Hamas leaders "said that they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders" and they would "accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbor next door in peace," Carter said.
...Carter urged Israel to engage in direct negotiations with Hamas, saying failure to do so was hampering peace efforts.
"We do not believe that peace is likely and certainly that peace is not sustainable unless a way is found to bring Hamas into the discussions in some way," he said. "The present strategy of excluding Hamas and excluding Syria is just not working."
You can hear NPR's Steve Inskeep talk with Carter here.
As I listened to Carter talk with Inskeep I was struck by how dead-on accurate the King of the Hill episode "The Father, the son and the J.C." was. (I'm a big fan of King of the Hill, although I'm often quite baffled at how anyone outside of Texas or Oklahoma can find it remotely amusing. It's so Red River specific.) Anyway, in that episode, Carter brokers peace between Hank, the main character, and his father during a Christmas Eve Habitat for Humanity building event. Tell me if this line doesn't sound like something that he could have said during his talks with Hamas:
JIMMY CARTER: Say there was a magic button you could push that would make Hank disappear. Everything else in the world would stay the same, but Hank would never have existed. Would you push that button?
COTTON: I ain't got to answer no hypothetical sitchyations!
JIMMY CARTER: Would you push that button!?
COTTON (growls): No, not yet....
JIMMY CARTER: You both seem to prefer a universe in which the other person hasn't magically disappeared. I think we have a framework for peace.
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2 comments:
Brother Jimmy is a national treasure.
oooh, you better remind me to meet you Sunday! This week has been so effing WACK, I CRS!
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