Not just naive, he’s arrogant and pious, too! Powerline:

…a sucker like Jimmy Carter comes along only once or twice in a century.

There was lots not to like in Carter’s interview with Wolf Blitzer today, but let’s just focus on his version of events in the Middle East:

BLITZER: Let’s talk about foreign policy, a very sensitive issue: Your recent trip to the Middle East, your decision to meet with Hamas, a group the U.S. government brands a terrorist organization.President Bush was asked about it at his news conference. And here’s what he said. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Foreign policy and peace is undermined by Hamas in the Middle East. They’re the ones who are undermining peace. They’re the ones whose foreign policy objective is the destruction of Israel. They’re the ones who are, you know, trying to create enough violence to stop the advance of the two-party state solution.

They are a significant problem to world peace, or Middle Eastern peace. And that’s the reason I’m not talking to them. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He was specifically asked about your decision to talk to them. Do you want to respond to what you just heard?

CARTER: Well, he’s completely mistaken. It’s obvious that he doesn’t know the policy of Hamas.

And I think that, since I met with them, I can very well say that — and I’ve talked to Hamas a number of times…

This is truly breathtaking. President Bush “doesn’t know the policy of Hamas,” apparently with regard to the destruction of Israel and the desirability of peace in the region. Let’s not take President Bush’s word for it; let’s go straight to the source: the Covenant of Hamas. From the Preamble:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.

Article 11:

The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it.

Article 13:

Palestine is an Islamic land… Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be.