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00:05Victory in the war has not brought the hoped-for solution to all the problems in this part of the
00:09Middle East.
00:10Egypt, for example, declares that she will not reopen the Suez Canal until Israel gives up Arab territory she has
00:17conquered,
00:18which the Israelis are not prepared to do.
00:23Israel's new Prime Minister, Mrs. Golda Meier, visited troops in the Sinai Desert,
00:27not far from the Suez Canal, where the shells continue to fly.
00:31She wanted a chance to inspect and talk to the men who were living face-to-face with the realities
00:35of the Middle East situation.
01:13The death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, after 18 years in power, devastated Egypt and the entire Arab world.
01:26His successor, Vice President Anwar Sadat, was considered little more than a figurehead.
01:38Those in Nasser's inner circle thought they could steer policy on the course set by Nasser.
01:47And they were confident that Sadat would follow the party line.
01:52The funeral was a grand occasion for the leaders of the Arab states and Nasser's Soviet allies.
01:59Nasser had severed relations with America, so the representative from Washington assumed he would be ignored.
02:06Then a soldier came into the room, weaving his way through the crowd.
02:14Apparently, it turned out heading for me.
02:17The soldier led Richardson away, out of the sight of the world's press and the watchful eye of the KGB.
02:28I was trained to spot anything that was going on, but it was difficult in that chaos.
02:36We went down the stairs.
02:39The lower floor was darkened and propped up in the hospital bed.
02:45There was a man who had just inherited the presidency of Egypt.
02:52President Sadat was resting away from the crowds after apparently suffering from heat stroke.
02:59He said that he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to turn a new page in the relationship between
03:07our countries.
03:08The next day, Sadat put on a show for the American media.
03:12Egypt was a Soviet client state.
03:14Sadat considered Israel to be an American one.
03:17The United States provide Israel from the loaf of bread to the phantom to the even deficit in the budget
03:25itself.
03:26So it is the vein of life.
03:29The vein of life for Israel goes from the United States.
03:33Sadat didn't want to negotiate with Israel himself.
03:36He wanted the Americans to intervene to deliver to Egypt the territories lost in 1967.
03:43In the three years since the war, Israel had established a formidable defense line along the Suez Canal, 70 miles
03:51from Cairo.
03:54What are you doing?
03:57I'm getting ready to blast you Israelis.
04:02Why?
04:04Because you Israelis occupy our land.
04:08The Suez Canal had been closed since 1967.
04:14Sadat now told the Americans that if Israel moved back a few miles from the canal, he would reopen it,
04:20even to ships trading with Israel.
04:25Sadat's proposal followed statements made by Moshe Dayan, Israel's defense minister.
04:30Dayan said that the Sinai should eventually be returned to Egypt.
04:39What we say is that we sit there just because the war is going on.
04:43But once you agree to make peace agreement, we don't think that we should sit on your Suez Canal.
04:50Golda Meir didn't want to negotiate through the Americans.
04:54She wanted direct talks with Sadat.
05:00I'm prepared to go to Cairo, I'm prepared to go to Damascus, I'm prepared to go to Amman, I'm prepared
05:04to go to Beirut, anywhere.
05:07You would go to these places?
05:09Yes.
05:09Yes.
05:10Happily.
05:12To negotiate peace, of course.
05:16In Washington, President Nixon looked for the right person to urge Sadat's proposal on Golda Meir.
05:23He chose Joe Sisko.
05:26I can recall the words to this day.
05:29He said, Joe, press Golda.
05:32Press her hard.
05:33But don't cause a major Donnybrook between Israel and the United States.
05:46Sisko met with the entire Israeli cabinet, but only Golda Meir negotiated.
05:52Golda Meir took it upon herself to do all of the talking.
05:56It was interesting to see everyone here, all the ministers, nobody opening their mouth.
06:03What they did to release their attention was sending little notes to each other.
06:08I sent Daryanichet saying, listen, Moshe, I think we can get you some support.
06:13He sent back a very abrupt reply saying, sarcastically, thank you very much.
06:20But if Golda is not for this, then I'm not for it either.
