Carter's Crusade for Peace Sows Seeds of Hope in Middle East

[struggle4progress]

Chris Gelken
Tehran, Iran
April 24, 2008

... Whatever one's position on the Israeli-Palestinian question, few would dispute the fact that Carter was treated with humiliating disrespect by Tel Aviv, not that the energetic Carter seemed to mind or even really to notice ...

Ironically, many analysts say Carter may have been one of the best friends Israel has ever had, and probably still is. It was Carter who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace deal between Israel and Egypt, the first peace deal signed by Israel with one of its Arab neighbors ...

Carter has broken just about every known taboo for an American politician regarding the Middle East. He has openly criticized the Israeli government, he has laid a wreath at the tomb of former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat, and, horror of horrors, he has insisted that Hamas must be included in any negotiated settlement.

Carter has repeated that he was not in the Middle East as an official negotiator. He is not representing the United States government, and he is in no position to make deals. But what he has done, perhaps unintentionally, is highlight the fundamental rifts that are preventing any progress in the Middle East peace process. Rifts based on shared mistrust, hatred, and an almost pathological reluctance to try anything new to break the decades old deadlock ...

http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/3127.cfm

IMHO, there's nothing unintentional about Carter: he's a conscientious professional, putting himself on the line to widen possibilities for meaningful future dialog between the real stakeholders