Sadat: Implementing Peace Accord More Difficult Than Signing It

President Anwar Sadat of Egypt said that the signing of a peace agreement with Israel was, for him, only a first step, and that finding ways to implement it may be more difficult than the signing. “It is not the agreement that is the prime goal, it is peace,” Sadat told David Shahan and Willie Gafni, editors of the Socialist-Zionist oriented magazine, New Outlook, who visited him at his vacation retreat near Salzburg, Austria last week.

Excerpts from the interview appeared in Yediot Achronot and it will be published in full in the next issue of New Outlook. While the Egyptian leader insisted that Egypt has no more reservations, no feelings of hatred for Israelis, he was critical of Premier Menachem Begin.

“He must possess some feelings of bitterness. He lives in the past, he is a man of the old guard. I feel sorry for him. A bitter man cannot be happy or bring happiness to others, “Sadat said. He claimed that for Begin, the act of signing a peace treaty was everything while for himself, it was only the “opening to a new era of a new life.”

MESSAGE TO CHILDREN

The children of the Community House Kindergarten in Jerusalem’s Beit Hakerem quarter were also the recipients of a message from the Egyptian President. Replying, in Hebrew, to a letter the youngsters had sent to him last winter while Israel and Egypt were still engaged in direct peace talks, Sadat spoke of his hopes for peace following his visit to Jerusalem.

Sadat’s letter was written last May but was only just conveyed to the youngsters through U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis. “My historical visit opened the door to real peace, which would solve all problems and put an end forever to the tragic conflict between our notions…I hope that God will guide our steps and our efforts for peace, “Sadat wrote.