Word: beginnings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Begin insisted on an exchange of ambassadors between Cairo and Jerusalem one month after the completion of the first stage of Israel's Sinai withdrawal (ten months after the treaty signing). Such an exchange, the Israelis said, would be a dramatic symbol of the new, normalized relations between the two former enemies. But Sadat wanted the ambassadorial exchange to await the establishment of self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank, something that could take several years. He was concerned that, once the Israeli Star of David flag begins flying over an embassy in Cairo, some Arab states would recall...
...Monday morning's session, the Israelis disclosed that they would accept some of Sadat's changes but refused to budge on the issues of Gaza, Sinai oil and the exchange of ambassadors. Declared Carter: "That is not enough." The President then pressed Begin hard, insisting that Israel sign the treaty. "No, sir," replied the Israeli leader. "We are a free people and we are not going to sign it unless we decide." In a separate meeting with senior Israeli deputies, Carter was chided for dealing as Laban did with the Patriarch Jacob in Genesis 29: 15-28, reneging...
...Knesset's treatment of Carter, as it turned out, was much friendlier than that accorded Begin. Obstreperous deputies subjected the Premier to such prolonged heckling that at one time the Speaker had to plead: "Please, only one heckler at a time." Some hard-lining members of Begin's own Likud faction accused him of abandoning Israel's claims to the West Bank, while Communists shouted that the government was suppressing the Palestinians...
Throughout the uproar, Carter sat stonefaced. According to a White House aide, the President was dismayed by the lack of decorum on what was, in many respects, a formal state occasion. But Begin, who used to be quite a heckler himself when he was a deputy, seemed almost to relish the rowdiness as a proof of his repeated argument that his negotiating powers are limited by opposition in the Cabinet and Knesset...
...Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, though exhausted by the protracted negotiations, pleaded that both sides must keep trying. Said he: "We can't let the President leave in this spirit. The U.S. is the most important ally we have. We have to reopen the door for further negotiations." To which Begin retorted: "It is up to the Americans to decide whether they are leaving or staying...