[Sosfbay-discuss] Jimmy Carter meets next week with Hamas—with Israelis???

[Andrea Dorey]

Once again, former President Jimmy Carter is to be commended for  
taking the initiative toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian  
conflict. The announcement that he will meet next week in Damascus  
with Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, is consonant with a March 1,  
2008 poll by the leading Israeli newspaper - Haaretz - that found 64  
percent of Israelis favor direct talks with Hamas. Only 28 percent  
were opposed. (Hamas was created years ago with the critical support  
of both the Israeli and U.S. governments as a counterweight to the  
Palestine Liberation Organization.)

An impressive number of retired top Israeli and American government  
officials have called for - or believe there should be - negotiations  
with Hamas, the organization which controls Gaza, presently under an  
Israeli siege.

Both United Nations and European Union officials have demanded that  
the Israeli government lift the siege or blockade which is severely  
depriving Palestinian civilian families of needed medicine, food,  
electricity, clean water, fuel and other critical life-saving  
supplies and materials. Gaza has become the world's largest prison  
with 1.5 million inmates - many sick or dying - making that tiny  
enclave a major humanitarian crisis that invites moral and political  
denunciation by world leaders.

In addition, during the hostilities over the past year, Palestinians  
have suffered at least 300 civilian casualties to every Israeli  
civilian casualty.
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