Word: baraker
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Many of the suggestions Vance and I had expected to be opposed were accepted immediately by Barak and elBaz, and few of these were ever again questioned by their superiors. We did a lot of work on the Jerusalem paragraph. It referred to Jerusalem as the city of peace, holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and stated that all persons would have free access to it, free exercise of worship and the right to visit and travel to the holy places without distinction or discrimination. We agreed that Jerusalem would never again be a divided city, that the holy places...
Some differences could not be resolved. Barak refused to discuss the Israeli settlements at all, saying that it was a subject only Begin could address. El-Baz, backed by Sadat, refused to include...
Begin came with Dayan and Barak, for which we were thankful. If anyone at Camp David had influence on Begin, it was these two men. Begin began talking about the blessed settlements, but I insisted that we go through both documents in an orderly fashion, paragraph by paragraph. I wanted the Israelis to realize how few differences remained. In an hour we were finished with the Sinai document, and it was obvious to me that Sadat would be willing to accept almost all the Israeli demands for change. The few others were not very important to Begin, and I felt...
...serious; the Israelis were determined to sign no agreement at all. Vance confirmed this and explained that none of the Israelis had understood that we were going to write a letter "criticizing Israel for occupying eastern Jerusalem," even after we had explained the letter exchange last night. I asked Barak to walk with me to Aspen to go over our proposed letter, to find language that might be acceptable. He was as adamant as the other Israelis, insisting that the situation was hopeless...
...else leave. He was quiet, sober, surprisingly friendly. There were no histrionics. He said that the Jerusalem matter was fatal, that he was very sorry but he could not accept our letter to Egypt. I told him I had drafted a new version and submitted it to Dayan and Barak. He had not yet seen it. I suggested he read it, but that there was no way that I could go back on my commitment to Sadat to exchange letters. Any future talks might depend on his and Sadat's assessment of my integrity, and I could not violate...