THE PLANK APRIL 15, 2008
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While the world debates Jimmy Carter's decision to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal, I can't help thinking back to my chance encounter with him at the Four Seasons in Qatar last year, when I was working as a correspondent for Newsweek. Only after elbowing the short, pudgy man crowding the humus platter at the dinner buffet did I realize I was standing face-to-face with the infamous terrorist. Mishaal was delighted to hear that I worked for Newsweek, and after a few minutes of Arabic banter, invited me up to his suite to chat for over an hour, snacking on Syrian dates and cardamom coffee while his half-dozen bodyguards watched a WWF match on TV in the room next door.
Why was the normally reclusive and media-shy Mishaal so excited to speak to a member of the Western press? Our encounter was right after Bush's Annapolis peace conference, and Mishaal was making the rounds of Arab capitols trying to convince the region's leaders that Hamas was not irrelevant despite being left off the summit's guest list. Though his meetings yielded the requisite press conferences and generic statements, Mishaal's uncharacteristically frantic yearning for the spotlight is an illustration of how desperate the group has become to hold on to some level on international credibility--and how, despite Annapolis's inability to make much progress on an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, it actually succeeded to a certain extent in isolating Hamas. Granted, Mishaal got a plum spot on the back page of Newsweek, but that's nothing compared to the cred of meeting with a former U.S. president. Carter's visit with Mishaal this week will go a long way in counteracting the gains made at Annapolis.
--Zvika Krieger
11 comments
After years of such demonizing, isn't Carter's cred pretty much shot? I mean, is meeting with a former president who all the current power brokers in America deride really that much of a coup? This seems to me to be much ado about jack and crap.
- jfelliott
April 15, 2008 at 12:58pm
Great stuff. Thank you, Zvika. More like this pls (travel, first-hand reporting, fresh insights / scoops)
- teplukhin2you
April 15, 2008 at 1:03pm
Zviki Kreiger writes: "Carter's visit with Mishaal this week will go a long way in counteracting the gains made at Annapolis."
Whatever you say, Zviki, that's what it's not.
However, I notice that The New Republic has still not blogged or written about Meshaal's interview last week. I guess The Plank and The New Republic writers see no point in bringing up anything that interferes with their twisted worldview.
In more interesting news, but news not welcome to the New Republic a magazine long in the tank for the "no peace in our time" camp in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ezra Klein introduces us to a new pro-Israel interest group - J Street:
-- Which is why I'm glad to welcome J Street to Washington. With 1/100th AIPAC's budget, the organization is not likely, as some are hoping, to prove a quick counterweight to the existent Israel Lobby. But they are a new Jewish voice that honors and shields those who would express their support for Israel by seeking peace, rather than supporting conflict. Speaking as a Jew who's been to Israel and fears for his best friend who'll live in Tel Aviv this summer; as an American repulsed by our complicity in the ethically indefensible expansion of the settlements and worried about our standing in the Arab world; and as a decent person who laments the fear and anger that poisons the lives of Jews and Palestinians alike, it's long past time that the quiet majority who seeks peace and is exhausted by the continued prosecution past grudges and grievances asserted our role, and created a conversation in which participants didn't need to fear the backlash that would result if they prioritized the search for security above the positions adopted by Likud. www.prospect.org/.../ezraklein_archive
J Street is online at: http://www.jstreet.org/
- ndmackenzie
April 15, 2008 at 1:20pm
And please activate the anti-nd spam filter that links to others' blogs.
(Clue for you, mac: we too can google.)
- teplukhin2you
April 15, 2008 at 1:33pm
I see teplukhin2you is still stuck in Web 1.0.
- ndmackenzie
April 15, 2008 at 1:49pm
Gains?
I don't see any gains from Annapolis. All I see is the usual, endless cycle of terrorism and occupation.
Eye of the beholder?
- The Ignorant Populist
April 15, 2008 at 1:51pm
Right on, Tep, and double-right on, Zvika, for an interesting post.
One small quibble, though. Wasn't the WWF already the WWE last year? Or were they watching the World Wildlife Fund wrestle? I'd actually buy that if it were on pay-per-view.
- bigfish
April 15, 2008 at 1:58pm
ndmackenzie, you are wrong about everything. Including J Street. J Street is the name of our university's main food court.
- rozenson
April 15, 2008 at 2:59pm
mmmm...cardamom coffee...
- psantillana
April 15, 2008 at 3:52pm
Spencer Ackerman writes about J Street in The Washington Independent:
-- The two founders are expecting their actions to attract a backlash from right-wing Jewish groups and the media outlets who present a conservative line on Israel. Already, The New Republic is reportedly preparing an article attacking J Street.
www.washingtonindependent.com/.../reframing-the-israel
Now wouldn't that be a surprise.
- ndmackenzie
April 15, 2008 at 6:42pm
Really, mac, link away to your heart's delight, but just do it somewhere else. This is Zvika Krieger's entry. It's as if she set the table and cooked the meal for us. I think we owe her the courtesy of not redirecting diners away from Zvika's table and toward blog-bloviators who haven't ever met a Hamas operative in the flesh. Let alone scooped a story as rich and interesting and suggestive as this one.
- teplukhin2you
April 15, 2008 at 9:59pm