I/P tide is turning: Carter to meet with Hamas

The wire services are reporting this morning on Jimmy Carter's announcement today on ABC's This Week of his intention to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during Carter's upcoming visit to Syria.  Prior to today, there had been much speculation that he intended to do so, but the Carter Center had refused to confirm whether or not the meeting would take place.

In comments with ABC's George Stephanopoulus, Carter reportedly said:

It's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians.

More on the flip

Israel's pro-war establishment appears to have reacted harshly.  According to the International Herald Tribune, Carter will be shunned by Israeli leaders on the trip:

A schedule released by the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, showed no plans for the former president to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak during the visit, which began Sunday.

"Scheduling problems" was the reason given, but an Israeli official said the real reason for the cold shoulder was Carter's plan to meet with Hamas's exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, when his peacekeeping mission moves later in the week to Damascus.

Clearly, however, the pro-peace camp has scored an important victory with Carter's decision to break openly with the Bush Administration's long-standing policy of excluding Hamas from the negotiating process between Israel and the Palestinians.  Momentum now shifts to the sane position in Middle East politics, that you can only make peace with your enemies and not with your friends.

In a recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, Geoffrey Lewis and Seymour Reich of the pro-peace Israel Policy Forum made the argument much better than I ever could.  

While there are legitimate concerns over Hamas policy and over direct engagement with it, it is impossible to achieve an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians on any of the key issues without engaging Hamas through some means. Hamas is the governing authority in Gaza, a reality we can no longer ignore. Hamas can torpedo talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority by intensified rocket attacks or suicide bombings, as it has done in the past.

Another reality is that until Hamas-Israel violence ends, even if an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is reached, it will languish on the shelf no matter how acceptable it is. No progress can be made with a divided Palestinian polity. Israel cannot reach a binding agreement with the Palestinian Authority while at war with Hamas. Israelis cannot be expected to make the sacrifices needed to establish peace if Hamas, the most violent actor, is not included, at least tacitly.

Both Lewis and Reich hold leadership positions within the Israel Policy Forum, an NGO founded after the Oslo Accords to "advocate for active and sustained American diplomatic efforts, which are essential to achieving a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict."  Reich, furthermore, is a former chairman of the Council of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the foremost Zionist organization in the United States.

Peace requires negotiations.  Bush and his Likud/Kadima allies in Israel push for permanent war.

The time to negotiate is now.  Thank goodness Jimmy Carter recognizes it.