Word: sadat
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After speaking to Carter, Vance had one more fruitless session with the Israelis, then returned to Cairo to brief Sadat before flying to Washington. By this time, his team was so demoralized that one member cracked bitterly, "This calls for a trip to the Wailing Wall...
What most distressed the Israelis seemed to be Vance's support of Sadat on the linkage issue, especially because it would connect the Egyptian-Israeli treaty with the establishment of West Bank and Gaza autonomy. Complained Naftali Lavie, an aide to Dayan: "This is strict blackmailing and not a linking." The Israeli reaction seemed extreme. For one thing, Sadat is willing to accept a target date merely as a goal instead of as a fixed timetable. For another, although Sadat now wants to delay the exchange of ambassadors, all other aspects of normalization would proceed as scheduled, including trade, cultural...
While the Israelis have a point in that at times Begin has been flexible and Sadat has toughened his bargaining position, on balance Israel has been the less compromising and more frustrating negotiating partner. Part of Begin's stubbornness, of course, may be dictated by the realities of Israeli politics. His government needs support in the Knesset from hawks, who feel that Israel must have much of the occupied territory to preserve its security, and also from members of the religious parties, who generally oppose relinquishing lands that they feel were granted to Israel in the Old Testament. Since Camp...
...statements last week, the Administration indicated quite clearly that it blames Israel more than Egypt for blocking a peace settlement. White House Press Secretary Jody Powell declared that the matter of peace "is now in the hands of the Israeli government." While Carter praised Sadat for being "very generous" in making concessions requested by the U.S., the President suggested that Israel was refusing to accept a timetable that actually had been proposed by Dayan and Weizman...
...Israelis, however, it is Sadat who, as one Begin aide says, has been "zigzagging all the time, all the way." They claim that earlier this year a high Egyptian official assured Defense Minister Weizman that Egypt was "against the establishment of an independent Palestinian state." But last month Sadat said in a letter to Begin: "The Palestinian issue was always the core of the Middle East conflict. I always demanded, and still do demand, the establishment of a Palestinian state." The Israelis argue, moreover, that Begin has made important concessions, like agreeing to remove Israeli settlements and airfields from...