Close up: Keep hoping By Salama A Salama Few American politicians have the integrity and courage to break the mould. Carter is one of those. Known for his fairness regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, the former president came to the region to do some serious talking. Paying little heed to the blockade the US administration has imposed on Hamas -- a blockade in which Europeans and some Arabs took part, by the way -- Carter went ahead and met leading Hamas figures, including Damascus-based Hamas head Khaled Meshaal. Carter's point is that Israel must talk to Hamas if peace is to be attained. Unless all factions are included in negotiations, it will be impossible to make a deal hold -- so much he has made clear. The former president sat down with Hamas leaders and urged them to stop firing rockets at Israeli towns. And he met the Israelis and told them to stop targeted killings, attacks on civilians, and practices of collective punishment. Carter has always been consistent in his campaign for peace, democracy and human rights. Clinton made some effort too, but that came to nothing. As for Bush, he single-handedly undermined any hope for just peace in the region. Israel hasn't been very happy with Carter. The Israeli lobby in America was particularly incensed by the book Carter published two years ago. In Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, the former president accused Israel of inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. No wonder then that Olmert refused to receive Carter. Israel gave the former president no security escort. It prevented him from going to Gaza. Only Shimon Peres deigned to meet him. What is remarkable, however, is that Arab countries greeted Carter's mission with utter indifference. Even in Ramallah, Carter was met by junior Palestinian officials. Abbas, who was getting ready for a Moscow trip, saw no reason why he should confer with the former US president. But Carter got at least to visit Arafat's tomb. Cairo kept its cool. It arranged for Carter to meet a delegation of Hamas officials, but otherwise was unenthusiastic about his mission. Why are Arab officials so worried about Carter meeting Hamas leaders? Are they too eager to please America and Israel to admit that Hamas's involvement in talks is a good idea? And yet they received Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, with open arms when she went to Qatar. Her trip was even covered by a special team from Al-Jazeera. What is this all about? We want to stay on Israel's good side but won't let half the Palestinians have their say? The Arabs are falling into a trap. They are so busy listening to American and Israeli officials that they cannot spare the time to consider other options. The next few days will see another peace conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. In that conference, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert would put their signature to another piece of paper. But there will not be solutions in this region anytime soon, not until Bush is out of office. The US has been holding talks with Iran for nearly five years in secret. We have no idea what came out of this. As far as we're concerned, anything can happen. A military strike against Iran is not to be ruled out. And renewed fighting in Lebanon is all too probable. These are things that we should be concerned about, but are we? Carter is more knowledgeable about American policy than any of our leaders. And he is not thrilled with the talks between Israel and Ramallah, now proceeding under US tutelage. In his opinion, the US is unlikely to press Israel into conceding to an acceptable deal in the foreseeable future. But we keep hoping. We just keep hoping.
