Carter, of course, doesn't think that Hamas is a terrorist organization. So it's no surprise that he and President Peres - who doesn't appreciate the way that Hamas murders Israeli children and kind of does think that that makes them terrorists - would disagree:

President Shimon Peres criticized former US president Jimmy Carter for his latest book in which he called Israel an apartheid state. Beit Hanassi officials said that in a meeting between the two on Sunday, Peres said that despite Carter's achievements at Camp David, his activities over the last few years had caused great damage to Israel and the peace process. Carter has also been criticized by Israel and the US for planning to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus. Peres said that such a meeting would be a "severe mistake," calling Mashaal a "murderer and terrorist."

Now one of these Noble Peace laureates has decades of experience negotiating Israeli-Palestinian peace deals and actually won his Noble Prize for contributions to same. The other is a one-term President who was in office decades before anyone thought of even considering the PLO's legitimacy - so his experience with the intricacies of Palestinian society may be limited. And yet for some reason we have a feeling that the international community will default to the guy who's meeting with intransigent terrorists. Strange, that.

The best part of this will be watching right-wing pro-Israel bloggers figure out how to blog this. have no such problems and are largely unsurprised.

References:
* Jimmy Carter: Hamas Made Up of "So-Called Terrorists" [MR]
* Peres: Carter damaged peace process [JPost]
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-06-13 - Labor Primary Voters Are Total... Oh Forget It (Updated: President Shimon Peres) [MR]
* Israeli Nobel Winner Peres: Syria Can't Be Trusted In Peace Deal [MR]

Previously:
* Is Jimmy Carter Just An Old-Fashioned Christian Fundamentalist, Anti-Semitic Bigot?
* Bush Destroys Bush Doctrine, Joins Jimmy Carter In Equating Israeli Victims And Palestinian Terrorists
* Carter's Appearance At UC Irvine Provides Opportunity For Snark About Peace Treaties, Tears About American Academia