The Sealed-Lips Summit

At Camp David, no news on the Middle East talks might mean good news

A double chainlink, electrified fence topped with barbed wire; a hundred rifle-toting U.S. Marines; a few score heavily armed Israeli and Egyptian agents. This security barrier encircling Camp David last week effectively shut out a world intently curious and concerned about what was happening within the secluded presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. There at the summit, Jimmy Carter, Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin were starting the latest and one of the most momentous rounds in the three-decade search for an Arab-Israeli peace. Said a somber Carter just before departing for Camp David at the start of the week: "We will be almost uniquely isolated from the press and from the outside world ... without the necessity of political posturing or defense of a transient stand or belief." The President was not kidding. The news blackout at Camp David was so effective that one television reporter likened the press corps to "350 plumbers in search of a leak."

The unprecedented isolation as well as Carter's decision to call the summit is an indicator of the urgency with which the U.S. views the stalled Middle East peace process. The momentum begun ten months ago by Sadat's dramatic visit to Jerusalem had slowed to a virtual halt. To rekindle the peace initiative and avert a deterioration that could lead to war, Carter invited Begin and Sadat to Camp David. For the first time, the President said, the U.S. would become a "full partner" in seeking to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. "My hope," he added, "is that this degree of personal interchange ... will be constructive." But, he conceded, "the prospects for complete success are very remote. Compromises will be mandatory. Flexibility will be the essence of our hopes."

There was no doubt that great differences divided the Egyptian and Israeli leaders as the conclave convened. They did not even agree, for example, on the importance of the summit. Sadat saw it as "a crucial crossroads" for peace. Begin, while labeling it "a very important meeting," stressed that "our people's fate does not depend on that meeting. Our people lived thousands of years before Camp David and will live thousands of years after Camp David."

Although no details of the summit discussions were known at the end of the week, a high-level Israeli participant at Camp David told TIME: "The talks are moving in the right direction." He added that "the main issue is the status of the West Bank. It has been discussed in all its aspects--the security arrangements, territorial settlement and the Palestinian political issue." It was also learned that the Israelis have sensed an improvement in the personal relations between Begin and the two other leaders. Begin, it was said, became more open and less suspicious that his two counterparts were hopefully awaiting his political downfall in order to go ahead with the peace process. As a result, the Israeli leader is said to have concluded midway through the summit that the Egyptians were serious about peace with Israel.

Certainly, the atmosphere was encouraging. Friday night at Camp David, the Carters and a few other U.S. officials dropped in on the Israeli delegation for what was expected to be a brief courtesy call. Both the President and Rosalynn wound up staying two hours, singing sabbath songs and eating a kosher meal catered from Washington. Sunday, after Carter attended Baptist services at the camp, he gave Begin and Sadat a tour of the battlefield at Gettysburg.

Nonetheless, a source noted, "one shouldn't confuse a good atmosphere with progress on the issues." The Administration underscored the same point in its official briefings. "Progress does seem to have been made in certain areas," said a White House spokesman at week's end. "But substantial differences still remain."

The first of the principals to arrive at Camp David, 67 miles northwest of Washington, was Carter. Tuesday, while he and Rosalynn made a last-minute inspection of the "cottages" in which Sadat and Begin were to stay, Vice President Walter Mondale and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance headed for Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. They were waiting on the tarmac when the Egyptair Boeing 707 touched down, bringing Sadat from Paris, where he had dropped off his wife Jihan and his two-year-old grandson Sherif Marei, who was to receive medical treatment. At Andrews, Sadat praised Carter for the "brave and gallant act" of calling the summit. In a swipe at Begin, he warned: "No one has the right to block the road to peace. This is no time for maneuvers and worn-out ideas. It is time for magnanimity and reason."

Sadat then traveled by helicopter to Camp David, where he greeted Carter with exuberant Arab-style hugs. He embraced Rosalynn with somewhat more restraint, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Carter and Sadat strolled to Aspen Lodge, the presidential residence, and then on to Dogwood Lodge, the Egyptian's quarters.

Begin, meanwhile, had flown down to Andrews on a U.S. Air Force DC-9 from New York, where he had spent two days resting and meeting with American Jewish leaders. Begin bounded out of the plane for a reception virtually identical to Sadat's. But there were some differences: as a Premier, Begin was entitled to a 19-gun salute instead of the 21 accorded to a chief of state like Sadat. And at Camp David, after pecking Rosalynn on both cheeks, the Polish-born Israeli placed a courtly kiss on the First Lady's hand. Carter then escorted Begin to Birch Lodge.

That evening the three leaders dined separately. Afterward Begin walked to Aspen Lodge for the summit's first formal session. With no aides present, Begin and Carter conferred for two hours in the small private study, with the President taking notes. All that is known about their discussion is that Carter suggested and Begin agreed that the three leaders issue a joint prayer for the success of the talks.

