he undertakes, said Berman, a longtime supporter of Israel.There's been no indication that Hamas is willing to change its view that Israel should not exist, and without that there's nothing he can do that the Israelis will buy into, Berman said.Berman took over the Foreign Affairs Committee in March after the death from cancer of its previous chairman, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos of California.In Monday's interview he also raised doubts about whether Democrats can use an upcoming emergency war spending bill to alter Bush's war strategy for Iraq. Democrats plan to push for withdrawal timelines to be included in the bill, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been adamant about trying to get Bush to change course on Iraq.
We're going to need an election and a new administration to fundamentally change Iraq policy, said Berman, who initially supported the war and stuck with that position longer than most Democrats.Everything else is staking out positions and trying to educate the public or sort of show our views to the public, but it's not going to change the administration's policy, said Berman. They're going to end up getting their money and they're obviously quite wedded to this policy.Berman criticized the Bush administration's policy on Iran, saying the approach doesn't appear to be working and the administration should engage more countries in a push for sanctions to ensure Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons.Berman also joined other leading Democrats in calling on Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing to protest the country's crackdown on protests in Tibet and other policies. Bush has said he doesn't view the Olympics as a political event, but the White House has not yet said whether he will attend the opening ceremony on Aug. 8.(This version INCORPORATES story that moved earlier, BC-Foreign Relations Chairman, and SUBSTITUTES lead, paragraph 7 to correct name of House Foreign Affairs Committee.)
Israeli strike in Gaza kills militant By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer APR 14,08
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in northern Gaza late Monday, fatally wounding a senior Palestinian militant, witnesses and officials said. A man identified by witnesses as Ibrahim Abu Olba, 42, from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was hit in a missile blast as he was getting out of his car.The victim, whose small militant faction that has claimed responsibility for recent rocket attacks against Israel, died of his wounds in a Gaza hospital, Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Three bystanders were also hurt.The Israeli military confirmed that it carried out the strike targeting Abu Olba, who it said had been involved in a string of attacks against Israel and was planning more. Israel often targets suspected militants with airstrikes, often aiming for rocket squads or their commanders.The vehicle was hit in the town of Beit Lahiya near the Israel-Gaza border.
Israel snubs Carter, declines security help By Adam Entous
Mon Apr 14, 5:48 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli leaders shunned former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit because of his plans to meet Hamas and Israel's secret service declined to assist U.S. agents guarding him, U.S. sources said on Monday. They're not getting support from local security, one of the sources said, on condition of anonymity.
An American source described as unprecedented the lack of Shin Bet cooperation with the U.S. Secret Service, which protects all current and former U.S. presidents, as well as Israeli leaders when they visit the United States.Carter, who brokered Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab neighbor, Egypt, signed in 1979, met Israel's largely ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, on Sunday. But Israel's political leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, steered clear of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.The former U.S. leader has angered the Israeli government over plans to meet Hamas' top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid in a 2006 book.An Israeli security source said the Shin Bet security service provided no protection to Carter during his visit to the Jewish state because no request was made.Asked about the Israeli account, Carter's delegation, which had previously declined to comment, told Reuters in a statement: The Carter delegation inquired with both the lead agent of the Secret Service detail (protecting Carter) and the State Department Regional Security Officer and were told unequivocally that an official request for assistance had been made.American sources close to the matter said the Shin Bet, which helps protect visiting dignitaries and is overseen by Olmert's office, declined to meet the head of Carter's Secret Service detail or provide his team with assistance as is customary during such visits.
PROGRESS WELCOME
Israel and the United States have sought to isolate Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June from more secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas holds sway in the occupied West Bank and has launched U.S.-backed peace talks with Olmert.The Bush administration and Israel oppose Carter's planned meeting with Meshaal, whose Islamist group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 but was boycotted by the West for refusing to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Carter has defended talks with Hamas as an opportunity to gauge the group's willingness to accept Arab peace overtures.U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York it would be positive if Carter's talks with Hamas could achieve a breakthrough.Anything which will help to produce some political progress ... would be extremely welcome and if Jimmy Carter can achieve that by talking to Hamas, why not? he said.Holmes added the United Nations was not in a position to engage in political discussions with Hamas, though U.N. humanitarian officials were in touch with the group at a practical level to carry out aid work in Gaza when necessary.Carter visited the Israeli border town of Sderot on Monday and said he was distressed by cross-border rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians, Carter said, adding that he hoped a ceasefire would be reached soon.Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the group's 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Israel said it rejected Carter's request to meet jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas.
