Can't Carter Shut Up???

He's an embarassment as a former-President..well, hell, he wasn't much of a President at all...

Former President Jimmy Carter told the Free Press that Israel was responsible for last month's fighting in Gaza, a comment that drew sharp reaction from members of the local Jewish community, who called him an apologist for terrorist groups.

Carter, asked in a telephone interview who was responsible for the Gaza war, replied simply: "Israel was."

The Democrat said that Israel first violated an earlier cease-fire agreement with Hamas, the Palestinian ruling party in Gaza that fired rockets into Israel.

The former president, who met with Hamas leaders last year, also urged the United States to negotiate with Hamas.

"Hamas' popularity has increased in the last few weeks since Israel attacked Hamas and its people in Gaza," Carter said. "So you got to deal with them."

But some say Carter is misguided.

"It's like asking the Jewish people to make a deal with Hitler," said Hannan Lis, 50, of Farmington Hills, who has family members in Israel. "It's naive and a little concerning that ... a former president is using his moral authority and political capital to essentially say Israel should make a deal with a religious philosophy that is totally committed to the destruction of ... people because they're Jewish."