CARTER MAKES PROGRESS

by MONITOR
THE State of Israel is more indebted to former US President Jimmy Carter than to any other Western leader. It was Carter who forged the Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Yet Jimmy Carter will not be among the guests at Israel's celebrations of the 60th anniversary of its foundation next month. George W Bush, however, will be the guest of honour despite the fact that he has done almost nothing to help the peace process; even his over-hyped Annapolis conference last November has proved to be counter-productive. Mr Carter is persona non grata in Jerusalem because he has talked to Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, the militant Palestinian organisation which refuses to recognise Israel. Mr Carter's talk with Meshal in Damascus was intended to discover how far Hamas would be prepared to move politically to help the Palestinians establish an independent state adjoining Israel - the so-called two-state solution. Mr Carter emerged from the meeting with a written statement that Hamas would not block progress towards a two-state solution provided that the proposal was ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. The importance of this statement is that Hamas, which currently occupies Gaza, would not block a solution that reunited it with the West Bank Palestinians. Of course, Hamas has its own demands to make . Mr Carter should be encouraged to take the talks further instead of being vilified for his initiative.