Useful Idiots

The world is full of them, people who believe they have something to add to the debate, who feel their reasonable approach to entrenched problems refusing to yield to reason can be resolved through their intervention. And when they approach a party responsible for setting back the possibilities of conciliation and peace, allowing themselves to be used as a lever for enabling an aggressor to be witnessed as a player in the scheme for peace, they are simply playing the useful idiot.

Former American president Jimmy Carter, who views Israel as an 'apartheid' state, and who has never yet met a terrorist that he couldn't claim to pacify with his smiling reasonableness, insists that it is time the Obama administration remove Hamas from its terror-list designation. As a guest of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, he feels entitled to speak compassionately about the Palestinian Gazans, as being victimized by Israel, and not by Hamas.

He claims to have attempted persuasion with Hamas to recognize Israel's right of existence, but regardless of Hamas's obduracy, and its charter calling for Israel's destruction, and a new Palestinian State to be established encompassing the very land Israel sits upon, Mr. Carter insists he will push for American recognition of Hamas as a legal political entity, not the Islamist jihadist group that is its hallmark.

He is himself content with the doublespeak whereby he has been assured by Haniyeh that Hamas is merely a humble tool of the Gazan Palestinians, reaching out to the West Bank Palestinians. "Hamas leaders want peace and they want to have reconciliation not only with their Fatah brothers but also eventually with Israelis to live side by side, with two nations, both sovereign nations recognized by each other and living in peace", according to Carter.

It's puzzling that he could come to this conclusion and accept it as reality, when no one has ever, and likely will never, hear any top representative of Hamas utter such words of conciliation and hope for the future. What Haniyeh said to Carter was that he was in support of any plan that would preserve Arab rights leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state, including a capital in Jerusalem.

The manner in which Mr. Carter transcribed what Mr. Haniyeh said to him is a matter for his own delusional conscience. Should Mr. Carter feel personally indebted to Hamas now that they claim to have saved his life from a plotted assassination by an al-Qaeda affiliate? Ingratiating themselves further into the embrace of this peace-loving political superannuate?

Yes indeed, Mr. Carter has now been instructed to use the auspices of his reputation and connections to high office to influence Israel on lifting its self-protective security blockade. And then Hamas will have further reason to celebrate, given free reign to import as many munitions and weapons as they wish, unimpeded by a country intent on preserving its security and the safety of its citizens.