Mideast meddling not welcome

Inter Lake editorial

Does anyone remember President Eisenhower using his retirement years to engage in free-lance negotiations with enemies of the United States?

How about Harry Truman? Lyndon Johnson? Richard Nixon? Gerald Ford? Ronald Reagan? George H.W. Bush? Bill Clinton?

Many of these ex-presidents have been world travelers and even global gadflies, but they have never traded on their former office to try to practice foreign policy in opposition to the current administration.

Of course, the only post-war ex-president whose name isn't found on that list is Jimmy Carter, who seems to be hell-bent on proving conclusively in retirement what many think he strongly suggested during his tenure as president - that he is hopelessly naive about world affairs.

In case you missed it, Carter has spent the past week gallivanting around the Middle East in search of peace in our time, and he has found signs of peace in the strangest places - from Damascus, where the Syrian regime has been implicated in several key assassinations meant to destabilize Lebanon, to Gaza, where President Carter thinks Hamas has turned the corner from terrorist group to Peace Prize contender.

And although Carter spoke glowingly of his success - telling the world that Hamas had agreed that Israel has a right to live in peace as a neighbor of Arab states - he apparently doesn't know that the group's very charter calls for the destruction of Israel. The Hamas leader with whom Carter met, Khaled Mashaal, also said that Hamas "will not recognize the state of Israel."

Oddly enough, that is the same view of the United States toward Hamas. Our government does not recognize Hamas as a legitimate government body, but rather views it as a terrorist group.

Indeed, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she advised Carter against holding talks with Hamas, and everyone except Jimmy Carter seems to know that his trip served no purpose except to give unearned credibility to a group that is best known for suicide bombs and rocket attacks on Israeli villages.

Which is why, if you needed a reason, ex-presidents should leave foreign policy to elected presidents.