JERUSALEM - Former President Jimmy Carter is getting a cool reception in Israel, where he arrived Sunday at the start of a nine-day Mideast tour that is to include a meeting with Hamas leaders in Syria.
Carter, who brokered the first Arab-Israeli peace accord, was shunned by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. However, Carter met on Sunday with President Shimon Peres, whose position is ceremonial.
Carter also plans to travel to the West Bank and to meet the leaders of Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan on what the Atlanta-based Carter Center called a "study mission" to support Mideast peace efforts.
A spokesman for Olmert declined to comment on the Carter trip, but other Israeli officials said the reason for the cold shoulder was Carter's plan to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus, a move that has been criticized by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization and are boycotting the militant Islamic group, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and whose charter calls for Israel's destruction. U.S. and Israeli policy is to isolate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and pursue peace efforts with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who favors a negotiated settlement with Israel.
Carter said on ABC's "This Week" that "it's likely that I will be meeting with the Hamas leaders" in Syria. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process," Carter said. "I think someone should be meeting with Hamas to see what we can do to encourage them to be cooperative."
Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas official in Syria, said the group "welcomes the request" from Carter to see Mashaal, and that the meeting would take place Friday.
