“Tonight, the history”: Ibid., p. 258
“The Jews beat”: Interview with Zev Chafets.
manoach: Sidney Zion and Uri Dan, “Untold Story of the Mideast Talks,” Part II, New York Times, Jan. 21, 1979.
The first thought that came: Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 271.
“Sadat is leaving”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 391.
He prayed: Interview with Jimmy Carter.
“I understand you’re leaving”: Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 272.
“We are wasting our time”: Sabry, Al-Sadat, p. 453.
“What you could do”: Interview with Jimmy Carter.
He promised that if Sadat: Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 272.
Dayan had convinced him: Interview with Jimmy Carter.
“The Egyptians have already agreed to”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 393.
“If you give me this”: Ibid., p. 393.
They argued about whether: Interview with Ahmed Abul-Gheit.
Tohamy was furious that: Boutros-Ghali, Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem, p. 146.
“President Carter is a great man”: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, pp. 352–57.
“Sadat agrees to something”: Boutros-Ghali, Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem, p. 146.
“Sherif, you bad boy!”: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, pp. 357–58.
Perhaps he had in mind: Interview with Aharon Barak; Shilon, Menachem Begin, p. 276.
Mondale, whom the Israelis: Interview with Walter Mondale.
moreover, Sharon’s grandmother: Gordis, Menachem Begin, p. 130.
“I see no military objection”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 370.
“Evacuation of the settlements”: Ibid. Weizman’s chronology is somewhat jumbled; the meeting in which he made this reference seems to be on day nine, which is when Haber et al. place it. Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, p. 260.
“Carter requests”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 370.
He made a final plea: Dayan, Breakthrough, p. 176.
“You must agree to evacuate”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 371.
“We’re closer than we’ve”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, p. 262.
Carter would then make: Quandt, Camp David, p. 240.
He insisted that they sing songs: Interview with Elyakim Rubinstein.
Mohamed Kamel went to bed: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, pp. 362–63.
DAY TWELVE
He appealed to Carter: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 394.
“legitimate rights of the Palestinian people”: Temko, To Win or to Die, pp. 228–30.
“Palestinian People”: Shilon, Menachem Begin, p. 311.
“We are colonialists”: Rosalynn Carter’s personal Camp David diary.
“I want to have a talk”: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, pp. 363–69.
“How does the president feel?”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, pp. 264–65.
Carter began by reviewing: Jimmy Carter’s personal Camp David diary.
Sadat insisted that he: Rosalynn Carter’s personal Camp David diary.
Dayan floated the notion: Dayan, Breakthrough, p. 175.
“half a loaf”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, p. 265.
The paragraph would state: Quandt, Camp David, p. 244.
“legitimate rights”: Ibid., p. 245.
nonaggression pact: Silver, Begin, p. 89.
and they ejected Arab: Neff, Warriors at Suez, p. 64.
Jerusalem itself was in the middle: Montefiore, Jerusalem, pp. 490–92.
Haganah, the official Jewish: Silver, Begin, p. 91.
“disorganized massacre”: Meir Pa’il, Haganah intelligence officer, quoted in Silver, Begin, p. 94.
“We had an agreement”: “Deir Yassin: Meir Pail’s Eyewitness Account,” http://web.archive.org/web/20080419084659/http://www.ariga.com/peacewatch/dy/dypail.htm. There are contrary reports that people from the neighboring village also took part in the massacre.
Haganah intelligence said: Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 208.
About two hundred: Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 208; Gervasi, The Life and Times of Menahem Begin, p. 234; Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape, p. 116.
Others—twenty to twenty-five men: Silver, Begin, p. 94. Silver quotes Yehoshua Gorodentchik, an Irgun officer: “We had prisoners, and before the retreat we decided to liquidate them. We also liquidated the wounded, as anyway we could not give them first aid. In one place, about eighty Arab prisoners were killed after some of them had opened fire and killed one of the people who came to give them first aid. Arabs who dressed up as Arab women were also found, and so they started to shoot the women also who did not hurry to the area where the prisoners were concentrated” (p. 91).
