Carter: Israel rejected Hamas truce offer
Ex-US president blames Israel for denying Gazans food, water; says Hamas
won elections 'fair
and square'
Yitzhak Benhorin
WA****NGTON – Blaming Israel, again: Former US President Jimmy Carter says
that following his
meetings with Hamas leaders the group offered a truce in Gaza but Israel
rejected the offer.
During an interview with NBC, Carter also blamed Israel for denying the
citizens of Gaza basic
supplies such as water and food.
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"I think it was productive, because all the things that we asked Hamas to
do, they basically
agreed to do," Carter said, referring to his recent trip. "One was to have
a total ceasefire
just in Gaza alone, where before they had said it must be Gaza and the
West Bank as well. So
they preferred to have a ceasefire, and announced it publicly after we
left. Israel
unfortunately rejected the ceasefire from Hamas.
"There's no way to have peace in the Middle East without bringing the
Palestinians back
together if Hamas represents at least half of the Palestinian people,"
Carter added, citing the
2006 elections the United States insisted be held. "Hamas won the election
fair and square.
They got a majority of seats in the Parliament."
"But then the United States and Israel declared that there wouldn't be a
Palestinian united
government, so they declared that Hamas was a terrorist organization. They
refused to negotiate
with them. They refused to give food and water and electricity and other
supplies to people
under Hamas' leader****p in Gaza, and that broke the whole situation down,"
he said.
'Assad hopeful'
Carter also criticized the US, which he said was preventing the renewal of
the peace process
between Israel and Syria. Carter said he met with Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and the
latter told him that he had been distanced from peace talks by the US
Government, but was now
hopeful talks would be resumed.
In an article published by the New York Times, Carter said that Hamas
would accept any truce
agreed upon by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, on the
condition that it had been approved by the elected parliament. Carter also
said Hamas would
disarm its military wing in Gaza if a non-political security force was
established in the Strip.
Referring to kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, Carter said that if
Israel were to agree to
the list of prisoners that the Palestinians demanded be released, and
freed the first batch,
Shalit would be transferred to Egypt until the other prisoners were
released.
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