The New York Post does not approve of President Carter having tea with terrorists:
It’s bad enough that Carter – a former US president and winner of the now-thoroughly discredited Nobel Peace Prize – will be putting a stamp of legitimacy on a gang of cutthroats who’ve never hesitated to include Americans in their growing body count.
The saddest thing about this get-together is that it comes as no real surprise. Indeed, it’s entirely in keeping with Carter’s recent embrace of Palestinian extremism – to the point where, in his latest published anti-Israel screed, he all but gave his blessing to attacks on Israel.
But a columnist for the Daily Star of Lebanon makes the case for why he thinks a Carter-Hamas meeting would be a good thing:
The key to achieving a peaceful win-win situation is to analyze and deal with Hamas in the total framework of its actions, and not only through the narrow lens of terror acts. This means understanding and addressing the six R’s that Hamas represents: resistance, respect, reciprocity, reconstruction, rights and refugees.
Resistance against Israeli occupation and aggression is Hamas’ main task, and the key operative verb in its Arabic language name “harakat al-muqawama al-islamiyyah” (“Islamic resistance movement”). It resists and defies Israel, and refuses to acknowledge Israel’s legitimacy – until Israel decides in return to acknowledge Palestinian national rights and integrity.
Achieving respect is an intangible but crucial part of Hamas’ battle against Israel; it has been achieved in part in Israeli agreement to two cease-fire accords with Hamas, with a third likely on the way, perhaps followed by a prisoner exchange.
Reciprocity – the application of respect in tangible political form – requires that Israelis and Palestinians deal with each other and be treated by the world according to the same rules and criteria – on the use of violence, application of the Geneva Conventions, political engagement, and implementation of United Nations resolutions. It also applies to reciprocal statehood with Israel, which Hamas now says it accepts if Israel withdraws from the territories occupied in 1967 and implements UN resolutions on refugee rights.
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