Barghouthi was convicted in 2004 of murder by an Israeli court over the killing of four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox monk in attacks by Palestinian militants. He is serving five life sentences. (Additional reporting by Brenda Gazzar, and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Mary Gabriel)
West Bank economy growing despite hardships: Blair By Wafa Amr Mon Apr 14, 12:12 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Middle East envoy Tony Blair said on Monday if the political situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip changed, it could get a share of the international aid that has helped the occupied West Bank grow. It's worth repeating on behalf of the international community that if the situation could only change there, there would also be an enormous desire to help people in Gaza too, not just people in the West Bank, said Blair, an envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators.Hamas Islamists, shunned by the West over their refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence, took over the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction in fighting last June.Blair, a former British prime minister, spoke at a signing ceremony establishing a mortgage company that will help Palestinians buy homes in a new $1.5 billion housing project.(The) economy of the West Bank is actually growing despite all the problems, so think of how much more can be achieved, if we were able to realize the vision ... of a Palestinian state, Blair said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government after the Gaza Strip's takeover and Israel tightened border restrictions on the passage of people and goods to and from the territory.We are worried about the situation in the Gaza Strip, the siege, the incursions and the useless rockets, Abbas said.We are working with our brethren in Egypt to achieve a truce so people can lead a dignified life, he added.The appointment of Western-backed Salam Fayyad as Palestinian prime minister ended international sanctions on the West Bank but those on the Gaza Strip have remained in place.The United States and the rest of the international community pledged $7.7 billion in aid to Fayyad's government in a donor's conference in December last year.(Editing by Mary Gabriel)
Israel to connect to US missle early warning system: report Mon Apr 14, 11:46 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The United States has agreed to connect Israel to its ballistic missile early warning system to warn of any missile attack from archfoe Iran, a senior Israeli defence official said on Monday. Israel asked the US to connect to its ballistic missile early warning system as part of its efforts to defend itself from missile attacks, first of all from Iran, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The US has agreed to the request, he said.
Israel first benefited from the worldwide radar system, which was built in the 1959, during the 1991 Gulf War when Iraq fired dozens of missiles at the Jewish state.It was put in action again during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.Israel claims that Iran's controversial nuclear programme and its recent ballistic missile test firing are aimed at developing an atomic weapon, a claim denied by Tehran.The Jewish state considers Iran's Islamic regime an existential threat after President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad's repeated call for Israel's destruction.Defence Ministry Director General Pinkhas Bukhris and top ministry adviser Amos Gilad have been in Washington twice in recent months to discuss military cooperation between Israel and its chief ally.The US embassy in Israel did not immediately comment on the report.
Most Israelis oppose partition of Jerusalem: poll Mon Apr 14, 9:30 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - More than two thirds of Israelis are opposed to any peace deal that would give the Palestinians sovereignty over Arab east Jerusalem and the holy sites of its Old City, a poll has found. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they opposed handing over to Palestinians the Old City and its Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews also revere as the Temple Mount, the poll conducted for the Begin-Sadat Centre of Strategic Studies found.Twenty one percent said they were in favour of dividing Jerusalem to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, while the remainder expressed no opinion.In addition, 67 percent said they opposed handing over even Palestinian residential neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed.The status of Jerusalem has been one of the major stumbling blocks in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and the poll, which was was released ahead of a conference on Tuesday on the city's future, found that 62 percent of respondents wanted the issue off the negotiating table.An overwhelming majority of the Israeli public oppose the partition of Jerusalem, and in particular the return of the Old City and Al-Aqsa mosque compound to the Palestinians, due to symbolic, historical and demographic reasons, the Begin-Sadat Centre's director, Ephraim Inbar, told AFP.Fifty-nine percent of those interviewed said they believed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was negotiating a division of the city, despite his government's denials.The survey shows Israelis' strong opposition to their government. People do not have confidence in Olmert and want this question decided by referendum, Inbar said.
Olmert had suggested in October that he might be open to accepting Palestinian sovereignty over some Arab neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of their promised state.Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.The poll was conducted in March by the Maagar Mohot Polling Institute among a representative sample of 501 Israeli Jews. The pollsters gave a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percent.
