Former US president Jimmy Carter criticized Israel’s blockade during a trip to Gaza, while encouraging the territory’s Hamas rulers to accept international conditions for ending its boycott of the militant Islamic group.
During Carter’s visit on Tuesday, Hamas security found what appeared to be explosives buried in a sand dune next to his route. No one was hurt, and it was unclear if the former US president was being targeted.
Speaking at a graduation for students from UN-run schools in Gaza City, Carter criticized the Gaza blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took control, saying Gazans “are treated more like animals than human beings.”
PHOTO: AP
Carter’s one-day Gaza visit came at the end of a swing though Lebanon, Syria and Israel, during which he encouraged officials in all countries to move toward a negotiated end to the Middle East conflict.
Carter — who helped broker the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt — serves a unique, though unofficial, role in peacemaking efforts in the region.
Although traveling as a “private citizen” and not a representative of the US government, Carter said he would report to the administration of US President Barack Obama after returning to the US.
Carter has advocated talking to all parties in the conflict, even Hamas, which the US, the EU and Israel consider a terrorist organization.
Carter said one of his trip’s main goals was to persuade Hamas to accept the West’s three conditions for engaging the group: renouncing violence, recognizing Israel and accepting previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements — all of which Hamas has refused to do.
At a news conference in Tel Aviv after leaving Gaza, Carter said he was waiting for Hamas to determine what it could agree to.
“When they make their decision on the exact language, they’ll be back in touch with me, and I’ll relay that commitment to the government officials in my country,” he said.
While in Gaza, Carter met with civil leaders and toured areas damaged in Israel’s three-week offensive against Hamas, which ended on Jan. 18.
In other news, Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch apologized yesterday after being caught by TV cameras on Tuesday using a racial slur in addressing an Arab police officer.
Aharonovitch was seen and heard telling the officer, who had apologized for his uniform not being clean: “What do you mean dirty? You look like a real Araboosh,” a derogatory term for an Arab in Hebrew slang.
“This remark does not reflect my positions or world view and I apologize to anyone who was insulted,” he said in a statement.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
RSS