Yishai to Carter: Tell Meshal that I want to discuss prisoner swap

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More Jimmy Carter stuff follows ...

Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai asked former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to tell Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshal, that he would like to meet in order to expedite a prisoner exchange that would bring home kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

Yishai relayed his message to Carter during a meeting on Monday. The meeting was held at the request of the former president, who wanted to meet with Israeli political leaders from across the political spectrum. The meeting was arranged through the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Yishai's bureau said he did not ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for permission to hold the meeting, nor did he tell Olmert what he discussed. Yishai said other Israeli officials erred in boycotting Carter. During the meeting, he told Carter that he opposed the former president's use of the term "apartheid" in his book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Yishai said Carter told him that the interpretation of his use of the word was fundamentally wrong.

Yishai told Haaretz that in order to redeem prisoners, he was prepared to meet with anyone who could help move things ahead, including Hamas leaders. He said this did not contradict Israeli government policy, since he did not intend to discuss diplomatic issues or a cease-fire.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976137.html

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1. Carter calls Gaza blockade a 'crime and atrocity'

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip a "crime and an atrocity" on Thursday, and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.

Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death", receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.

"It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza.It's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group Hamas seized power over the impoverished coastal strip last June. Since then, Israel has allowed only basic staples to be transported through the border crossings it controls, into Gaza.

Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976086.html

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2. Carter’s Middle East Moves

Bruce, one of the bloggers at Gay Patriot who proudly claim to comprise the “not-so-vast gay right wing conspiracy” is mightily pleased with his local Congresswoman for her reaction to Jimmy Carter’s mission to Hamas.

“My awesome Member of Congress, US Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) is standing up to ex-President Jimmy Carter’s treason and urging the Bush Adminstration to do the same,” he writes.

According to her press release:

Myrick … called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke former President Jimmy Carter’s passport. This is in response to the former President traveling to Syria to meet with Hamas, an organization officially designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“Former President Carter has acted in contradiction of international agreements to isolate Hamas. He has acted in defiance of both United States policy and international policy. His actions reward terrorists, lend support, and provide legitimacy to their belief that violence will eventually get them what they want,” said Rep. Myrick.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/carters-middle-east-moves/index.html?ex=1366171200&en=94a904b8c391a1f3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[ProgressiveMuslim]

3. Just heard some pro-Israel lobbyist on "News and Notes"

who chastised Carter for talking with a terrorist group that wants Israel to return to the 1967 borders.

I kid you not. (The guy was Ron something from DC Navigators.)

I suppose that's a crime now?

I suppose this this will be the new talking point we see from the Israel-onlies on this forum.

[bemildred]

4. Look, I've long since become used to the incoherence that permeates discussion of this problem.

That's what happens when your actions and your rhetoric don't coincide, you wind up stepping on your dick, verbally speaking. "Terrorist" is and always has been a name to call people that disagree with you. That doesn't mean that the word has no meaning at all, but it does mean that it's not used in a coherent way based on it's definition.

What interests me is that this name-calling reaction has become habitual, a reflex, there is no longer any discrimination involved, no consideration of whether the person in question has actually done anything remotely connected with an act one could construe as terrorism, it's enough that he disagrees with you, and therefore he "supports the terrorists", i.e. your opponents, and therefore he must be a terrorist (one of your opponents) too.

And that is a sign that things are not going well. When things are going well, people don't panic and say stupid things as much. When things are not going well, people will say anything that comes to mind because things are out of control anyway.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Well, I hope something comes of this!

Noam Shalit, the father of the kidnapped soldier, has expressed some hopes about this:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974412.html

Noam Shalit, the father of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured by Hamas in June 2006, said Sunday after meeting with former U.S. president Jimmy Carter that the fact that Carter is not considered pro-Israel could be beneficial in securing his son's release.

"This could help him reach certain people and raise certain ideas that may be received with suspicion coming from someone more pro-Israel," Shalit said after the Jerusalem meeting, Army Radio reported.