Sitting Down with President Carter
My questions were tough. I wasn’t sure how he’d react. I wondered if former President Jimmy Carter would walk out of the interview.
He didn’t.
He answered every question and never seemed ruffled, even when I asked him if he’d be willing to meet with Al Qaeda.
The answer was an emphatic, “No.”
Everyone has an opinion regarding whether the former president should have met with Hamas leaders in Egypt and Syria. The U.S. and Israel didn’t want him to do it.
But in an interview with FOX News the former president said he was going to listen to the other side. He said he didn’t want authority or a mediating role. Secretary Rice said meeting with Hamas confuses the U.S. message that they wont deal with them.
On the other side….some Israelis were offended that senior Israeli leaders did not meet with the former president. It’s hard to deny President Carter’s influence in the Middle East. Twenty-nine years ago he negotiated Israel’s first peace with neighboring state Egypt. It’s a peace that has lasted decades later.
President Carter is the only remaining leader from the Israel-Egypt peace accords. Some how he managed to get Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to draft a peace accord in 1979. But critics say he was too optimistic and perhaps even unrealistic to expect a breakthrough with Hamas.
Carter also spoke to us about the campaign trail.
Last week as he left the American Colony hotel, I asked him if he supports Barak Obama. At that point a secret service agent gently picked me up around the waist and deposited me two steps over. He did it all without being untoward. Clearly I was too close to the former president.
This time when I asked the question secret service didn’t intervene,
“Everyone of my children, every one of my grandchildren, all of their spouses, the people of my hometown, and the people of my home state of Georgia, have all expressed their strong preference for Obama. I will wait and decide later when to announce my decision.”
Reena Ninan is a correspondent for FNC, spending the majority of her
time in the Middle East. She provided on-site updates of Iraq's first
parliamentary elections and coverage of Saddam Hussein's trial from
Baghdad. 
When Jimmy Carter was president we did not get lasting peace in the middle east. He did not get the hostages out of Iran. President Clinton sent him to North Korea so they would stop making nukes
Jimmy Carter belived there lies and got a nobel peace prize. Jimmy Carter needs to get out of our countries affairs. A vietnam Vet and 1SG U.S. Army Retired
He was clueless as President and that hasn’t changed.
The man is typical Democrat, don’t care about anything or anybody and the press gives him a free pass. The man should be up on treason charges and have his passport pulled permanently.
Former President Carter is nothing if not true to form. He was an uuter failure as President and a leader. In his post-presidency life, he has embraced the far left peace-at-all-costs wing of the democratic party. He still laments and holds grudges against those who opposed his relection. Hence his support for radical Islamists and terrorists. I bet he actually considers them freedom fighters. He has a very strange and vengful viewpoint I would say. In the end, who cares what he does and says.
There is no way that former president Jimmy carter should have gone to meet with hamass over the objection of the state department and the U.S. government. He would not have liked it if some one did the same thing to him when he was president. I think the liberalism has gone to his head and as we all know liberalism is very dangerous. Remember this is the same do nothing president of the 70’s who let Iran hold U.S. hostages.
Great man. Unlike the Bush Administration or the Democrats and Republicans in congress, his only objective is a fair peace in the Middle East. There is something to be said for that. Sure, he upsets people because he is not marching lock step with those in the pocket of the powerful pro-Israel lobby, but they can’t say it is because he is anti-Israel. Actually they can and do say that, but it isn’t true. As a former President, Jimmy Carter is one of our lifetime Ambassadors of peace, democracy, and human rights to the world. His consistent focus on these priorities over the past three decades has done a great deal to bolster America’s image and moral authority. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has done much to tarnish this image. Carter has written more books than President Bush has read, and forgotten more about the Middle East than Bush or Condi will ever know. They should focus on Iraq - that is their baby. Let Carter do his thing.
Carter unfortunately has been bought and paid for by Saudi oil sheiks. He has received multiple millions of petrodollars from Arab interests and this has paid for his Carter Center and other expenses. I voted for him in 1976(regretably) but he screwed up his term of the presidency by hurting the economy, record high interest rates, cutting the military down, abandoning the Shah of Iran and allowing the lunatics to seize our embassy staff and hold them for 444 days under humiliating conditions. He could not even plan and co-ordinate a respectable hostage freeing military raid on what was then a weak and tumultuous Iran.
Just a week or so ago, he lays a wreath at the grave of one of the bloodiest, cunning terrorists who ever lived, Yasser Arafat who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Arafat would consistently talk about peace in English, then turn around and speak about the joys and glory of jihad and killing infidels in Arabic. By the way, Arafat was no Palestinian, he was an Egyptian by birth. Carter treats him like a folk hero and with unearned respect.