The following morning Carter held a similar two-hour conference with Sadat, this time on Aspen's flagstone patio overlooking the pool. The Egyptian agreed to the joint prayer for peace. Released later that day, it stated in part: "Conscious of the grave issues which face us, we place our trust in the God of our fathers ... We ask people of all faiths to pray with us that peace and justice may result from these deliberations."

Although Sadat and Begin were not scheduled to meet until Wednesday afternoon, they encountered each other by chance early that morning as they were strolling about the wooded grounds. The two shook hands and remarked about "how good and healthy" each looked. Just then Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman pedaled up on one of the camp's bicycles and greeted Sadat. Within three minutes, this first Israeli-Egyptian confrontation of the summit was over and the three men continued on their separate ways.

Later that day the first tripartite session convened around the circular coffee table on the Aspen patio; it ran one hour and 40 minutes. The following morning the three leaders met for three hours in Aspen's study. By the end of the week they had met for a total of 6 1/2 hours, but what few details were released had nothing at all to do with the subject of the talks. White House Press Secretary Jody Powell noted, for example, that Carter was "participating actively" and that "the personal relationships [of the principals] are good."

Sandwiched between the tripartite meetings were separate bilateral sessions, between the U.S. and Egypt and between the U.S. and Israel. Vance and other top U.S. officials, for example, would meet at Holly Lodge with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and other senior Israeli officials; the U.S. team would then move over to Laurel Lodge and sit down with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel and his associates. These sessions, which usually did not include Carter, Begin or Sadat, were apparently examining in detail the broad points raised by the tripartite gatherings. This was regarded as a positive sign. While there were no full-scale bilateral Egyptian-Israeli gatherings, Sadat did meet alone with Defense Minister Weizman, the one Israeli with whom the Egyptian leader has established a warm personal rapport.

Carter was counting on the "chemistry" of Camp David's setting and intimacy to help make the summit succeed. Much of this would depend on the informal contacts between the parties. The three leaders' aides mixed casually over meals and drinks at Laurel Lodge. Walks through the chestnut, oak and hickory woods provided other opportunities for the kind of personal interaction that Carter hoped would contribute to the peace process.

On Wednesday, for instance, the President and Rosalynn strolled through the woods with Begin and his wife Aliza. Thursday evening, the delegates attended a 45-minute performance on the parade field of the U.S. Marine Corps's Drum and Bugle Corps and the Marines' crack silent drill team. Although Carter immensely enjoyed the show, its blatantly martial tone seemed to surprise both Begin and Sadat. Following the performance, the Carters were hosts at a reception at Laurel Lodge for the delegations. All this contributed to such a soothing atmosphere that Begin, in a telephone conversation with aides in Jerusalem, exclaimed: "I feel here like I'm in paradise on earth. It is the first real rest I've had since taking office."

There was no set timetable for the historic meeting; some U.S. experts speculated that it might run as long as five or six days and not end until early this week. Before the conclave began, it was feared that considerable negotiating time would be lost as each leader observed his own Sabbath: Friday for Moslem Sadat, Saturday for Jewish Begin and Sunday for Christian Carter. But the weekend did not bring the talks to a standstill.

Even the devout Begin bent his faith's strictures somewhat and engaged in tripartite rounds, which to avoid criticism in Israel were labeled "informal gatherings for nonpolitical reasons." Noting that everyone at the summit was willing to compromise his religious obligations for the sake of the talks' success, an Israeli participant explained, "If a Jew is aboard a ship which begins listing, what is the first thing he throws overboard? The answer is his prayer shawl and phylacteries. That is what has happened here at Camp David."

Despite the mere trickle of information coming from inside Camp David, Egyptians and Israelis back home were focusing full attention on the proceedings. Egypt's normally noisy capital fell all but silent at 7:30 local time each evening, as Cairenes planted themselves in front of television sets for live reports from the U.S. Others clustered in apartment-building courtyards to hear radio newscasts.

In Israel a group of 200 rabbis and heads of Yeshivas posted proclamations in their synagogues and schools completely opposing Israel's withdrawal from even one inch of the West Bank territory, which they regard as an organic part of biblical Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel). At the same time, however, tens of thousands of "Peace Now" demonstrators crowded downtown Tel Aviv protesting Begin's intransigence on the occupied territories. Said one of the movement's founders, Yossi Ben-Artzi: "This is a historic chance to achieve peace; it comes perhaps once in a generation."

There was no open Egyptian criticism of Sadat last week, but that may well reflect the strong authoritarian control his government maintains over the press. Outside Egypt, a number of Arab states were highly critical of his trip to Camp David, just as they had been of his journey to Jerusalem. Libya's mercurial strongman Muammar Gaddafi quipped that Sadat had crawled to Camp David on all fours; an official Iraqi spokesman condemned the summit as a conference of "treachery"; and Syrian President Hafez Assad, while provocatively inspecting his tank forces near the Israeli border, warned that Sadat represented neither the Arab position nor the Arab longing for a Middle East settlement.

