Interestingly, CNN, in that story Kathryn linked, apparently decided to omit an itsy bitsy detail that the AP has buried in the middle of its story (my italics):
… Carter said the group promised it wouldn’t undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel, as long as the Palestinian people approved it in a referendum. In such a scenario, he said Hamas would not oppose a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas, a militant Islamic group that both the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization, calls in its charter for Israel’s destruction. It has also traditionally opposed peace negotiations with the Jewish state.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, later said Carter’s comments “do not mean that Hamas is going to accept the result of the referendum.”
BTW, can you imagine considering a group to be a terrorist organization just because it is militant and it demands the destruction of its neighbor through Islamic jihad? What are the U.S. and Israel thinking about?