Carter: Netanyahu Is Not Committed To Peace

Suggesting that Hamas’ Mashaal is more com­mit­ted to peace than Netanyahu, Carter says he had no desire to meet with PM dur­ing trip.

Former US President Jimmy Carter had harsh words for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday, say­ing a meet­ing with him would be a “waste of time.”

Carter is in the midst of a three-day vis­it to Israel work­ing to bring about a two-state solu­tion. He met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Saturday, but did not meet with Netanyahu or President Reuven Rivlin.

According to Carter, he had no inten­tions of meet­ing with Netanyahu, who refused to meet with him in any case, but would have liked and did request to meet with the President.

Rivlin, how­ev­er, on the advice of the Foreign Ministry, declined, due to Carter’s staunch “anti-Israel opin­ions” and known sym­pa­thy for Gaza-based ter­ror orga­ni­za­tion Hamas.

In addi­tion to call­ing a meet­ing with Netanyahu a “waste of time,” the for­mer President took anoth­er shot at the Prime Minister dur­ing an inter­view with Channel Two News, assert­ing that peace is not on his agenda.

“The [Elders Group] stands for peace and human rights, and if human­rights and peace are not on Netanyahu’s agen­da, I under­stand why he does not want to meet us,” Carter charged.

Earlier on Saturday, Carter urged Palestinian Arabs to hold elec­tions to end the rapid­ly grow­ing fierce enmi­ty between Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria.

During the Channel Two inter­view, Carter main­tained his stance that Hamas is not a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion, adding that Hamas polit­buro chief Khaled Mashaal is “strong­ly in favor of the peace process.”

While say­ing he “deplored” crim­i­nal acts” by mem­bers of Hamas against “inno­cent” Israeli cit­i­zens, Carter claimed not all mem­bers of Hamas are ter­ror­ists, and that he is seek­ing the mod­er­ate mem­bers of the organization.

He was not so com­pli­men­ta­ry in his assess­ment of Netanyahu, say­ing thatthe Prime Minister is not “in favor of a two-state solu­tion” and there­fore not com­mit­ted to peace.

“I don’t see that deep com­mit­ment on the part of Netanyahu to make con­ces­sions which [for­mer prime min­is­ter] Menachem Begin did to find peace with his poten­tial ene­mies,” Carter said.