The Palestine Liberation Organization made its displeasure with Camp David known in its own all too typical fashion: by setting off two bombs in Jerusalem. One exploded at a gas storage depot and seriously injured two persons; the other blasted the rear section of an empty bus that minutes earlier had been full of foreign visitors touring the city. Worried about further P.L.O. terror, Israeli security forces were on heightened alert, patrolling open markets and bus stations and manning roadblocks in residential sections of the city.

The Arab radicals, such as the Iraqis and the P.L.O., fear that a success at Camp David would strengthen Sadat's voice of moderation in the Arab world. For just that reason, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have tacitly backed the Camp David summit.

While any definition of what would constitute a summit success is open to dispute, the basic task of Camp David is the same as that of nearly every attempt to reach a Middle East peace in the past decade. It must try to satisfy the Arabs on the issue of sovereignty and the Israelis on the matter of security. To achieve this, the three leaders will have to make some progress toward a formula that would accomplish Israeli withdrawal from nearly all the Arab lands it conquered in the 1967 war and provide assurances of Israel's security as an independent state.

Most U.S. officials and experts agree that Begin has been considerably less willing to compromise than Sadat. It is not known whether the Israeli came to Camp David ready to make new concessions. But observers in Jerusalem took it as a bad sign that Begin brought his legal adviser, Supreme Court Justice-designate Aharon Barak, who had prepared a detailed paper dissecting definitions of sovereignty. This could mean Begin is prepared to battle over nuances and give little ground on major issues--an approach that could drive Sadat, who has no patience for hairsplitting, back to the banks of the Nile in a hurry.

Sadat, meanwhile, is known to have taken to the summit a concrete and detailed peace plan calling on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territory in return for what he regards as substantial security arrangements. These proposals, which the Egyptians are billing as "a new peace initiative," have an undisguised dual purpose. They just might succeed in breaking the log jam that has stalled the peace process. But if they are rejected by the Israelis, it could bolster Cairo's argument that Begin is the primary obstacle to peace. Sadat, in fact, is believed to have come to the U.S. convinced that Begin is less interested in a peace agreement than "in having a greater Israel." If Begin's actions at Camp David should appear to confirm this, Sadat believes, Carter may decide to side openly with Egypt against Israel. In addition, there could be a significant weakening of the U.S. public's traditionally pro-Israel attitude.

The Egyptians fear, however, that Begin may be playing the same game: trying to stick Sadat with the onus of intransigence. A possible Israeli ploy, according to high Egyptian officials, would be to propose detailed and complicated negotiations that ignore the basic issue of Arab sovereignty over the occupied lands. If Sadat balked at participating in such talks, he might look irresponsibly stubborn. Yet such detailed talks could drag on indefinitely, allowing Jerusalem to tighten further its hold on the occupied territories by building or expanding Israeli settlements there.

If the summit ends without making much progress, the next move will surely be Sadat's. According to high-ranking Egyptians, he is considering several options. He could, for example, cancel the 1975 Sinai Disengagement Agreement. This would enormously increase tension in the area and could start a chain of events leading to new hostilities. Sadat could also ask the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israel's occupation of Arab lands and demand immediate withdrawal. If Begin emerges from Camp David splattered with blame for the summit's failure, then Washington might find it very difficult to veto such a resolution.

Sadat is said to be aware that his actions must not embarrass Carter or alienate the U.S. public. For this reason he is not expected to ask other Arab states to brandish the "oil weapon," unless it could be directed solely against Israel without affecting the U.S. Similarly, he may be hesitant about putting Washington on the spot at the U.N. by demanding a blanket condemnation of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Such a move could create a painful dilemma for Carter. A U.S. veto would enrage much of the world, including the Saudis, on whom the Administration relies to temper oil price hikes and support the dollar on international markets. But American approval of an anti-Israeli resolution would infuriate politically powerful pro-Israeli groups in the U.S.

Sadat is thus likely to proceed with caution, at least for a while. He might restrict himself to asking the Security Council merely to condemn the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Not only are these communities opposed by factions inside Israel, but the U.S. has branded them "illegal."

Sadat can discard all of these options, of course, if the summit succeeds and a new "spirit of Camp David" is born. In that case the peace process would accelerate, and negotiations between Egypt and Israel would resume at a number of levels.

One thing is certain. As soon as the summit ends, the cloak of secrecy that has covered it will be torn away. Sadat and Begin are sure to go public--and in detail--with their versions of what happened in the mountains of Maryland. Begin, for example, intends to remain in the U.S. for four days and tape at least one TV discussion. Sadat also plans to linger in the U.S. for a few days to lobby key members of Congress and give interviews. For his part, Carter will probably report to the nation on the meeting. Whether it succeeds or fails, the Camp David summit will set the course for much of what is soon to happen in the trouble-plagued Middle East. .

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