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Jimmy Carter Has High Hopes for Hamas

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Former President Jimmy Carter expressed optimism Friday over Hamas's participation in next week's Palestinian parliamentary elections, saying that while the group may be terrorists, at least they're not corrupt.

Interviewed Friday, Carter said that although Hamas were "so-called terrorists," so far "there have been no complaints of corruption against [their] elected officials."

In quotes reported by the Jerusalem Post, Carter did concede that "there is an element within Hamas who deny Israel's right to exist."

Citing his own negotiations with Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yassir Arafat, however, Carter said sometimes you have to learn to work with terrorists. At the time of Carter's Camp David Accords, the PLO was still outlawed as a terrorist organization.

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  The former president also invoked the example of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin's membership in the Irgun, which Carter reminded "was also characterized as a terrorist organization."

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