06:23Sisko saw that something was happening, that nobody was supposed to speak there.
06:28And so he was a very smart negotiator.
06:32He asked the prime minister whether he's permitted to ask the minister of defense one question,
06:38a professional question.
06:40So what could she say?
06:42I said to him, Mr. Minister, if we don't do anything, what do you think is going to happen?
06:48Daryanichet said, well, I cannot imagine that any government will tolerate indefinitely a situation
06:59where a strong army is poised at the gates of his capital.
07:02He was exaggerating.
07:04After all, our forces were at a distance of more than 100 kilometers from Cairo.
07:10And this will lead to war.
07:14Golda Meir still insisted on direct talks.
07:20The next day, I walked up with these flowers, rather gingerly.
07:27And she said to me, oh, Joe, now you're saying it with flowers.
07:32It won't do you any good.
07:38In Cairo, Israel's rebuff almost brought about the downfall of the man who had proposed the initiative, Anwar Sadat.
07:47So he reversed course and tried a tactic more likely to win Arab support.
07:56War is now inevitable.
07:58Whatever the price, whatever the sacrifice, we will not back down.
08:04We will not give up one centimeter of Arab land.
08:12I thought of Sadat as a character out of Aida.
08:16I didn't take him seriously.
08:18He kept making grandiloquent pronouncements.
08:22He never acted on them.
08:23So I frankly thought he was bluffing.
08:28Kissinger was too preoccupied with the Vietnam War to give the Middle East much attention.
08:35Even when Sadat made another offer.
08:39He wanted Israel to return to the 67 borders in return for which Egypt would be willing to make peace.
08:47Which was a big step because no Arab state had as yet ever flatly said that they would make peace.
09:01Sadat told me that Kissinger had said, if all you have is a problem, I cannot deal with it.
09:10But if it becomes a crisis, then I can intervene.
09:22Disappointed with American diplomacy, yet still unwilling to talk to Israel directly, Sadat set out to prepare for war.
09:33The high command met at Sadat's house in Giza.
09:37Sadat told us, there is no hope of a peaceful solution.
09:41And I will not surrender to Israel.
09:43So our only option is war.
09:50He said, get me back just 10 centimeters of the Sinai.
09:55And I will negotiate a miracle.
09:59Sadat then proposed a secret alliance with President Assad of Syria.
10:05They agreed to plan a joint attack on Israel.
10:13Syria's top generals sailed to Alexandria to meet their Egyptian counterparts.
10:20I went on a Russian ship, dressed in civilian clothes.
10:24I had a fake Egyptian passport and was using an alias, Jamal Hassan.
10:29Jamal Hassan.
10:37Once they arrived, they kept up the subterfuge.
10:42In the evenings, we went to a nightclub, the Mumtaza.
10:48We were drinking and having fun.
10:52We wanted people to think we were just enjoying ourselves, and that we did not have a care in the
10:57world.
11:02At the hotel, the generals discussed the plans for their joint attack, and decided on a special date.
11:12The 6th of October was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
11:16For the Jews, it is a holy day, a day of rest.
11:23The Syrians hoped at least to recapture the Golan Heights, taken from them in 1967.
11:30To keep Israel's troops tied down, they needed Egyptian forces to advance across the Sinai.
11:36But the Egyptians had their own plan.
11:39They intended to limit their advance to territory protected by their anti-aircraft missiles in Egypt.
11:46Our missiles could protect us for up to 12 kilometers.
11:51That would compensate for the inferiority of our air force.
11:57Egypt's chief of staff urged Sadat to stick to their own plan.
12:03He said, OK, we'll draw up a plan to show to the Syrians.
12:08This second plan had us advancing to the Sinai passes, but it was done just for the Syrians.
12:17So it was agreed that the Egyptians would advance to the passes.
12:22They would pause to reorganize, and then go forward again.
12:26Meanwhile, we would occupy the Golan Heights.
12:35Whatever plans the Egyptians adopted, first, they would have to cross the Suez Canal,
12:41and do it under the gaze of Israeli troops.
12:48The enemy are just 200 meters away.
12:51I can see them.
12:52They can see me.
