Jimmy Carter’s plan to meet the Hamas leadership in Damascus is “sensible,” says the Hamas foreign minister, and “brings honesty and pragmatism” to the Middle East.

In a Washington Post op-ed today, Mahmoud al-Zahar offers some choice insights into the thinking of the Hamas leaders Carter is so eager to engage in dialogue:

Our movement fights on because we cannot allow the foundational crime at the core of the Jewish state — the violent expulsion from our lands and villages that made us refugees — to slip out of world consciousness, forgotten or negotiated away. Judaism — which gave so much to human culture in the contributions of its ancient lawgivers and modern proponents of tikkun olam — has corrupted itself in the detour into Zionism, nationalism and apartheid.

A “peace process” with Palestinians cannot take even its first tiny step until Israel first withdraws to the borders of 1967; dismantles all settlements; removes all soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank; repudiates its illegal annexation of Jerusalem; releases all prisoners; and ends its blockade of our international borders, our coastline and our airspace permanently. This would provide the starting point for just negotiations and would lay the groundwork for the return of millions of refugees. Given what we have lost, it is the only basis by which we can start to be whole again.

The Post’s editorial board isn’t buying it. On the facing page, the Post slams Carter and slams Hamas — but justifies publishing its op-ed in the name of “clarifying” who we’re dealing with.

Mr. Zahar lauds Mr. Carter for the “welcome tonic” of saying that no peace process can succeed “unless we are sitting at the negotiating table and without any preconditions.” Yet Mr. Zahar has his own preconditions: Before any peace process can “take even its first tiny step,” he says, Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders and evacuate Jerusalem while preparing for the “return of millions of refugees.” In fact, as Mr. Zahar makes clear, Hamas is not at all interested in a negotiated peace with the Jewish state, whose existence it refuses to accept: “Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun,” he concludes.

In that fight, no act of terrorism is out of bounds for the Hamas leader, who endorses the group’s recent ambush of Israeli civilians working at a fuel depot that supplies Gaza. The “total war” of which he speaks was initiated and has been sustained by Hamas itself through its deliberate targeting of civilians, such as the residents of the Israeli town of Sderot, who suffer daily rocket attacks.

These facts would hardly need restating were it not for actors such as Mr. Carter, who portray Hamas as rational and reasonable. Hamas is “perfectly willing” for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “to represent them in all direct negotiations with the Israelis, and they also maintain that they will accept any agreement that he brokers with the Israelis” provided a referendum is held on it, the former president told the newspaper Haaretz. Compare that claim with Mr. Zahar’s own words on the opposite page. In fact, Mr. Zahar has called Mr. Abbas “a traitor” for negotiating with Israel — a label that is, in the Palestinian context, an incitement to murder.

On Wednesday morning Senate Democrats held their annual powwow with Jewish organizational leaders. Shortly after the meeting, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan briefed members of the Jewish media.

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ESPN looks back at the almost-successful attempt to get the United States to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics:

Seventy-two years ago this summer, Hitler’s Germany played host to the Games of the Eleventh Olympiad in Berlin.

The games are now best remembered for the brilliance of Jesse Owens — who won four gold medals — and the success of the Nazis’ propaganda machine. For the first time in the history of the modern Olympics, the Games were held hostage by the political goals of the host nation.

What’s largely forgotten is the fact that a powerful American movement to boycott the Nazi Olympics nearly succeeded. The final vote of the AAU’s delegates was 58.25 to 55.75 in favor of participation. If three more delegates had voted to boycott the Games, the Nazis would have presided at a meaningless event.

The Free-Lance Star in Fredericksburg, Va., published an ode to good old fashioned fried matzah:

In a holiday filled with ritual foods, matzo is the oldest symbol of salvation in the Passover Seder. In fact, the Seder can’t end until the last piece of matzo has been recovered from its ceremonial hiding place and eaten.

My memories of matzo are long and fond. My dad’s mother, Nanny Ann, used to make matzo brei for us whenever she visited.

She was stout and matronly, given to much fretting and hand-wringing unless she was busy in the kitchen.

But for those looking for something more avant-guarde, check out Gothamist’s roundup of New York eateries offering creative matzah-based dishes.

Rabbi Shea Hecht’s outfit produced this video tribute to Liviu Librescu, the Jewish professor at Virginia Tech who died saving the lives of his students during the 2007 shooting spree.

Here’s a fun line from a New York Times profile on peace processor Aaron David Miller:

When he first met Arafat, he says, he was struck by how much he looked like Ringo Starr in Arab headdress.

It made me chuckle, but not as much as when I heard another Miller — Dennis — describe the late PLO leader as Mr. Roper with a hangover. (I’d say Ringo is probably the better match, but Dennis still gets the nod for creativity.)

You think cleaning a kitchen for Passover is tough? The Associated Press reports on the removal of thousands of notes from the Western Wall:

Poking into crevices between the ancient stones of the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, a senior rabbi and his helpers on Tuesday removed thousands of handwritten notes placed there by visitors who believe their requests will find a shortcut to God by being deposited at Judaism’s holiest site.

The operation is carried out twice each year: before the Passover festival which begins this weekend and at the Jewish New Year in the fall. …

“Millions of people place notes here at the Western Wall with their requests, we take them out in order that more people can place these notes,” said the site’s rabbi, Shmuele Rabinowitz. “So that these notes are not defiled and don’t fall out, we collect then in a seemly and respectful way and bury them on the Mount of Olives,” just across a valley from the Old City.

Here’s the audio from today’s press conference about the launch of J Street, the new dovish pro-Israel PAC.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone filling Charlton Heston’s Mosaic shoes. But then again, you haven’t listened to “Exodus: An Oratorio,” starring … William Shatner.

My story on the new CD is up (just in time for Passover). And here’s the Podcast of my interview with the Star Terk and Boston Legal star.

This is JTA Digital Media Master Daniel Sieradski’s favorite clip from the CD.

And here’s the final line of the performance, which Shatner names as the most dramatic (note the Spock connection, though I’m pretty sure it’s unintentional).

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“For 19 years, Dr. Bob Levenson, 60, was one of the most sought-after mohels in Greater Boston,” the Boston Globe reports. “But now he is retired and his shoes have not been easy to fill.”

The solution?

A boot camp for mohels.

Last weekend, 21 students from across the country - mostly pediatricians, urologists, and obstetricians - converged for an intense three-day certification course on how to become a mohel. The first Boston-area training session in 20 years, the workshop was an attempt to replenish the dwindling number of mohels in the region and enliven the connection between Jews and the ancient ritual that symbolizes the Jewish covenant with God.

With just two dozen or so active mohels serving Eastern Massachusetts, many young parents seeking a traditional berit mila - religious circumcision in accordance with Jewish law - describe a frantic and stressful search to book a mohel in the days following their newborn’s birth. To increase the numbers requires lobbying an already busy group of men and women to take on a time-consuming and important religious responsibility.