In the Arena

In Defense of Jimmy Carter

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I missed this debate between Rob Satloff and Mark Perry on Lehrer last week–all Pennsylvania for me, all the time–but I did think Perry got the better of it…in large part because, in my view, people who want to negotiate with our enemies almost always have a stronger argument than people who don’t. Not that I have any illusions about Hamas. They’re violent, they don’t believe in the right of Israel to exist, they may not ever change.

BUT…they did win an election in 2006, an election we–not the Palestinian Authority and certainly not the Israelis–insisted upon. If the Bush Administration is going to push a “Freedom Agenda”–admittedly, a dubious proposition, especially the way that Bush has pushed it–then it has a certain responsibility to deal with the people who win the elections, no matter how odious. (In truth, the Bush Administration had a moral obligation to help create the conditions where democracy might thrive in the Palestinian territories–a free economy, unconstrained by Israel; far more transparency from the corrupt PLO; and the end of new Israeli settlements across the 1967 borders–before it pushed for any elections at all.) The Bush Administration’s unwillingness to deal with the government that it midwifed into existence has hurt the reputation of the United States with democratic risk-takers throughout the region.

Sometimes in the past, I’ve found Carter’s interventions to be counterproductive, especially–as during the Clinton presidency–when he intervenes in a negotiation already taking place between the U.S. and a foreign government. But there are no such talks taking place now–and there is real value in having a respected, if peripheral, official taking the temperature of a pariah group like Hamas, searching for ways we might proceed. (The hug was a bit much, though, Mr. President.)

Again, I’m not terribly optimistic about the chances of a breakthrough with Hamas right now. But the group is in something of a pickle: it has the responsibility for governing the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, and it has produced only death and chaos. It may blame all this on the Israelis, but in the next election–should one occur–Fatah will be able to argue: Hamas made things worse.

Long term, Israel has no choice. It will have to come to terms with the Palestinians or risk the demographic time bomb that no less a Likudnik than Ariel Sharon feared. Each new generation of Palestinian children raised with the reality of Israelis occupying the west bank and Gaza, often brutally, will be less likely to seek peace; I would say the same thing of Israeli children, regarding Palestinians, but Israelis seem to have walled off, literally and figuratively, the Palestinian reality. The efforts of any and all would-be peacemakers should be encouraged, especially those with no power but to begin a dialogue, like Jimmy Carter.