By Aaron Klein 
JERUSALEM – Israeli officials here are giving former president Jimmy Carter the cold shoulder for his plans to meet the chief of the Hamas terrorist group, which the U.S. and Israel have been attempting to isolate.   
The State Department and its director, Condoleezza Rice, even criticized Carter for his reported plans to meet Hamas. 
But the Israeli government and Rice have no moral authority whatsoever to judge Carter while they are enabling terrorists far more active than Hamas. 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak all reportedly turned down requests to see Carter, who arrived in Israel today and is due in Syria later this week, where he is likely to meet Hamas chieftain Khaled Meshaal, who resides under protection in Damascus. 
The State Department says it twice advised Carter against meeting any Hamas representative. Rice told reporters this weekend she finds it "hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace." 
Hamas is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization. The group is responsible for scores of deadly suicide bombings, and thousands of shooting attacks and rocket firings against civilian population centers.
Meanwhile, in a furious drive to reach an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, the U.S. and the Israeli government are arming, training, financing and even pardoning the most active Palestinian terrorist group. 
U.S. policy considers Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization to be moderate, even though Fatah's military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is listed by the State Department as a terror group, just like Hamas.   
Fatah's Brigades is statistically responsible for more anti-Israel terrorism the past eight years than Hamas. The group took responsibility, along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization, for every suicide bombing in Israel since 2005 and for thousands of shootings and rocket attacks, including recent high-profile terrorist operations. 
Still, U.S.-backed negotiations started at last November's Annapolis conference seeks to give Abbas' Fatah a Palestinian state, likely in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, before the end of the year.   
For almost 10 years now the U.S. has been operating training bases for Fatah's security forces, including its police, intelligence, Force 17 and Preventative Security services units. Many members of those units carried out scores of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. 
Hundreds of members of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades serve openly in Fatah's security forces; many previously attended U.S.-run courses as members of Fatah's security forces.   
For example, the chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Ramallah was trained by the U.S. and currently also serves as a Fatah security officer. Ditto for the chief of the Brigades in Nablus. 
Another example, Abbas previously appointed Al Aska Martyrs Brigades commander Mahmoud Damra as head the U.S.-backed Force 17 force, with which American coordinates security. Damra, who was on Israel's most wanted list of terrorists, was later arrested by the IDF for planning terror attacks. 
The very people who are condemning Carter for planning to meet Hamas are negotiating in person on a regular basis with terrorist-saturated Fatah. Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia have been meeting weekly while Olmert and Abbas have been meeting biweekly to hammer out an agreement. Abbas is due in Washington this month for talks with Rice and President Bush. 
You'd think since Israel is heavily negotiating with Fatah, the Palestinian organization's gunmen would refrain from attacks for just a few months until an agreement is signed. But since the November conference, Fatah has perpetuated or attempted scores of terror attacks. 
For sanctity of space, here are just a few out of nearly 50 attacks since November:
Last week, Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members infiltrated the Gaza-Israel border in an attempt to kidnap Israeli troops.  The terrorists shot dead two Israeli civilians. The Brigades, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility.
 It was released for publication last week Fatah's Brigades planned to poison an Israeli restaurant with a white, odorless deadly poison that takes effect five hours after ingestion.
Earlier this month, a Brigades member was shot dead while trying to attack two Israeli hitchhikers with a knife.
Last month's Jerusalem seminary shooting massacre, in which eight yeshiva students were gunned down in cold blood, was planned by Al Aqsa Brigades leader and outspoken Fatah activist Muhammad Shehadi, who even ran as a Fatah member in Palestinian municipal elections, according to security sources.  
The IDF killed Shehadi a week after the attack. As WND reported, an official delegation from Abbas' Fatah organization, including officials involved in negotiations, visited the Shehadi family morning tent in Bethlehem.
Fatah's Brigades took credit for a February suicide bombing along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the southern Israeli Negev town of Dimona. One woman was killed in the attack. Other groups also later took credit.
Brigades leaders in January called WND to take credit for two simultaneous terror attacks in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Terrorists fired on Israelis at the entrance to the Shoafat refugee camp north of Jerusalem, killing one and injuring another. At the same time, two terrorists stabbed two Israelis at the settlement of Kfar Etzion. The terrorists were shot and killed.
In January, the Brigades claimed credit in a news conference for killing off-duty Israeli soldiers Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin as they were hiking with a woman just outside Hebron. Israel's Shin Bet Security Services announced the two main culprits in the attack were members of Fatah's U.S.-trained security forces and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
After all this, logic would dictate someone at the State Department or in Olmert's office would call off negotiations with Abbas until attacks are halted or at least ask for a commitment to end the Fatah terrorism. 
Instead, as has been widely reported, the U.S. last month commenced elite training courses in Jordan and the West Bank city of Jericho to help establish a stronger Palestinian police force run by Fatah.
Also, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, another critic of Carter's slated Hamas meet, agreed this month to supply the PA police with ammunition, rubber bullets and night-vision equipment and to allow the transfer of 50 armed jeeps to the force.   
So now, after Barak's gesture, Fatah terrorists can scout Jewish targets in the dark with Israeli-provided night-vision goggles, shoot at Jews with Israeli-transferred bullets and retreat into their Israeli-transferred armored vehicles to fend of any IDF fire. 
The U.S. and Israel continue to play a deadly game where Hamas are the "bad" terrorists while the more active Fatah are the "good" terrorists. 
There is no question Carter, whose views on Israel are well known, is up to no good in meeting with Hamas. He would become the most high-profile American figure to sit down with the terrorist group. His visit could be the break in the dam Hamas has been looking for to end the terror group's international isolation, leading the way to contacts between Hamas and European leaders and eventually even with American diplomats. 
Carter should rightly be condemned. But Rice and the Israeli government have lost the high ground at opposing anyone who bolsters terrorists.
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