"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Hamas says Carter visit a boost to militants' legitimacy

CAIRO, Egypt - Hamas officials said Wednesday that Jimmy Carter's meetings with leaders of the Palestinian militant group will boost its legitimacy despite criticism by Israel and the U.S. government of the former president's personal peace mission.Carter arrived in Egypt from Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he raised Israeli anger Tuesday by embracing a Hamas official in the West Bank.A delegation of senior Hamas officials from the Gaza Strip also came to Cairo, escorted by heavy security, and said Carter planned to meet with them Thursday.A Carter spokesman refused to comment on Hamas' claim. After sitting down with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and speaking at the American University on Thursday, Carter is scheduled to meet in Damascus, Syria, on Friday with Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal.Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who brokered Israel's historic peace agreement with Egypt three decades ago, is on what he calls a private peace mission. He contends the U.S., Israel and other Western states should stop isolating Hamas if they want peace efforts to succeed.Heading the Hamas delegation in Cairo were Gaza leaders Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siyam. "This meeting is a message to those who don't recognize Hamas' legitimacy as a movement," Zahar said as he left for Egypt, according to Hamas' Web site.In Cairo, Hamas spokesman Taher Nuhu told The Associated Press that the purported Thursday meeting would be "a recognition of the legitimacy" of Hamas' victory in the Palestinians' parliamentary election in 2006."We do not claim we are the only legitimate group there, but we are an integral part whose legitimacy was manifested in the elections," Nuhu said.Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since its bloody takeover last June, opposes peace negotiations with Israel and is committed to the Jewish state's destruction. The Islamic militant group has killed some 250 Israelis in suicide bombings and is branded a terror organization by the U.S. and Israel.Traveling with his wife, Rosalynn, Carter was greeted at the Cairo airport by Omar Metwally, an official in the Egyptian foreign minister, and the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Francis J. Ricciardone.Ricciardone, speaking to reporters in Arabic, described Carter as a "man of peace," but said the U.S. government disagrees with him about his contacts with Hamas. Carter also has been criticized by some Democrats in Congress. Howard L. Berman of California, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Gary Ackerman, a New Yorker who heads the House subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, urged Carter to cancel the meeting with Mashaal."We believe this ... will undermine the Middle East peace process and damage the credibility of Palestinian moderates," including President Mahmoud Abbas, the two said in a letter addressed to Carter."The legitimacy and prestige that Hamas will derive from your visit will be seen in the region as a clear demonstration that violence pays," they said.In Israel, all the country's senior political leaders-except for the ceremonial president, Shimon Peres-declined to meet with Carter.Hard-line Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman tried Wednesday to dissuade Carter from meeting Mashaal."Meeting a terrorist like Khaled Mashaal only encourages and increases terrorism,"he told Carter,according to a Lieberman spokesman. But Carter argues it is counterproductive to ignore Hamas."I don't think it is possible to have an ultimate peace agreement without the involvement of Syria.And I don't think it will be possible without the involvement of Hamas,"Carter told a group of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. After his stops in Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, Carter plans to visit Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan before returning to Israel late Sunday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080416/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_carter_11;_ylt=AkBzlPTg4sZFBFu_.ZZjbmtg.3QA
As in the days of Noah....