The gap between Israel and Egypt on the Palestinian question has apparently not been narrowed as a result of the Ismailia summit, and while both President Anwar Sadat and Premier Menachem Begin pledged here today to continue with the peace momentum, there was a feeling of some let down among observers at the failure to make progress on this fundamental issue.
The failure was particularly accentuated when it became clear at the start of the two leaders’ joint press conference this morning that they had not been able to formulate a joint statement of intent or declaration of principles as had earlier been hoped and expected.
Instead, Sadat read a prepared statement, to which Begin added his verbal concurrence, reporting “progress” on the “question of the withdrawal” (apparently meaning Sinai withdrawal), adding: “But on the Palestinian question, which we consider the core and crux of the conflict, the Egyptian and Israeli delegations discussed the Palestinian problem… The position of Egypt is that on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip a Palestinian state should be established.
“The position of Israel is that Palestinian Arabs” here Sadat paused for some 10 seconds–“of Judee (sic) Samaria and the Gaza Strip should enjoy self-rule. We have agreed that–because we have differed on this issue–the issue will be discussed in the political committee of the Cairo preparatory conference.”
ROLE OF THE TWO COMMITTEES
The “political committee,” to be headed by the two foreign ministers, is one of two committees which Sadat and Begin agreed to set up yesterday to continue their peace efforts. It will convene early in January in Jerusalem, the two leaders explained today and the United States and United Nations will be invited to participate–as they have participated until now in the Cairo conference itself.
Sadat said the “political” and “military” committees would “work in the context of the Cairo conference” and report back on their decisions to the plenary of that conference.
The military committee, under the two defense ministers, will meet, apparently simultaneously, in Cairo–but here, Sadat explained, only the two sides will participate, not third parties. This seemed to mean that the military committee will confine itself exclusively to the security and territorial issues pertinent to the Sinai.
SAYS ALL GAPS CAN BE BRIDGED
Both leaders took pains to put the best imprint possible on the results of their summit and on the future prospects of the negotiations. “I do not think there is any gap that cannot be bridged,” Sadat declared in response to a question on the difference over the West Bank. Begin asserted that the Ismailia summit had been “successful.”
“I have come here a hopeful Prime Minister and I am leaving a happy man,” he declared. “The conference at Ismailia has been successful. We will continue with the momentum of the peace process. Now starts the phase of the most serious negotiations–on details of how to establish peace between Egypt and Israel as part of a comprehensive peace settlement throughout the Middle East.”
Begin added that “these two days (of meetings) are very good days for Egypt and for Israel and for peace… My friends and I leave Ismailia with the faith that we have contributed to the peacemaking process and that there is hope that with God’s help President Sadat and I and our friends will establish peace…”
In his opening statement, Sadat announced, too, that apart from the establishment of the political and military committees, the Cairo conference itself will be raised to the foreign ministers level. But it was not immediately clear whether the Cairo conference would indeed retain a separate existence as distinct from the political committee, and if so, how and when it would reconvene.
The expectation at Mena House outside Cairo is that the conference will adjourn tomorrow for a few days and the Israeli delegation will fly home, leaving a skeleton staff behind to provide continuity and prepare the physical arrangements for the meetings in January of the “military committee” under Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Egyptian Minister of War Mohammed Gamassy. But no one could say authoritatively at this point that the military committee would in fact be meeting at the Mena House.
DETERMINED TO KEEP SPIRITS HIGH
Plainly determined to keep spirits high despite the differences, Sadat volunteered that since his Jerusalem visit last month “everything has changed… The world is completely different.” The change, he told on Israeli questioner, had “not been abrupt” and reflected the “subconscious” desires of his people, though he conceded that he himself had been overwhelmed by the “extent” to which Egyptians had supported his peace venture.
There was “no fear,” Sadat said, that “at the push of a button” (In the questioner’s words) there might be “a revival of anything that has happened in the past.” He agreed, too, when pressed by another Israeli, that “the key to war and peace in the Mideast” lies in Egypt’s hands, but he would not go as far as to say war was impossible without Egypt, nor, of course, that Egypt had irreversibly renounced its war option. He repeated the hope he expressed in Jerusalem that the October 1973 war had been “the last war.”
Neither Sadat nor Begin responded in any detail to a question on whether possible troop reductions and redeployments were envisaged at this early stage of the process. Sadat said “the time is not yet ripe” for an Egyptian football team to play in Tel Aviv.
The Egyptian leader, observers noted, went out of his way to avoid polemics, declining a questioner’s invitation to publicly criticize Begin’s peace plan or say it was inadequate. He merely noted that the Begin plan would be put before the two committees and Egypt would submit counter-proposals of its own. “I don’t want to reveal all we have discussed,” he said. He said Begin had “shown his will to end the military government on the western bank… But we differed over self-determination…”
OMITS PRESSING FOR PLO ROLE
Sadat also omitted pressing for a Palestine Liberation Organization role in the talks or in the subsequent peace settlement. Asked about this he responded by asserting that “the Palestinians must have a role” and that once Egypt and Israel had agreed on a basic “strategy,” he would submit it to an Arab summit after which the “Palestinians” would have to negotiate the details of their own settlement with Israel, as would the Syrians.
The PLO’s participation was “not excluded” in the future. But for the moment, by joining the rejectionist front, the PLO had “excluded itself.” The same was true of the Soviets, Sadat noted.
Begin, for his part, observed that the PLO sought to exterminate Israel “and for us everything is negotiable except our own destruction.” He added that a PLO spokesman had recently spoken of assassinating Sadat. “It is both against Israel and against Egypt,” Begin said. Significantly, Sadat did not demur.
Begin added that Israel wanted to negotiate with “representatives of the Palestinian Arabs–and this we will do.” He appeared to imply that such representatives might be included in the Israeli-Egyptian political committee, but this was not clear.
EGYPT OPTS FOR TOTAL WITHDRAWAL
At the end of the press conference Sadat was asked whether Egypt was still demanding total Israeli withdrawal from the occupied areas. He replied: “Quite right.” What, then, the questioner asked of Begin, was meant by “progress on the question of withdrawal?”
Begin replied: (United Nations Security Council) “Resolution 242 does not commit Israel to total withdrawal. Therefore, with respect, it is a matter for negotiations to establish those secure and recognized boundaries which are mentioned in the second paragraph of Resolution 242. This is the crux of our problem–to negotiate conditions for peace…”
Asked by an Egyptian reporter if he accepted the preamble to Resolution 242 which bars “the acquisition of territory by force, “Begin replied that this principle applied only to a war of aggression, but not to a defensive war such as Israel had fought in 1967.
After the conference, Begin turned to Sadat and said, “That was a wonderful press conference Mr. President.” But the serious expressions on the faces of the two men before and after the conference betrayed the wide gulfs still dividing them.
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