Israel gives Carter cold shoulder but no security

In what is being described as unprecendented, Israel’s Shin Bet is refusing to cooperate with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail. Why?

Because he’s visiting Hamas leaders. The cold shoulder has gone so far as for Israel to lie and claim Carter never asked for any help from Shin Bet.

As for Hamas being committed to the destruction of Israel, well … not exactly, as M.J. Rosenberg notes:

Even Khaled Mashal, the Syria-based political chief of Hamas, said this week that “Palestinians have adopted a joint position regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of 1967.” The Arab Initiative (the Saudi-sponsored plan endorsed by every Arab country) not only recognizes Israel’s right to the 78 percent of Palestine that is Israel but pledges full recognition and normalization of relations if Palestinians are permitted to establish a state in the other 22 percent.

I don’t think it gets much clearer than that. In case it doesn’t, Rosenberg explains that West Bank settlements by Israelis, with the concomitant checkpoints, etc., fragment what’s left of that “22 percent” into microparcels.

Obama and Clinton, like McCain, though, will continue to cut blank checks to Tel Aviv.