Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called Jimmy Carter’s seeming reach-out to Hamas baffling and said the former president ought to turn back from his push to get the United States to recognize the terror group as a simple political organization.
More to point, he called Mr. Carter’s view “mind-boggling,” Newsmax reported.
“How he could be asking us to support a terrorist group is totally mind-boggling,” Mr. Giuliani said during an interview on Fox News. “This is an absolutely irresponsible statement. [Hamas] is a terrorist group that’s killing peaope.”
Mr. Giuliani’s comments come in reference to an op-ed penned by Mr. Carter a couple of days ago that said, in part: “Only by recognizing [Hamas’] legitimacy as a political actor — one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people — can the West begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons,” ForeignPolicy.com reported.
The former mayor also faulted Mr. Carter’s own presidential policies in 1979 for sparking part of the current crisis in the Middle East.
“Look, no one person caused all of this out-of-control Islamic terrorism,” Mr. Giuliani said, referencing the 1979 Iranian student takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran that led to the 444-day hostage situation of 52 Americans. “[But] if there’s one American who’s contributed to it more than anyone else, it’s Jimmy Carter and his inability to keep the shah [from] overthrowing the shah [Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran]. … He’s dealing with a legacy that is probably the worst one of any president in our lifetime. Obama’s given him a good run for, maybe, giving him a little notch up.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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