The Washington Post has a piece on former President Jimmy Carter's plan to meet with Khaled Meshal, the head of the militant group Hamas, next week in Damascus, Syria.
The McCain camp was apparently quick to condemn the meeting while the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were, understandably, somewhat more muted in their criticism.
There are, as the article points out, good reasons to open a dialogue with Hamas. And many, both in Israel and America, believe the time has come to stop isolating the militant group and start bringing them into the mainstream political fold.
However, Carter's trip would also come at a time when a growing number of experts in the United States and Israel have argued that isolating Hamas is not productive. A poll published in February in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that 64 percent of Israelis favor direct talks with Hamas. Both Efraim Halevy, a former head of the Mossad spy agency, and Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former foreign minister, say Hamas can no longer be ignored.
A bipartisan group of foreign-policy luminaries, including former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, issued a statement before the Annapolis peace talks sponsored by the administration in November that said "we believe a genuine dialogue with the organization [Hamas] is far preferable to its isolation."
President Carter continues to go his own way on Middle East issues. Considering his track record on such things (sans Iran), is it really wise to assume that the man is off his rocker?
I am not in favor of rewarding militant terrorist groups. Never have been. Things and organizations change, however. Even as recently as twenty-five years ago you would never have convinced me that the PLO and Yasser Arafat should or could ever be seriously be negotiated with.
When the choice is between continued political isolation, with continued violence, and cautious diplomatic approachment with the possibility of eventual cessation of hostilities, which way is the proper course? No, we don't want to "reward" militant terrorist groups but neither can they always be ignored entirely if we wish to have peace any time soon.
Talk is good. That is a lesson that the Bush administration is slowly but necessarily learning. It is to bad their learning curve was eight years. President Carter had it down much more quickly than that.
Comments welcome,
Pat McGovern Sphere: Related Content
