FRIENDS OF JIMMY CARTER

Friends of Jimmy Carter (WSJ-BOTW)
In a Newsweek interview, a Mideast leader has kind words for a former president and several other prominent Americans:

You weren't encouraged at all by the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton report?

[President] Bush ignored the Baker-Hamilton report and the positions and reports of a number of American figures and former officials, such as [former national-security adviser Zbigniew] Brzezinski, [Council on Foreign Relations president] Richard Haass and former U.S. president Carter. Bush continues to adopt the same philosophy: if power does not succeed in achieving the objective, then more power will.

Still, some Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer seem to be making an effort to reach out.

I believe [Pelosi's recent visit to Syria] was a step in the right direction. Wise people in the U.S. should realize that Israel and the fundamentalist American conservative right have both become burdens on the interests and the future of America.

And who's saying this? Khaled Meshal, described by Newsweek as the "most powerful figure" in the terrorist group Hamas. With friends like these . . .