EDITORIAL
A FRAMEWORK FOR PEACE The Mid East Summit began with severe handicaps. President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin came to the talks with sharply different aims. The Jewish leader had a modest goal:...
...Sadat needed to spell out in public his private hints on how Israeli security might be achieved...
...Both sides had to back away from previously declared positions to some extent, or any talks would be futile...
...Nonetheless, barring unexpected hitches, it seems clear that we have witnessed a significant diplomatic breakthrough...
...This would be the filst formal recognition of the Jewish state by any of its Arab neighbors since the creation of Israel in I948...
...An editor here from 1964 to 1972, he has spent the intervening years completing a doctorate in European history...
...Begin insisted that the West Bank was historically Jewish, and he was unyielding on the pointm so much so that many people believed that no peace was possible in the Mid East while he was Prime Minister...
...STAFF CHANGES For the first time in over eleven years, John Deedy's name does not appear on the masthead this week...
...In the issue where it first appearedoin May 1967mthere were no less than two editorials and one article about the war in Vietnam...
...Begin held out for continuing Israeli military supervision of the West Bank and under pressure conceded only that sovereignty could be discussed after five years...
...without Egypt the Arab states cannot hope to take on Israel...
...the lead article examined U.S...
...Given this confrontation, compromise on both sides was essential...
...These are troublesome points...
...His book on "neoconservatism" will appear next year...
...The P.L.O...
...His talents and his presence will be greatly missed in Commonwears office...
...In the light of ail this, extraordinary expectations were highly optimistic, but contrary to most informed predictions they came true...
...Two central issues confronted the conferees: the future of the West Bank and the future of the Palestinian people...
...American liberalism was fragmerrting, post-Conciliar optimism evaporating...
...domination of developing economies...
...These were exciting but hardly triumphant years for an editor at Commonweal...
...The Jewish leader had a modest goal: he said he would consider the conference a success if there was an agreement to schedule further talks...
...Some details remain to be spelled out, but the agreements, said Mr...
...The Summit accord establishes a framework for peace and commits Egypt and Israel to try to conclude a peace treaty within three months...
...Sadat emphasized the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination...
...Sadat demanded that Begin commit himself to Israeli withdrawal from all Arab occupied lands...
...Through it all, John Deedy carried on in a style that matched militancy with good humor, a zest for combat with personal gentleness and a refusal to take it all too seriously...
...Officially joining---or rejoining---Commonweal's staff this week is Peter Steinfels...
...How hostile will the Arab reaction be...
...At this writing certain important questions remain unanswered...
...As Executive Editor, he gill add to regular editorial functions special responsibilities for long-range editorial and financial planning...
...Carter, "will provide that Israel may live in peace within secure borders...
...The one million Palestinians living on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip "will have the right to participate in the determination of their own future" during a five-year transition period...
...Begin had to Say what if any security arrangements weald lead to Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank...
...and editing the Hastings Center Report...
...Thus the Summit has turned out to be a major step on the road to peace in the Mid East, and for his central role President Carter deserves great credit...
...the Middle East peace initiative was at a standstill in any case and the Commonweal: 611 Summit was a last-ditch effort to save it...
...William Shannon's column predicted that a continuing war would swing the 1968 presidential elections from tile Democrats to a Republican like Nixon...
...Can the Israeli Knesset be counted on to make the specified withdrawal of Jewish settlements from the Sinai...
...was not mentioned, nor were the 1.5 million Palestinians outside of the West Bank...
...Before the Summit, affairs had reached an impasse...
...Israel agreed to end its military rule of the West Bank but is to be allowed to maintain security forces in specified bases...
...A separate Israeli-Egyptian peace makes war very unlikely...
...He has written articles and reviews for numerous journals, edited a book of essays on death and dying, and contributed a regular column to these pages...
...Will King Hussein of Jordan enter the negotiations...
...Sadat, bowever, had larger ideas: under pressure from the other Arab states to give up his peace initiative, he said in advance that there must be substantial progress or his peace efforts would be at an end...
...On the Sinai front, Israel would begin to withdraw its forces within three to nine months, with normal diplomatic relations to be established after the first major withdrawal...
...While serving as Managing Editor, he also wrote several small and several large books, on matters religious, political, and literary...
...It was customary to call the Summit a gamble, and for President Carter the domestic political stakes were high, but in a larger sense there was no gamble...
...On both issues the two leaders were publicly pledged to flatly opposed positions...
...directing a program dealing with humanities, ethics and the life sciences...
...and another piece discussed the "secular ecumenism" of Paul Vl's Populorum Progressio...
...It is to this independent writing that he now plans to devote much more of his time...
Vol. 105 • September 1978 • No. 19