12:55How can I catch them by surprise?
13:01I must hide my intentions.
13:09We carried out many military exercises.
13:13The aim was to deceive Israeli intelligence.
13:18We wanted them to think we were expecting an attack from Israel.
13:25Now, the presidents of Egypt and Syria also set out to deceive their fellow Arab, Jordan's King Hussein.
13:33They claimed Israel was about to attack them.
13:39Sadat and Assad were worried about an attack on Syria
13:42that could have one of its hooks come through northern Jordan.
13:49And in the final analysis, I assured them that, as far as we were concerned,
13:55no one is going to use our country to attack anyone.
14:00King Hussein smelled a rat.
14:02The last time Egypt and Syria had maneuvered him into a war with Israel,
14:06he had ended up losing a large slice of his kingdom.
14:12So he flew off alone, telling no one he was going to meet Goulda Meir.
14:21I was very concerned and worried that a state of no peace and no war
14:26was going to end us up in serious difficulty.
14:32King Hussein talked about only one thing.
14:34He warned us to expect an attack from Syria and Egypt.
14:42The prime minister received the king alone.
14:45But the head of Israeli military intelligence was listening,
14:48as Hussein warned of the Syrian-Egyptian preparations for war.
14:56She was not convinced this information was reliable.
14:59You see, King Hussein himself was not 100% sure.
15:08Instead of mobilizing the Israeli reserves,
15:11Goulda Meir kept in place the usual 450 troops along the canal.
15:24The attack was due on Saturday, October 6th.
15:29On the Friday, I went down and looked across the canal.
15:33On the other side, nothing was moving.
15:35I went back and told Sadat,
15:37they can find out now, I don't care.
15:46It was not till dawn the next day,
15:49as most Jews were preparing to go to synagogue for Yom Kippur,
15:53that Israeli intelligence finally became convinced
15:56that Egypt and Syria would attack within hours.
16:04The Israelis heard the call to arms on the radio
16:06and from rabbis in their synagogues.
16:13At 2 p.m., as civilians were reporting for duty,
16:17Egypt opened fire.
16:20Egypt opened fire.
16:27Egypt opened fire.
16:37Egypt opened fire.
16:38Our troops crossed the canal.
16:41They were shouting,
16:43God is great.
16:44God is great.
16:45And they planted the Egyptian flag
16:47on the Sinai itself.
16:58About six o'clock,
17:00I told my people,
17:01my forces,
17:03felicitations.
17:04The Israelis have lost their balance.
17:11Sadat's armies drove the Israelis from the Suez Canal.
17:17Israel's air force tried to retaliate,
17:19but failed to break through Egypt's missile cover.
17:30The Egyptians advanced eight miles into the Sinai
17:33and then stopped as planned.
17:39In the north, Syria's attack also caught Israel off balance.
17:44600 Syrian tanks rolled over Israel's defenses
17:48and across the Golan Heights.
17:58We weren't ready today.
18:01We came from the home in the middle of Yom Kippur.
18:06So who was here? That was regular soldiers?
18:09Yes, only the Marines.
18:12So they must have had a hard time?
18:13Oh yeah, very hard.
18:16Did you have many casualties?
18:17Well, with such things we don't know,
18:20it's not allowed to talk about them.
18:31The Syrians were expected to press their advantage.
18:40We must keep on fighting with all our courage, faith and trust.
18:45As a nation that knows we're fighting for our lives.
18:49And we are fighting for our lives.
18:55Israel's defeat appeared imminent.
18:57But on the fourth day, the Syrians ran into a large Israeli force.
19:04Israel had been able to divert troops to the Syrian front
19:07because the Egyptian army had halted.
19:12Syria's President Assad demanded to know
19:15why the Egyptians were not advancing through the Sinai as agreed.
19:21The President kept phoning Sadat and insisting,
19:24this is not what we agreed.
19:27Sadat never gave him a straight answer.
19:32Syria peeled over Sadat's head to the Soviet Union,
19:35still Egypt's patron.
19:37The Soviet Prime Minister came to Cairo to sort things out.
