Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats are up in arms at President Bush’s remarks yesterday in Israel that criticized those who want to appease terrorists. Although he wasn’t mentioned by name, Obama and others, such as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, seem to think the president was referring to him specifically.

The Washington Times’ Jon Ward reports that Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president, told reporters aboard Air Force One today that he was “surprised and curious as to the reaction,” adding that the concern prior to the speech was that people would think the president’s comments were a slap at former President Jimmy Carter and his meetings with Hamas, not Obama and his foreign policy stance. Implying that the reaction by Obama and his fellow Democrats may have been driven by the media’s interpretation of the speech rather than the words in the speech itself, Gillespie went on to say, “We don’t necessarily live in a world where people just report what the president says, they have to report what they think it means.”

In response to former President Carter’s talks with Hamas this week, Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican from North Carolina, has called for his U.S. passport to be revoked and for the Carter Center to be cut off from taxpayer money. “[Pulling his passport is] up to the secretary of state,” Myrick said yesterday on the Fox News Network. “But, frankly, I wanted to send a strong message, because we have a policy in this country about Hamas. And he is just deliberately undermining the policy, and it’s wrong.” The State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist group, which means that U.S. officials are not to meet with them.

Former President Jimmy Carter is scheduled to meet with a leading member of Hamas today, stressing that he wants to act “just as a communicator” and not as a negotiator in this conflict. Critics opposing him claim he is granting the militant group legitimacy and undermining moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s attempts for peace.

Yesterday, as Carter has toured Sderot, an Israeli town on the Gaza border constantly under rocket attack by Palestinian militants, he tried to show his diplomatic neutrality by reaching out to the Jewish community. But Carter has long been critical of the Jewish state, describing Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as “a system of apartheid.”

The Israeli military has stymied his plans to meet Hamas executive Nasser al-Shaer. They have refused to provide a security detail for the former president and blocked his entrance to the Gaza Strip Yesterday.

Though condemned by members of congress as well as Middle Eastern policy experts, Carter stressed Tuesday that he would also continue on to Syria later this week for a meeting with top Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to “get him to agree to a peaceful resolution of differences, both with the Israelis… and also with Fatah.” Carter argues that isolating Hamas is counterproductive to the peace process.

Yet, there are many who do not believe Hamas has a right to peace negotiations. The Boston Herald lashed out against Carter on Monday, saying,“The fact that his very presence rewards murder seems to be lost on the former president who continues to be an embarrassment to the nation he once served.”