Joy and Apprehension in Israel

...Well-known singers and musicians entertained the celebrants...

...This was Sadat's most important concession from Israel's point of view, for it signified his readiness to sign a separate peace even if the other Arabs reject the principles drafted at Camp David...

...Once the documents were made public it did not take long for Israelis to realize that their restraint was justified...

...This has struck very sensitive nerves in the Israeli consciousness because it violates a tradition that dates back to Zionist pioneering days, long before the establishment of the Jewish State —namely, that a settlement should never be abandoned voluntarily...

...Begin relented and the Knesset, in one vote, overwhelmingly approved the framework agreements as well as withdrawal from the Sinai settlements...

...The necessity of having to decide within a fortnight about the removal of the Sinai settlements created the first post-Camp David crisis here: Begin wanted two votes in the Knesset—one to approve the agreements as such, and a separate one on the settlements...

...Yet for all the evident joy, there was no repetition of the euphoric, wild scenes that marked a similar happening in the same square following Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem last November...

...Begin, on the other hand, insists the standstill applies only to the duration of the talks with Egypt —i.e., for three months...

...Another ambiguity left open the possibility that Palestinians living outside the West Bank (who are the majority) would have some say in the final resolution of the West Bank issue...

...Briefly, it states that the fate of the West Bank will be determined jointly by Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the representatives of the local Palestinian population, with Israel retaining the right to special security arrangements and to a limited military presence...

...Should such a danger nevertheless become imminent, Israel would not hesitate to move its troops back into the West Bank, autonomy or no autonomy, Camp David or no Camp David...

...But living in the shadow of 2,000 years of persecution, of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and of 30 years of constant Arab threats to annihilate Israel, most people here cannot ignore the fact that Sadat is still considered a traitor by the majority of Arab leaders for his readiness to live in peace with Israel...

...The temptation to intervene would then be faced by an Egypt (not necessarily ruled by Sadat) whose warplanes and rockets would be not behind the Suez but close to the heart of Israel...

...full normalization of relations with Egypt...

...For these are essential to protecting the country from attacks from the south, and the replacement installations the U.S...

...In fact, even before any details of the summit agreements became known, people here instinctively felt a full peace was unlikely because that requires more fundamental changes of position than could realistically b: expected from Egypt or Israel...

...By now, a majority of the Israelis are beginning to believe that President Sadat is a man of his word...

...Anything that appears to facilitate the emergence of a PLO regime in a self-governing West Bank is therefore rejected a priori...

...The dispute is charged with symbolic meaning on both sides...

...But opposition members insisted they would not agree to a situation where the government would have the glory of being the peacemaker while they would have to bear the onus of approving the eviction of the settlers...

...The second Camp David crisis, not yet defused, revolves around Israeli settlements on the West Bank...

...The two papers signed by Sadat and Begin, and witnessed by President Carter, are entitled "The Framework of Peace in the Middle East" and "The Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel...

...There is a consensus here that a "Palestinian entity" led by those who represent the Palestinians living outside the West Bank and Gaza would inevitably strive for the abolition of the Jewish State...

...it does not deal with the Golan Heights and Israel-Syrian relations...

...And unlike Sinai, where no religious and emotional issues are involved, the question of new West Bank settlements is a time-bomb embedded deep in the sentiments of a large segment of the Israeli population...

...Yet what public opposition there has been to the outcome of the Camp David summit has focused not on the airfields but on the settlements that are to be given up...

...and, second, they are today more aware of the very basic differences still separating Jerusalem and Cairo...

...In the treaty "framework," Israel gave up its original insistence on the right to maintain, under overall Egyptian sovereignty, a military presence in Sharm el-Sheikh, at the strategic Tiran Straits straddling the only sea route to Eilat...

...Here the conflict is largely international in nature...

...The dispute was resolved when the opposition parties made it clear that in a separate vote they, too, would abstain and the day might be carried by the "nays" of the hawks...

...Israel also abandoned its demand that it be allowed to keep, under lease, the use of two crucial airfields in the Sinai —one near Eilat and the other in the northwest...

...The second document is, for all practical purposes, the first draft of an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty...

...So ultimately the underlying issue remains one of trust...

...To some degree, this more sober mood may be attributed to the length of the Camp David talks as well as to the many pessimistic reports that had been emanating from the mountain...

...This tactic?besides appeasing Begin's conscience —would have enabled most of the coalition Knesset members to abstain on the second vote...

...The ambiguous wording of many paragraphs showed that some very important issues have been cushioned in verbiage rather than decided in substance...

...For Sadat, his interpretation is one of his major trump cards against the charges that he has "sold out" the Palestinians...

...As the wording indicates, the first document is the "declaration of principles" that Sadat has always insisted (and that Israel did not deny) was necessary for him to proceed with a separate Israeli-Egyptian accord...

...But there are deeper reasons for the restrained feeling here: First, in the 10 months since Sadat's initiative, Israelis have become wary of hoping for too much too soon...

...Finally, Israel accepted Sadat's demand that not a single Israeli settler remain in the new Israeli villages and townships in the Rafiah salient in the northwest corner of Sinai, near the Gaza Strip...

...This was an almost open admission that after the five-year "framework" transition period, Israel will make further fundamental concessions on the question of West Bank sovereignty...

...Its essence is that Israel will hand back every inch of the Sinai Peninsula, in exchange for Eliahu Salpeter, a regular NL contributor, is a correspondent for Ha'aretz...

...has agreed to build in the cramped Negev will be more vulnerable...

...For Begin, accepting the Egyptian-American reading would amount to breaking his vow never to sign away the Jewish nation's historic rights to the Land of Israel...

...Although this initial agreement is in theory an outline for a settlement with all four of Israel's Arab neighbors, in practice it applies solely to the problems of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip...

...On a more immediate level, there is widespread fear that pulling the settlers from the Sinai will set a precedent for removing Jewish outposts from the West Bank, the Jordan Valley and eventually even from the Golan Heights...

...there was much singing and dancing...

...Otherwise, all the major concessions were made by Begin...

...Of the above, giving up the airfields was the strategically most dangerous Israeli concession...

...The two issues, though, are linked by one element: the instinctive fear of many Israelis—including a significant number who feel no special attachment to the settlements per se—about the durability of any agreement with the Arabs...

...Begin's concessions on the West Bank are already considered far-reaching: To begin with, Israel agreed that local autonomy should be viewed as a transitory, rather than a permanent arrangement...

...Strangers did not embrace and kids did not jump into the square's illuminated pool...

...Presidents Carter and Sadat have stated that they understand the overall agreement to mean that Israel will undertake no new settlements for the entire period of negotiations about the future of the West Bank—i.e., for three to five years...

...Next, Israel offered to have Jordan participate both in the running of the civil administration and the enforcement of security arrangements, with a hint—in one of those ambiguities mentioned earlier—that Jordanian Army units in the area might also be acceptable for joint patrols with the Israelis...

...and Prime Minister Menachem Begin was loudly cheered when his special message, phoned from Washington, was broadcast over the loudspeakers...

...Moreover, on other equally important issues, Begin obviously was obliged to yield more than he had promised to...