Hamas says it can live with Israel

After an extraordinary meeting with former President Jimmy Carter, the militant Islamic group Hamas said for the first time this week that it would be willing to abide by a two-state peace agreement with Israel. Carter, who met with the group despite condemnation from the Bush administration and Israel, said Hamas had essentially backed down from its longstanding goal of destroying Israel. “It may be something they wish,” Carter said, “but they know it’s a fruitless concept.” Israeli officials said the entire episode was a propaganda ploy. “It was sad to see how Hamas is using former President Carter to try to get legitimization it does not deserve,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel.

Carter’s freelance diplomacy occurred against a backdrop of renewed fighting in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which left three Israeli soldiers and 21 Palestinians dead last week. Egypt is mediating between the two sides in an effort to stop the fighting and secure the release of prisoners. Hamas said it would agree to a cease-fire in Gaza, dropping its previous condition of a simultaneous truce in the West Bank. Israel’s defense minister said Hamas was merely seeking a pause in order to re-arm.

Jimmy Carter is rapidly becoming “America’s most embarrassing ex-somebody,” said Robert Satloff in the Los Angeles Times. Hamas’ “concession” on Israel’s right to exist is meaningless; it requires a vote by all Palestinians worldwide, which would be virtually impossible to orchestrate. All Carter has done is set a precedent for “dangerous and desperate initiatives” to bring Hamas into official Mideast peace talks. Israel’s and America’s current policy of strengthening moderate Palestinians while freezing out Hamas and other terrorist groups remains the best approach.

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Carter’s willingness to engage with Hamas is hardly as extreme as it might appear, said Marc Perelman in the Forward. According to one recent poll, 64 percent of Israelis believe their government should, in fact, negotiate directly with Hamas. Prominent proponents of this idea “come from all sides of the Israeli political spectrum.” Doves believe Hamas can be persuaded to embrace peace, while hawks think Hamas and Israel have a mutual interest in “managing the conflict.”

Pragmatic engagement may be necessary, said The Boston Globe in an editorial, but Carter’s showy embrace of Hamas does more harm than good. “His actions carry the prestige of a former president” and raise Hamas’ stature accordingly. That will only make it harder to get any real concessions out of a group that, as Carter himself admitted, still prefers to see Israel wiped off the map.