Former US president Jimmy Carter almost gives politics a good name! His latest Middle East peace effort, which has been both lauded and condemned by various parties in the region and at home, is a personal venture by one of the most credible mediators who has been involved in this region's most problematic conflict for more than three decades.
It is ironic that many in the US, Israel and even the Palestinian National Authority were hoping that he would fail rather than succeed in his mission.
The controversy surrounding Carter's regional peace trip was triggered when he announced his intentions to negotiate with the Hamas political leadership in Gaza and Damascus. The Bush administration and friends of Israel were peeved by his plan to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad as well.
Talking to Hamas is something that Israel, the US and the Mahmoud Abbas government are vehemently opposed to, for different reasons. Israel considers itself at war with the Islamist resistance movement which controls the Gaza Strip and is holding an Israeli soldier prisoner since June 2006.
The US, on the other hand, has blacklisted Hamas as a terrorist organisation and takes credit for toppling its democratically elected government. For Abbas, relations with the movement can never be normalised so long as Hamas refuses to hand back Gaza to the PNA and "restore Palestinian legitimacy".
Pragmatism
But Carter's manoeuvre is neither fanciful nor marginal. By seeking to talk to Hamas the former president is exercising pragmatism that is proving to be in short supply everywhere else.
The Islamist movement is not a newcomer to the Palestinian political stage. More importantly it has claimed its stake to Palestinian legitimacy when its candidates won a majority in the 2006 legislative elections, which were described by independent observers, including Carter, as free and fair.
The Hamas-led government was shortlived because Israel and the United States refused to recognise it and were directly working to stifle it. It is worth mentioning that the movement had abided by a lengthy truce and restrained its military wing from launching attacks against Israel.
The government did not resign and was not relieved by the legislature but was simply fired through a legally controversial decree by the PNA president. The fact that the US had financed a plan to depose the movement in Gaza is now a matter of public record.
In response, the ostracised movement decided to carry out a coup against the PNA presence in Gaza in June of last year. And since then the enclave's 1.4 million people have been subjected to many forms of collective punishment by Israel including an economic blockade, military incursions and random assassinations of activists and leaders.
It is no secret that both Israel and the United States have been opposed to reconciliation attempts between the PNA and Hamas. Abbas was informed by Israel on numerous occasions that any make up between himself and Hamas will terminate peace talks.
As a result Egyptian, Saudi and Yemeni initiatives to broker a compromise between the two sides were met with failure. More importantly, Israel stepped up its siege of the Strip amid international and regional indifference.
But Hamas has not budged and remains in control of Gaza. As the PNA-Israel negotiations stutter, the popularity of the Islamist movement is still considerable among the Palestinians.
Israel has weakened Abbas's credibility by carrying out almost daily incursions into West Bank towns and cities, keeping tens of thousands of Palestinians behind bars, maintaining hundreds of road blocks, building new colonies and reneging on previous commitments.
Carter's initiative aims at pumping some fuel into the peace process's empty tank. His meeting with exiled Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al in Damascus on Friday is said to have focused on two issues for starters; the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli corporal who is believed to be in Gaza, and halting rocket attacks against Israeli towns.
Hamas has outlined its positions on both issues a number of times. Shalit's release will be part of a prisoner swap deal and the attacks will be stopped when Israel ends the siege and stops its incursions and assassinations.
In spite of Israel's official ban on negotiating with Hamas, there have been previous contacts between the two sides, more recently over the prisoner exchange issue. On the eve of the Carter-Mesha'al meeting senior Cabinet Minister Eli Yishai said that he had told the former president that he was willing to sit with Hamas to discuss Shalit's release.
But if an Israeli minister is ready to meet with Hamas directly then why is it a sin for Carter, the PNA and others to do the same? Carter's motives are clear even though he does not claim to be a mediator. His view, which is sound in principle, is that a peace settlement will never be reached if Hamas and Syria are excluded.
For Abbas the case should be easier to defend: Hamas is part of the Palestinian national movement and has the record to prove it. More importantly it has shown that it is willing to accommodate a just peace settlement that meets the minimum aspirations of the Palestinian people.
For the Americans the fact that about 20 years ago Washington initiated contacts with the PLO which eventually led to recognition proves that talking to Hamas will bring more benefit than harm.
Carter's gambit may achieve little in the end, but it is an eye opener and a wake up call to all concerned. The current stalemate has failed to serve the causes of peace and stability in this troubled region. New ideas are needed and the former president has just presented us with a few.
Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist based in Amman.
