Former President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and Syrian President Bashar Assad over the weekend in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Carter met with the Arab leaders despite extreme displeasure expressed by both leaders in Washington and Israel.

The Bush Administration refuses to meet with leaders of Hamas, which they have labeled a terrorist organization, until Hamas agrees to recognize Israel as a sovereign state.

Carter emerged from the talks with one major accomplishment. Hamas has agreed to propose a cease-fire that would only include the Gaza Strip and not the West Bank.

Israelis also received the good news that Hamas has agreed to allow kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to send a letter to his family in order to assure them of his well being.

Israeli leadership is expected to receive plans for a cease-fire drawn up by Hamas shortly and Hamas is hoping that a response will soon follow.

Carter also failed to achieve several more lofty goals during the talks. The first is that he failed to get Hamas leaders to accept a proposed 30 day unilateral truce. Hamas refuses to any agree to any unilateral proposal and signaled that they will only accept a cease-fire that is mutual and simultaneous. Hamas’ reasons for the refusal of a unilateral truce point to instances in the past when they have agreed to a unilateral cease-fire only to continue to have their population attacked by Israeli forces.

The overall spirit of the talks both on the part of Hamas and Syria seemed to be the desire to restart the peace process. The sporadic violence of the last several months has only heightened tensions and increased the possibility of a full military engagement on the part of Israel.

Carter has emphasized the fact that if the peace talks are going to have any hope of success both the leadership of Hamas and of Syria need to have a place at the table. Because if they are not given a voice in the peace talks they will inevitably make their voices heard through violence.

Carter also emphasized that the first step would be to lift the blockade on the boarders of Palestine as situation which he has called an atrocity and others have simply called the world’s largest prison. Some in Israel however credit the harsh lockdown of the Gaza Strip as being the action that has lead to Hamas offering a compromise on such issues as narrowing their cease-fire proposal to only include the Gaza Strip and not the West Bank.

The bottom line is that Hamas has declared that they will agree to the outcome of peace talks as long as the Palestinian population signs of on the outcome in a referendum, although a referendum would not be possible until there is reconciliation between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah. Given Hamas’ growing popularity if Israel and the West hope to deal with a secular arm of the Palestinian population they had better act quickly.