Investor’s Business Daily offers this bit on former President Carter’s views on the West, and particularly the current US administration and Israel, moving to shore up Fatah and isolate Hamas.

One can certainly quibble, or outright argue, over giving aid to Fatah, which has proven itself both inept at governance and security, as well as not much better than anyone else in Hamas at accepting Israel’s right to exist. But the “not much” seems to be enough to convince the West that Fatah is better than Hamas, and worth significant millions in aid to bet this is true. Again, that is debatable (Michael Oren writes in today’s WSJ an op-ed piece entitled Fatah Isn’t the Answer) but it seems odd that an ex-president who has spent so much human, intellectual and financial capital pressing for peace would actually prefer full blown terrorists in power, receiving international recognition and given all the rights and privileges of government.

Say the edit heads at IBD: “Crazier still, Carter insisted Hamas was entitled to American aid because Fatah had been getting it. But he left out some details: Hamas is a terrorist organization that had broken six previous cease-fires, and its campaign platform vowed to destroy Israel. Hamas would gladly take Western cash to make good on that campaign promise to voters.

“No one in the West is obligated to support an international terrorist organization just because it “won” an election. The proper response is to cut it off until it renounces violence.”