Word: sadat
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...Sadat broadens his options and revives an old controversy...
With President Reagan still settling into the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin girding for an uphill election campaign, Anwar Sadat has been fearful that the peace process might lose so much momentum as to expire altogether. So the Egyptian President has undertaken a one-man campaign to keep the process alive. Two weeks ago, he addressed the European Parliament in Luxembourg, where he solicited Europe's help in persuading both Israelis and Palestinians to accept "mutual and simultaneous recognition." Afterward, he stopped over in Paris for talks with French President Valéry Giscard...
...Sadat first raised the idea of a provisional Palestinian government in 1973. He brought it up again for two reasons. First, he views the Palestinians as the linchpin in a comprehensive Middle East agreement under the Camp David accords. Second, he feels that the present Palestinian leadership, notably that of Palestine Liberation Organization Chief Yasser Arafat, is unable to withstand pressures from Syria and the U.S.S.R. Sadat reasons that a government in exile formed by all Palestinians, P.L.O. members as well as Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, might yield a stronger leadership. It would...
...Sadat's proposal evoked anger among Israeli officials. Interior Minister Yosef Burg, who is also Jerusalem's chief negotiator at the stalled talks on Palestinian autonomy, called it "a complete contradiction to the spirit of Camp David." For that matter, the P.L.O. evinced no excitement about the idea. Farouk Kaddoumi, the P.L.O.'s unofficial foreign minister, called the time "inopportune" for such a government, adding that "we do not place any trust in Sadat." American analysts interpreted Sadat's proposal as an attempt "at keeping all the options open" that offered little chance of immediate success...
Involving Hussein is important not only because of his potential ability to serve as a surrogate for West Bank Palestinians. It is also important that the Arab-Israeli peace process take on a more multinational cast, thus easing the onus on Egypt's Anwar Sadat as the odd man out in the Arab world. Sadat's isolation makes him politically vulnerable both to internal enemies, like Muslim fundamentalists, and to external foes, like the irrepressible Gaddafi. Sadat's troubles are economic as well as political; he would be in a better position to deliver his long-promised...