Israel Matzav

Carter's meeting with Hamas: Much ado about nothing

Here's a video report on Dhimmi Carter's meetings with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal. Carter claims that Shalit will be allowed to send another letter to his parents 'soon.' Not much new there. In fact, Shalit has even sent an audio tape as you will recall. He also said that Hamas would be willing to release Shalit to the Egyptians in the context of a' prisoner exchange.' Not much new there either. But here's where it gets curiouser. Listen to the last part of this video report:



Note that the report says that Carter claims that Hamas would be willing to live in 'peace' with Israel in a 'Palestinian state,' with Israel being confined to the 1967 borders. But it's subject to a 'referendum' of the 'Palestinian people.' And Hamas just rejected an Egyptian-negotiated deal for a 'cease fire' last night because Hamas doesn't believe in referendums. They hold that the 'Palestinian people' don't have the right to give up the 'Palestinian people's rights. So what is going on here?

But CNN is reporting essentially the same thing.

"If President (Mahmoud) Abbas of the Palestinians and Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert reach an agreement for peace, and if it is submitted to the Palestinians and the Palestinians approve it... Hamas will accept it," Carter said in a Monday interview with CNN.

My guess is that Meshaal was trying to humor Carter (or Carter misunderstood). In any event, any referendum of the 'Palestinian people' that would be acceptable to Hamas (or for that matter 'moderate' Fatah) would have to include the 'Palestinians' who live outside of Judea, Samaria and Gaza - and that will ensure that no referendum is ever accepted unless Israel (God forbid) agrees to the end of the Jewish state by allowing the 'Palestinians' to 'return' to all of what is now the State of Israel.

UPDATE 7:07 PM

Hot Air confirms my hunch on the 'Palestinian diaspora' and answers my question about whether Hamas accepts the results of referendums:

Carter said Hamas promised it wouldn’t undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel, as long as the Palestinian people approved it in a referendum. In such a scenario, he said Hamas would not oppose a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri in Gaza said Hamas’ readiness to put a peace deal to a referendum “does not mean that Hamas is going to accept the result of the referendum.”

Uh-huh. So Carter’s entire effort was predicated on getting Hamas to agree to abide by a referendum, and Hamas — surprise! — has already reneged. Hamas also had a much different idea of a referendum than Carter. They didn’t want a referendum of the 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but one that included the 9 million Palestinians living around the world. And even if that could be accomplished and the deal passed, Hamas still won’t commit to honoring its resolution.

I had not seen that last paragraph of the Abu Zuhri quote. It's here.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:58 PM