Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:07:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: "WRITE! Action Alert"
Subject: Letters Needed: WPost Editorial Condemns President Carter To: writealert@yahoo.com
WRITE! For Justice, Human Rights and International Law in Palestine.
The Washington Post editorial writers continue their one sided campaign on the Middle East conflict without any constructive ideas to move forward. Today's dismissal of former President Carter's efforts to break a gridlock in the 'peace' talks by engaging Hamas leaders simply reflects more of the same 'Mr. Zahar and Mr. Carter' (4/17). The majority of Israelis support talks with Hamas and a recent editorial in Haaretz praised Mr. Carter's efforts. Please let the Washington Post know that simplistic, one-sided slogans are no substitute for constructive ideas and sincere efforts for resolving the conflict.
Please write to the Washington Post at letters@washpost.com. Include your name, address, phone number, and limit your letters to 150 words.
Haaretz Editorial: Our Debt to Jimmy Carter http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974893.html
*********************************************************************************************************
Mr. Zahar and Mr. Carter
The former president, on what he says is a road to peace, embraces Hamas terrorists.
Thursday, April 17, 2008; A22
EDITORIAL: Zahar Is a Terrorist
ON THE OPPOSITE page today we publish an article by the "foreign minister" of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, that drips with hatred for Israel, and with praise for former president Jimmy Carter. We believe Mr. Zahar's words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead, a group that Mr. Carter contends is worthy of being included in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Carter himself is holding what appears to be a series of meetings with Hamas leaders during a tour of the Middle East. He met one militant in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday and was reportedly planning to meet Mr. Zahar in Cairo today before traveling to Damascus for an appointment with Khaled Meshal, Hamas's top leader.
Mr. Zahar lauds Mr. Carter for the "welcome tonic" of saying that no peace process can succeed "unless we are sitting at the negotiating table and without any preconditions. " Yet Mr. Zahar has his own preconditions: Before any peace process can "take even its first tiny step," he says, Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders and evacuate Jerusalem while preparing for the "return of millions of refugees." In fact, as Mr. Zahar makes clear, Hamas is not at all interested in a negotiated peace with the Jewish state, whose existence it refuses to accept: "Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun," he concludes.
In that fight, no act of terrorism is out of bounds for the Hamas leader, who endorses the group's recent ambush of Israeli civilians working at a fuel depot that supplies Gaza. The "total war" of which he speaks was initiated and has been sustained by Hamas itself through its deliberate targeting of civilians, such as the residents of the Israeli town of Sderot, who suffer daily rocket attacks.
These facts would hardly need restating were it not for actors such as Mr. Carter, who portray Hamas as rational and reasonable. Hamas is "perfectly willing" for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "to represent them in all direct negotiations with the Israelis, and they also maintain that they will accept any agreement that he brokers with the Israelis" provided a referendum is held on it, the former president told the newspaper Haaretz. Compare that claim with Mr. Zahar's own words on the opposite page. In fact, Mr. Zahar has called Mr. Abbas "a traitor" for negotiating with Israel -- a label that is, in the Palestinian context, an incitement to murder.
Mr. Carter justifies his meetings with familiar arguments about the value of dialogue with enemies. But he misses the point. Contacts between enemies can be useful: Israel is legendary for such negotiations, and even now it is engaged in back-channel bargaining with Hamas through Egypt. But it is one thing to communicate pragmatically, and quite another to publicly and unconditionally grant recognition and political sanction to a leader or a group that advocates terrorism, mass murder or the extinction of another state. That is what Mr. Carter is doing by lending what is left of his prestige to an avowed terrorist such as Khaled Meshal -- or Mahmoud al-Zahar.
Thank you,
The WRITE! Team*
====================================
WRITE! TO SUPPORT JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INTERNATIONAL LAW IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL
From: "WRITE! Action Alert"
Subject: Letters Needed: WPost Editorial Condemns President Carter To: writealert@yahoo.com
WRITE! For Justice, Human Rights and International Law in Palestine.
The Washington Post editorial writers continue their one sided campaign on the Middle East conflict without any constructive ideas to move forward. Today's dismissal of former President Carter's efforts to break a gridlock in the 'peace' talks by engaging Hamas leaders simply reflects more of the same 'Mr. Zahar and Mr. Carter' (4/17). The majority of Israelis support talks with Hamas and a recent editorial in Haaretz praised Mr. Carter's efforts. Please let the Washington Post know that simplistic, one-sided slogans are no substitute for constructive ideas and sincere efforts for resolving the conflict.
Please write to the Washington Post at letters@washpost.com. Include your name, address, phone number, and limit your letters to 150 words.
Haaretz Editorial: Our Debt to Jimmy Carter http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974893.html
*********************************************************************************************************
Mr. Zahar and Mr. Carter
The former president, on what he says is a road to peace, embraces Hamas terrorists.
Thursday, April 17, 2008; A22
EDITORIAL: Zahar Is a Terrorist
ON THE OPPOSITE page today we publish an article by the "foreign minister" of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, that drips with hatred for Israel, and with praise for former president Jimmy Carter. We believe Mr. Zahar's words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead, a group that Mr. Carter contends is worthy of being included in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Carter himself is holding what appears to be a series of meetings with Hamas leaders during a tour of the Middle East. He met one militant in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday and was reportedly planning to meet Mr. Zahar in Cairo today before traveling to Damascus for an appointment with Khaled Meshal, Hamas's top leader.
Mr. Zahar lauds Mr. Carter for the "welcome tonic" of saying that no peace process can succeed "unless we are sitting at the negotiating table and without any preconditions. " Yet Mr. Zahar has his own preconditions: Before any peace process can "take even its first tiny step," he says, Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders and evacuate Jerusalem while preparing for the "return of millions of refugees." In fact, as Mr. Zahar makes clear, Hamas is not at all interested in a negotiated peace with the Jewish state, whose existence it refuses to accept: "Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun," he concludes.
In that fight, no act of terrorism is out of bounds for the Hamas leader, who endorses the group's recent ambush of Israeli civilians working at a fuel depot that supplies Gaza. The "total war" of which he speaks was initiated and has been sustained by Hamas itself through its deliberate targeting of civilians, such as the residents of the Israeli town of Sderot, who suffer daily rocket attacks.
These facts would hardly need restating were it not for actors such as Mr. Carter, who portray Hamas as rational and reasonable. Hamas is "perfectly willing" for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "to represent them in all direct negotiations with the Israelis, and they also maintain that they will accept any agreement that he brokers with the Israelis" provided a referendum is held on it, the former president told the newspaper Haaretz. Compare that claim with Mr. Zahar's own words on the opposite page. In fact, Mr. Zahar has called Mr. Abbas "a traitor" for negotiating with Israel -- a label that is, in the Palestinian context, an incitement to murder.
Mr. Carter justifies his meetings with familiar arguments about the value of dialogue with enemies. But he misses the point. Contacts between enemies can be useful: Israel is legendary for such negotiations, and even now it is engaged in back-channel bargaining with Hamas through Egypt. But it is one thing to communicate pragmatically, and quite another to publicly and unconditionally grant recognition and political sanction to a leader or a group that advocates terrorism, mass murder or the extinction of another state. That is what Mr. Carter is doing by lending what is left of his prestige to an avowed terrorist such as Khaled Meshal -- or Mahmoud al-Zahar.
Thank you,
The WRITE! Team*
====================================
WRITE! TO SUPPORT JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INTERNATIONAL LAW IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL
Labels: Jimmy Carter, Palestine and International Law, Washington Post's One 'Sided View
posted by Bronwin Peel at 7:09 AM
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