Among the attackers: Ibid., p. 207.
each party had an interest: Ibid., p. 209.
Ben-Gurion absolved: Gervasi, The Life and Times of Menahem Begin, p. 235.
“splendid act of conquest”: Silver, Begin, p. 88.
Later he would defend: Begin, The Revolt, p. xxi.
The Palestinians left behind: Benvenisti has many moving and specific accounts in Sacred Landscape.
By the end of the war: Montefiore, Jerusalem, pp. 493–94.
About four hundred Palestinian: Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 342.
Biblical names: Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape, pp. 20–21. The designation of Mount Hor was so egregious that it was eventually renamed Mount Zin.
After sundown, Begin: Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, p. 270.
Carter listed the benefits: Jimmy Carter’s personal Camp David diary.
“Ultimatum!” Begin cried: Ibid.
“If agreement is reached”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 396.
“That’s what I can do”: Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, p. 270.
“What is the ultimate importance”: Temko, To Win or to Die, pp. 228–29.
“By such verbal acrobatics”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 373.
In return for acknowledging: Quandt, Camp David, p. 246.
“After the signing”: Ibid., p. 247.
Begin later told the: Interview with Samuel W. Lewis, Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000687.
Begin’s supposed moratorium: The quarrel about what Begin agreed to that night has never been resolved. Carter’s contemporaneous notes of the meeting reflected that Begin had agreed to the open-ended settlement freeze: “On the West Bank settlements, we finally worked out language that was satisfactory, that no new Israeli settlements would be established after the signing of this framework. And that the issue of additional settlements would be resolved by the parties during the negotiations. This would be accomplished with a letter which will be made public from Begin to me.” Vance’s account echoes Carter’s. Vance makes the point in his memoir: “Since we had been discussing only the comprehensive accord and the autonomy negotiations during the Saturday night session, it is difficult to understand how Begin could have so totally misinterpreted what the President was asking.” Vance, Hard Choices, p. 228. Carter told me, “Begin promised me and Sadat very clearly that he would stop all settlement building. When he got back to civilization, he began to lie. He began to say that he only meant they would stop settlement building during the time of negotiation.” At a twenty-fifth anniversary gathering of the principals who were at Camp David, however, Carter was challenged by Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, who said that the disagreement was a misunderstanding, because Begin was a man of honor and would not go back on his word. Carter responded, “I think I agree. It was a misunderstanding. I don’t believe that Begin lied to me about it” (“Camp David 25th Anniversary Forum”). Aharon Barak was taking notes at the meeting. He told me, “When the dispute between them came up … Begin forgot that I was taking notes. So he was quarrelling with the president, so I called him and said, ‘Look, I
have notes. And I think you were right.’ … So I went and took out the notes and read it to him, what he said, and then he asked me to send it to Carter, and I sent it to Carter. [Begin] didn’t agree to more than three months. That’s it.” The cable that Barak sent to Begin containing his notes supports what Begin said to Ambassador Lewis—that he would think about it and give Carter an answer the following day. Harold Saunders, then assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, testified that the settlement pause was tied to the period of time required for the Palestinians to set up a self-governing authority—three to six months, in his estimation. Future settlements could be discussed after that, but there would be no new settlements unless all parties agreed. “The subject was deliberately left open for that period of negotiations so that the parties involved could discuss this issue further,” he said. “Assessment of the 1978 Middle East Camp David Agreements,” Hearing before the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, Sept. 28, 1978, p. 27. Saunders’s view is obviously at odds with Carter’s, who believed that settlement building would be halted during the period of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which could be as long as five years. William Quandt, in private communication, explained that Begin was concerned that, if the negotiations with the Palestinians never actually began, Israel would be constrained in building new settlements. He remarks, “I think we should have tried to get the freeze for a defined number of months instead of tying it to the beginning of negotiations.”