One cannot negotiate with a party which wants nothing but your own death and destruction. Hamas does not want peace with Israel, it only wants to destroy Israel. Even the “hudna” or 10 year peace it offered is only a temporary measure so it can reorganize and rearm itself. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are funded by, armed by, and supported by Iran. Iran wants Israel to be wiped off the map. It does not matter what artificial and temporary borders are drawn in a so-called peace agreement between Israel and “Palestinians”. It is only a temporary truce to the Arab side. They want the entire land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, and there is no room for compromise today.
Until the true moderates in the Arab world make their voices heard and can overcome the power of the radical Islamists, there will be no peace, no matter what border lines are drawn. Until the Arabs cease teaching their children to kill all Jews and Westerners there will be no real peace. Those people who like Carter for “telling it like it is” don’t know the reality of the situation. He may have received a Nobel peace prize, but he disgraces the Presidency and the prize by his recent activities.
Unfortunatly Jimmy Carter is still LOST when it comes to world politics, I believe he is trying to make a name for himself after the failed policy of his administration. Ms. Ninan did a very good interview considering his feelings toward FOX News.
It was suggested that he not meet w/them, he did anyway. As a former president he has no standing concerning negotiations.
I hope the current legislation that was submitted to end taxpayer’s money given to the Carter Center passes. 19 million dollars is 19 millions dollars too much. Mr. Carter needs to stick to Habitat for Humanity and stay out of politics. He had his time in the spotlight, did nothing with it, so stop thumbing your nose at the current Administration.
Carter is great at fighting off “attack rabbits” with an oar when they are in the water. Not much
else! The fact that his family is for Obama is my greatest reason for being against him! In 1967
the Israeli army in self defense took on Egypt, Syria and Jordon and whupped ‘em good. That
is the reason for “peace” between the contending parties; given the slightest chance for success
Israel would be under attack. What they couldn’t gain in battle they are trying to gain through
terroristic acts..Carter is namby-pamby trotting along!!Jim Parker Brandon Florida
Regardless of his thought process regarding the matter, I say NO. Face it, a former president of this country dons the ‘great mediator’ cloak he once wore as the Democratic president from outside of the Wahington political circle and brokered a supposed peace deal between Arafat and Sadat for which he won the Nobel prize. He now truly believes he is the only man who can get all sides together and he doesn’t agree with anything the current president, G.W. Bush, is doing, especially his attitude of not negotiating with known terrorist factions.
I don’t know what he talked to the Arab leaders about or the words he used. I am a firm believer in the one nation, one head philosophy. Former President Carter is not a part of our government anymore and shouldn’t presume he knows more about the political and faith-based philosophies than our own government.
Bottom line, most governments can’t or won’t control the various factions within the borders of their country for one or more reasons. We can’t even control the various factions within our own borders.
This man is dumb as a post and truly believes that he is effective. He just never shrinks from cozying up with our enemies and just doesn’t get that they deceive him; granted, that IS an easy task.
They advised him not to go and he did any way. They should refuse to let him back in the US.
Our most ineffective President to date. Who is Jimmy Carter to decide US Policy. If our sitting government will not hold talks with this terrorist organization, what gives him the right?
Jimmy Carter is “retired” and should remember that. I feel that his visit to the mid-east was a slap in the face of our Nation. I wish he could be arrested for “Aiding and abeding the Enemy”. Or perhaps he should be placed in a Nursing Home.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. They are absolutely set on a course of destruction for Israel. Time and time again Israel has given over land and control of various areas and received rocket attacks from Hamas from those areas every time.
Former president Carter did nothing good by talking to Hamas and gave them credibility in their terrorist actions. Whatever his motivation, it is clear he did not think it all through before going. Or he did not accept what Hamas is and thought he was dealing with a nation state like Egypt. Doctors take an oath, “Do no harm”. Former President Carter needs to remember that the next time he feels like going anywhere.
I think Mr Carter needs to realize he is no President. He didn’t accomplish anyting when in office, why does he think he can now. He needs to relax.
I am disapointed in Mr. Carter having his pow wow with Hamas. He is a former President and we respect our presidents. However, it is disapointing to hear of his meeting with the terroist who have only one agenda, to destroy the nation of Israel. Mr. Carter was ineffective as a president and nothing has changed since he left office. Hopefully, he will come to understand that there is no pacifying of the terroist organization of Hamas. They only have one purpose and that is to destroy, mame, and terroize innocent women and children.