JERUSALEM — Former President Carter said Monday that the Islamic group Hamas was willing to accept the Jewish state as a “neighbor next door,” but the militants did not match their upbeat words with concrete steps to halt violence.
Hamas, which advocates Israel’s destruction, recycled previous offers, including a 10-year truce if Israel takes the unlikely step of withdrawing from the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Hamas has repeatedly confounded observers with its conflicting messages. Actions on the ground — seven rockets were fired on Israel from Hamas-ruled Gaza on Monday, including one that wounded a 4-year-old boy — contradicted the Islamic militant group’s positive words about coexistence and a truce.
The salvo of rockets came despite a last-minute phone call from Carter, urging a one- month halt to attacks on Israel, to gain some international goodwill and defuse tensions.
“I did the best I could,” Carter said of his conversation with Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal, pressing him to declare a one-month truce. “They turned me down, and I think they’re wrong.”
Carter, who delivered a speech in Jerusalem summing up his visit Monday, said top Hamas leaders told him during seven hours of talks in Damascus, Syria, over the weekend that they are willing to live next to Israel.
Hours later, however, Mashaal stressed that while the militants would accept a state in the 1967 borders, the group would never recognize the Jewish state.
The Bush administration and Israel, which shun Hamas as a terrorist group, have criticized the Carter mission as misguided.
In Jerusalem, Carter defended his trip, saying peace in the region will be possible only if Israel and the U.S. start talking to Hamas and Syria, which supports several militant groups.
“The present strategy of excluding Hamas and excluding Syria is just not working,” said Carter, who brokered a historic 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
