By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler
Jimmy Carter's on a Mideast tour
Former president Jimmy Carter just arrived in Lebanon, where he will do some electoral analysis and give a speech that will probably upset legions of Jews across the globe.
Carter will speak Dec. 12 at the American University in Beirut on “30 years after Camp David: A memo to the Arab World, Israel and the Quartet.”
He will also go to Syria. Says JTA:
From Beirut, Carter will continue to Syria and a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad “to discuss the prospects for peace in the Middle East,” according to a statement from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, the human rights group he established and still leads.
Israel and Syria have been negotiating peace indirectly under Turkish auspices but without the encouragement of the Bush administration, which regards Syria as a terrorist-backing rogue nation.
A number of dovish pro-Israel peace activists and groups in the United States are pressing President-elect Barack Obama to give priority to Israel-Syria talks, saying the Israeli-Palestinian track is intractable for now.
We’ll keep an eye on this.
