Carter diplomacy goes nowhere

He came, he saw, he Cartered.

For nearly a week, the former US president who brokered the ground-breaking 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty, shuttled around the Middle East on an unconventional fact finding mission.

Defying objections from Israel and the Bush administration, Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leaders from Gaza. He met with the pivotal Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Damascus. He met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. He went to the Israeli town of Sderot to see the damage caused by Gaza rockets. He met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. He carried a message to Mashaal from right-wing Israeli leader Eli Yishai. He floated his own peace proposals.

In the end, it all led to naught.

On Monday, Carter wrapped up his Middle East mission by briefing the Israel Council for Foreign Relations at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

"We believe that the problem is not that I met with Hamas and Syria," Carter told the packed hall. "The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with these people who must be involved."

In his talks with Hamas leaders, Carter sought to persuade the group to declare a unilateral, 30-day cease fire in Gaza as a good-will gesture. But Hamas was having none of it.

Early Monday, Carter said, he called Mashaal one last time to try and convince the Hamas leader to accept the idea.

"I told them, 'don't wait for reciprocation,'" Carter later told reporters. "Just do it unilaterally. This will bring a lot of credit to you around the world, doing a humane thing. They turned me down. I think they're wrong. I did the best I could on that. I don't understand their rocket decision."

Carter told the group that Hamas was willing to accept any peace deal Abbas signed with Israel - if it was put to a vote of the Palestinian people. Within hours, though, a Hamas leader in Gaza poured cold water on the statement.

Sami Abu Zhuri told the Associated Press that Carter's comments "do not mean that Hamas is going to accept the result of the referendum."

So much for that.

In the end, Carter's diplomatic gambit gave Hamas some high-profile legitimacy amid the ongoing debate about whether Israel and the US should talk directly to Hamas.

As Carter noted, Israel is already engaged in indirect talks with Hamas in an effort to secure the freedom for Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-led militants along the Gaza-Israel border nearly two years ago.

"There are now direct talks between Israel and Hamas, but with Egypt as an intermediary," Carter said. "This permits Israel to deny that they are communicating with Hamas. But it is well known that Egypt, on behalf of Israel, is seeking to reach an agreement on key issues."

Carter said he did convince Hamas to let Shalit write a second letter to his family to show that he is alive and well.

While Carter was engaging in his one-man shuttle diplomacy, Hamas was stepping-up its attacks on the critical Gaza lifelines to the outside world.

Hamas has staged five attacks on the border crossings in ten days, including a bold suicide bombing attack on Saturday using two booby trapped jeeps meant to look like military vehicles and an APC Hamas captured from the PA military when it seized control of Gaza last June.

Israel has so far responded with relative restraint by not immediately sealing the borders. But the attacks are certain to make it easier for Israel to scale back, if not cut off, supplies to Gaza. That, in turn, will make it more difficult for life in Gaza.

Someone get Jimmy Carter back on the phone...

(AP photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)