Carter: "I've Been Meeting With Hamas Leaders For Years"

"I feel quite at ease in doing this."I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process." [emphasis added]
Jimmy Carter

Not that Carter's hobnobbing with terrorists should come as a surprise. It's not clear just how long Carter has been meeting with Hamas terrorists, but it may very well be that he's been meeting with them since before Hamas won the election 2 years ago.

Considering the huge amount of funding that Carter has received over the years from Arab financiers, it is fair to ask just where the idea for these trips have come from:

Journalist Jacob Laksin has documented the tens of millions of dollars that the Carter Center has accepted from Saudi Arabian royalty and assorted other Middle Eastern sultans, who, in return, Carter dutifully praised as peaceful and tolerant (no matter how despotic the regime). And these are only the confirmed, public donations.

Carter has also accepted half a million dollars and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who “were the people who killed the Jews in Europe” during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11.

Another journalist, Rachel Ehrenfeld, in a thorough and devastating article on "Carter’s Arab Financiers, [link broken; read here]" meticulously catalogues Carter’s ties to Arab moneymen, from a Saudi bailout of his peanut farm in 1976, to funding for Carter’s presidential library, to continued support for all manner of Carter’s post-presidential activities. For instance, it was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), founded in Pakistan and fronted by a Saudi billionaire, Gaith Pharaon, that helped Carter start up his beloved Carter Center.

Considering the fact there Carter has mentioned that some of "The Elders" may be accompanying him on the trip, it would be interesting to see if that group owes any of its funding to Saudi backing as well.

Interestingly, Carter sees no reason to boycott the Olympics in China:

As president, Carter led the boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. "That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people," he said, rejecting the idea of boycotting the Beijing games to protest China's crackdown in Tibet. He did not address whether just the opening ceremonies should be boycotted.

Apparently, Carter has no interest in the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese. For that matter, the fact that since 1950 there have been over 1 million Tibetans killed by China is not worthy of Carter's attention either--putting aside the 44.5 to 72 million total killed by China.

Carter's "peace with justice" has its limits. Going after China won't pay the rent.

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