The new chairman of the powerful House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Associated Press Tuesday that former president Jimmy Carter "in effect is undermining a current policy" by traveling to Syria to talk with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat, added, "Jimmy Carter's view of the forces at work in the Middle East and how he likes to attribute blame and responsibility is so warped to my way of thinking that I'm skeptical of any initiative he undertakes."
The State Department has advised Carter not to meet with the Hamas leader, but he insisted that no peace can be achieved without talking with the terrorist organization. Berman noted that without Hamas's changing its policy that a Jewish state should not exist, there's nothing [Carter] can do that the Israelis will buy into."