US, Israel Criticize Worst President Carter's Plans to See Scuzzy Muzzy Hamas

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/carter_hamas_meshaal/2008/04/10/87091.html

U.S., Israel Criticize Carter Plans to See Hamas

Thursday, April 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had advised

former President Jimmy Carter against meeting the leader of Hamas in Syria

next week, saying it went against U.S. policy of isolating the militant

group.

Carter plans to visit Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and

Jordan during a nine-day trip due to start on Sunday but gave no details of

specific meetings.

"This is a study mission and our purpose is not to negotiate but to support

and provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle

East," the Carter Center said in a statement.

"Our delegation has considerable experience in the region, and we go there

with an open mind and heart to listen and learn from all parties," it said.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, discussed with the State

Department's point person on Israeli-Palestinian issues, David Welch, his

plans to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus, but the

department said it went against U.S. policy.

"We counseled against it," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"U.S. government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we

don't believe it is in the interests of our policy or in the interests of

peace to have such a meeting."

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, also expressed

concern over such a meeting. "The unintended consequences of such a meeting

would be to embolden terrorists and undermine the cause of peace," he told

Reuters.

Carter, 83, served one term as president from 1977 to 1981. He succeeded in

negotiating the 1978 Camp David Accords that paved the way for peace between

Israel and Egypt but he has increasingly taken positions highly critical of

Israel.

In a 2006 book, he described Israeli policy in the occupied territories as

"a system of apartheid."

U.S. policy is to isolate Hamas, which has control of Gaza and is committed

to the destruction of Israel. Washington sees pro-Western Palestinian

President Mahmoud Abbas as its partner in U.S.-sponsored peace talks with

the Israelis.

PLANS UNDER WAY

"There is an agreement to hold the meeting and arrangements are under way,"

Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters in Gaza of Carter's meeting.

Taha said the meeting was to be held following a request from the

Atlanta-based Carter Center, which aims to promote global peace, health,

democracy and human rights.

A spokeswoman for Carter declined to comment on specific meetings. The

delegation will include former first lady Rosalynn Carter and ex-Congressman

Stephen Solarz.

Initially, Carter had hoped to go with a group of 'elder statesmen,'

including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former South African

President Nelson Mandela, but the others decided the timing was wrong.

"The elders will consider consultations with key leaders in the region and

outside with the purpose of developing a comprehensive report, but have

decided to postpone their visit," said a statement on Tuesday from the group

of 12 former leaders on their Web site, http://www.theelders.org.

Carter has been harshly critical of the Bush administration's foreign

policy, from the invasion of Iraq to its approach to Iran as well as the

Israeli-Palestinian issue.

McCormack said the U.S. government would provide support for Carter's Syrian

trip but would not take part in any of his meetings or the planning and

scheduling of those talks.

So you think Carter is a worse President than Bush?

I think Bush is worse. Economically both were bad. But in foreign

policy, Carter negotiated the Camp David accords whereas Bush accrued a

body count of tens of thousands with no end in sight, which is a huge

minus in my book.

The Culture War:

Israel Line - Friday, June 10, 2005

Thousands Participate in Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv this

afternoon to participate in the city's annual gay pride parade,

HA'ARETZ reported. The parade set out from Rabin Square and was to end

in Yarkon Park, where musical performances were planned.

MKs Yosef Lapid (Shinui), Eitan Cabel (Labor) and Zehava Gal-On

(Yahad), as well as Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, were set to speak at

the event.

The chairman of the national Association of Gay Men, Lesbians,

Bisexuals and Transgender in Israel, Mike Hamel, said today the parade

was organized with the "close cooperation" of the Tel Aviv

municipality. "It's great to see it, and great that it's one of the

few places in the world that has the support of a municipal body, a

government body," he said.

Hamel said the event is called a "pride parade," because it has

to do with "being proud of the way we are and the demand to accept

every person as a person, as he is, and not trying to change him."

Full story:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/586950.html

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http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1122-03.htm

Iran: Two More Executions for Homosexual Conduct

NEW YORK - November 22 -

Iran's execution of two men last week for homosexual conduct

highlights a

pattern of persecution of gay men that stands in stark violation of

the rights

to life and privacy, Human Rights Watch said today. On Sunday,

November 13, the semi-official Tehran daily Kayhan reported that the

Iranian

government publicly hung two men, Mokhtar N. (24 years old) and Ali A.

(25 years old), in the Shahid Bahonar Square of the northern town of

Gorgan. The government reportedly executed the two men for the crime

of "lavat." Iran's shari'a-based penal code defines lavat as

penetrative and non-penetrative sexual acts between men. Iranian law

punishes all penetrative sexual acts between adult men with the death

penalty.

Non-penetrative sexual acts between men are punished with lashes until

the fourth offense, when they are punished with death