DAY THIRTEEN
“I think we’ve gotten”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, pp. 265–66.
“Don’t smile”: Interview with Rosalynn Carter.
“I got the settlement freeze”: Samuel Lewis, “The Camp David Peace Process,” in Sha’al, ed., The Camp David Accords, p. 56.
“I have a problem!”: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, p. 370.
He urged Sadat: Interview with Nabil el-Arabi.
“I heard you”: Interview with Ahmed Abul-Gheit.
“It was not possible”: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, p. 371.
“How many battalions”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 374.
The signing would be: Interview with Gerald Rafshoon.
“does not accept or recognize”: United Nations General Assembly, Fifth Emergency Special Session, July 14, 1967.
“regrets and deplores”: United Nations Security Council, July 1, 1969.
“substantial resettlement”: United Nations Security Council, Mar. 23, 1976.
“We can pack our bags”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 373.
If the Americans had planned: Dayan, Breakthrough, p. 177.
Carter’s secretary, Susan Clough: Interview with Jimmy Carter.
“Mr. Prime Minister, I brought”: Ibid.
“I wanted to be able”: Interview with Gerald Rafshoon.
a Jewish sage: “Ammon of Mainz” entry, vol. 1, Roth et al., eds., Encyclopaedia Judaica.
“I am not like the Rabbi”: Shlomo Slonim, “The Issue of Jerusalem at the Camp David Summit,” in Sha’al, ed. The Camp David Accords, pp. 65–66; Hasten, I Shall Not Die!, p. 212. Hasten has Begin telling Carter the anecdote in Washington, but perhaps he used it more than once. Yechiel Kadishai recalled it being employed at Camp David.
“The position of the United States”: Letter from President Jimmy Carter to Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, September 22, 1978.
“I will accept”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 399.
“Should I come back?”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, p. 266.
“Go back and get the right letter”: Samuel Lewis, “The Camp David Peace Process,” in Sha’al, ed., The Camp David Accords, p. 56.
“I want you to write”: Interview with Meir Rosenne.
He agreed to receive: Quandt, Camp David, p. 253.
If Begin had pledged: Alon Ben-Meir, “The Settlements: Israel’s Albatross,” Huffington Post, Nov. 14, 2013.
On the other hand: Interview with Aharon Barak.
Sadat was grim: Quandt, Camp David, p. 253.
“That’s it”: Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 270.
For Carter, the thirteen: Jimmy Carter personal Camp David diary.
“We’re coming home!”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, p. 267.
“Children, we’ve reached”: Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, p. 274.
“President Sadat told me”: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, p. 376.
That Sunday night: I’m grateful for an anonymous audience member from Gaithersburg, MD, who attended a preview of my play, Camp David, at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC, for this interesting piece of information.
“Mama, we’ll go down”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, p. 268.
empty chairs: Kamel, The Camp David Accords, p. 378.
Even those who attended: Interview with Samuel W. Lewis, Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000687.
“When we arrived at Camp David”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPtMafxVKeA.
“Dear Friend”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy9KIA_lByQ.
“It was the Jimmy Carter conference”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYkIAnf_bzM.
“I have just signed”: Temko, To Win or to Die, p. 231.
EPILOGUE
“began to treat”: Weizman, The Battle for Peace, p. 384.
“As far as I know”: Ibid., p. 382.
He told an Israeli: Temko, To Win or to Die, p. 233.
“Munich!”: “Summit at Camp David: ‘Touch and Go,’ ” http://www.archives.gov.il/ArchiveGov_Eng/Publications/ElectronicPirsum/CampDavid/CampDavidIntroductionB2.htm.
“The State of Israel could not”: Temko, To Win or to Die, p. 234.
At four in the morning: Hedrick Smith, “After Camp David Summit, a Valley of Hard Bargaining,” New York Times, Nov. 6, 1978.
