The least successful US president of the 20th century seems hell bent on backing every anti-Israeli manoeuvre he can attach himself to, rarely missing the opportunity in the process to blunder into a diplomatic minefield he is clearly not competent to navigate. That’s right, Jimmy Carter is at it again. This time he has given his backing to the notion of a unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence on 1967 lines. The idea — unworkable in practice and a surefire recipe for renewed violence — is that the Palestinians would make such a declaration in the middle of 2011 and then, Kosovo style, get as many UN member states as possible to recognise it. Brazil and Argentina pre-emptively recognised Palestinian independence earlier this month in anticipation of such a move.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph has reported Carter as telling Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo newspaper the following: “I am very happy to see that Brazil recognised the Palestinian state with the 1967 borders… We cannot count on the United States alone to bring peace, since it agrees with almost everything that Israel does… Brazil can help because it has a lot of influence among developing countries. Brazil can be one of the leaders of this process.”

The trouble is that not even the Palestinians can agree on this.

The Jerusalem Post reports today that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad opposes the move and has drawn the ire of other senior Palestinians for doing so. Fayyad said: ““We are looking for a state of Palestine, not a unilateral declaration of statehood.”

As the Post put it: “A top aide to Abbas said in response to Fayyad’s remarks: “The prime minister expressed his personal opinion. The Palestinian leadership has a different view.” Fatah sources told the London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper that Fayyad’s statements were “unacceptable, incomprehensible and surprising.”’

Hamas opposes the move too since they cannot accept the recognition of Israel that a two-state solution would imply. So a big round of applause for Jimmy Carter. He’s managed to land himself in the middle of a three-way Palestinian split.

It’s not often that you can say thank goodness we have Barack Obama in the White House rather than one of his predecessors. But Jimmy Carter? The mind boggles…