Former US President Jimmy Carter's term in office was not known for its breadth of vision or significant contribution to global peace. In fact, quite the reverse. Despite being Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation on Earth, he brought America almost to a point of global ridicule because of his obsession with devoting himself to the minutiae of administration, rather than leaving such issues to his underlings. As a consequence of that, the more important issues tended to be brushed aside or delegated to minions, happy to assume powers way beyond their pay grade or competence.
However, it is a different Carter the world now sees. No longer is he the peanut farmer from Georgia and failed president, but a person who advocates human rights and dignity, and is prepared to walk the extra mile to do so. Some 21 years after leaving office, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for the Carter Foundation that he founded to promote global health, democracy and human rights. He has also travelled widely as an independent observer to monitor elections in various countries where disputes could arise. In doing so, he has often come in for severe criticism, even from the government of his own country. Such a situation has arisen again because Carter has decided that while on his tour around the Middle East, he will have talks with Hamas personnel, including the exiled Hamas leader, Khalid Mesha'al. To rub more salt into the wound created in the sides of the US and Israel, Carter has also said he will visit Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
To say his initiatives are controversial in American and Israeli eyes is putting it mildly. Yet Carter has always pursued the line that you talk peace with your enemies so that eventually peace will prevail.
