Jimmy Carter thinks Hamas is a reasonable organization and that it’s Israel that’s being unreasonable.

Writing in The Guardian, the former Prez has this to say:

…I met with leaders of Hamas - a delegation from Gaza and the top officials in Damascus. I made the same condemnation (of the attacks on Sderot - Ben) to them, and urged that they declare a unilateral ceasefire or orchestrate with Israel a mutual agreement to terminate all military action in and around Gaza for an extended period.

They responded that such action by them in the past had not been reciprocated, and they reminded me that Hamas had previously insisted on a ceasefire throughout Palestine, including Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel had refused. Hamas then made a public proposal of a mutual ceasefire restricted to Gaza, which the Israelis also rejected.

Elsewhere on The Guardian web site, Alan Johnson identifies the problem that Carter - wilfully or otherwise - doesn’t acknowledge. Commenting on a program broadcast on the Hamas affiliated al-Aqsa TV station which accuses the Jewish people of having behind the Holocaust, Johnson says:

…the al-Aqsa narrator says “The satanic Jews thought up an evil plot [the Holocaust] to be rid of the burden of the disabled and handicapped, in twisted criminal ways. While they accuse the Nazis or others so the Jews would seem persecuted, and try to benefit from international sympathy. They were the first to invent the methods of evil and oppression. The alleged numbers of Jews [killed in the Holocaust] were merely for propaganda.

Johnson adds:

Those who seek “engagement” with Hamas can engage now - by demanding a full accounting from Hamas itself.

Let’s see if Jimmy Carter does just that next time he meets with Khaled Meshaal.