“Begin wanted to keep”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 405.
“Sadat deserved it”: Carter, White House Diary, p. 256.
At that point, it had: Quandt, Camp David, p. 298.
In the middle of all this: Carter, White House Diary, p. 268.
The professionals in the State: Interview with Samuel W. Lewis, Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib000687.
“the largest and most”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 419.
“Perhaps we should move”: Sadat, A Woman of Egypt, p. 402.
“with apparent relish”: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 421.
“the fate of a nation hangs”: Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, pp. 297.
absence of any sympathy: Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 421.
“It was not only the Nazis”: Begin, The Revolt, p. 36.
he prayed that it would never: Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, pp. 296–97.
After the Knesset meeting: Quandt, Camp David, p. 309.
Meantime, the press: Haber, Schiff, and Yaari, The Year of the Dove, p. 303.
He urged Carter: William Quandt, personal communication; Louise Fischer, personal communication.
“sympathetically”: Vance, Hard Choices, p. 251.
“with our butts showing”: “Reflections on the Camp David Accords,” Carter conversation with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego, CA, March 9, 2012.
“as a gesture for Mrs. Begin”: Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 287.
“You look tired”: Dayan, Breakthrough, p. 281.
“Kach oti eilehem”:“Bygone Days: Oh, for the Embraces of El Arish,” Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2008.
“Don’t be afraid”: Ibid.
Then he offered: Interview with Samuel W. Lewis, Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.
During parliamentary elections: Hirst and Beeson,
Sadat, pp. 331–32.
he jailed three thousand: Heikal, Autumn of Fury, pp. 231–32. Some other sources give the number of arrests as 1,500, but Heikal was among those taken.
“Go, both of you”: Quran, 20:43–44.
If Moses, one of the: Ibrahim, I’adat al-I’tibar lil-Ra’is al-Sadat [The Vindication of President Sadat], pp. 161–62.
Arab nations imposed: Sadat, A Woman of Egypt, pp. 416–17.
“cowards and dwarfs”: Quandt, Camp David, p. 280.
“He was saying things”: Interview with Jimmy Carter.
“It was as if”: Sadat, A Woman of Egypt, p. 441.
Sadat’s private secretary: John Bulloch and Nabila Mecalli, “Sadat Killed by Soldiers,” Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1400131/Sadat-killed-by-soldiers.html; Sadat, My Father and I, p. 175.
“I have killed the Pharaoh!”: Wright, The Looming Tower, p. 50.
Osama el-Baz, who: Interview with Farouk el-Baz.
He had conspired: Wright, The Looming Tower, p. 51.
Soldiers in battle dress: Frank J. Prial, “Heavy Security at Funeral Bars Egyptian Public,” New York Times, Oct. 11, 1981.
“I had an interesting life”: Shilon, Menachem Begin, p. 318.
Ezer Weizman was also: Ibid., p. 328.
“No one here wants peace”: Ibid., p. 329.
“Do not think of those”: Quran 3:169.
“war of choice”: “The Lebanon War: Operation Peace for Galilee,” Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Pages/Operation%20Peace%20for%20Galilee%20-%201982.aspx.
“forty years of peace”: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 145.
The master plan: Yossi Alpher, personal communication.
Begin promised: Gordis, Menachem Begin, p. 200.
“Two targets in particular”: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 159.
When the killers finally left: Fergal Keane, “Syrians Aid ‘Butcher of Beirut’ to Hide from Justice,” Daily Telegraph (London), June 17, 2001; Franklin Lamb, “Remembering Janet Lee Stevens, Martyr for the Palestinian Refugees,” Al-Ahram Weekly, May 6–12, 2010.
The Red Cross estimated: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 163. Carter gives the figure as 1,400 killed. Carter, The Blood of Abraham, pp. 2–3.
He grew frail: Shilon, Menachem Begin, p. 415.