19:42Prime Minister Kosygin kept asking Sadat
19:48why his forces had stopped without taking the Sinai.
19:53He was infuriated by Sadat's answers.
20:05President Sadat yielded to Soviet pressure and gave the order to advance,
20:10much to the dismay of his chief of staff.
20:16It was doomed to failure from the start.
20:21Israel's air force was much stronger than ours.
20:30Now the war began to swing Israel's way.
20:38In three hours, 250 Egyptian tanks were destroyed.
20:44But Egypt still had two armies in the Sinai.
20:49The Israelis planned a daring coup.
20:51They set out to cut through the gap in the Egyptian lines,
20:54create a bridgehead over the canal and sweep around to isolate the Egyptian Third Army.
21:04The architect of the plan was General Ariel Sharon.
21:13We slipped through the Egyptian lines without major problems.
21:21But when we reached the canal,
21:26there was a ferocious battle.
21:28There was a ferocious battle.
21:38Eventually, at one in the morning,
21:40the paratroopers crossed to the other side in dinghies.
21:46The next day, Israeli forces raced across the canal to secure their bridgehead.
21:53I was at the canal.
21:56I could see the tanks crossing and the trees on the other side.
22:05It was a great feeling.
22:10Israel's troops were now only hours from Cairo,
22:15in the middle.
22:16President Sadat begged the Soviets to arrange a ceasefire.
22:21The Israelis crossed the canal.
22:24And about 24 hours later,
22:26we got a message from Brezhnev inviting me to come to Moscow.
22:35We thought Kissinger's visit to Moscow would be useful.
22:38He could help us stop the conflict.
22:43We thought it would give the Israelis more time if I went to Moscow,
22:50because nothing could happen until I got there.
22:53While I was in the air,
22:55Nixon sent a message directly to Brezhnev,
22:58saying that I was fully authorized to conclude.
23:01But I frankly wanted to stall.
23:04The Soviets were in such a hurry to end the fighting,
23:07that General Secretary Brezhnev led the talks with Kissinger himself.
23:15He insisted that the advance be stopped.
23:17In return, Kissinger wanted the Arabs to recognize Israel's right to exist.
23:25What we said was that there should be direct negotiations at some point between the Arabs and Israel.
23:36And I told Brezhnev I would carefully communicate everything he said to Washington,
23:43but that there had to be some time interval so that I could get the President's views.
23:49And he said, no, here's a message.
23:53And he gave me power of attorney, that, in effect, power of attorney that the President had given me,
24:00which did not thrill me.
24:04The Secretary of State realized he could stall no longer.
24:08While still in Moscow, he agreed to terms for a ceasefire.
24:14But it was another five days before the war ended.
24:17During that time, the Israelis encircled the Egyptian Third Army.
24:28A day later, the opposing generals met in the desert to work out how to disentangle their forces.
24:36It was the first formal meeting of Egyptian and Israeli officers in 25 years.
24:47He offered me coffee. I said, no, thank you.
24:50He asked, can I get you anything else?
24:52I said, no.
24:55He said, it's cold. Can I get you a coat?
24:59I said, no, thank you.
25:01That was the end of the first meeting.
25:05It was a week before the Egyptian general began to relax.
25:13We went out and sat on the sand.
25:16We put a map down in front of us.
25:18And we put stones on it.
25:21We started to talk about how to disengage our forces.
25:30I said, look, we have to end the friction between our forces.
25:37The answer is, you go back to the west side of the canal, and we will pull back to the
25:43east side.
25:51I went and told Sadat we had reached an agreement. He was pleased with what we had achieved.
25:58One more time.
25:59God is the best!
26:01God is the best!
26:07God is the best!
26:08God is the best!
26:09God is the best!
26:09Each side's dead were returned, and Israel allowed supplies through to the trapped Egyptians.
26:14Americans.
26:18But Sadat wanted more than a ceasefire and a disengagement.
26:22He wanted the Sinai back.
26:25But once again, he would talk only to the Americans.
26:28He came out in military uniforms and said, I need a Kissinger plan.
26:32I agreed to do a shuttle and settle it fast, and he said he would make major concessions
26:38to make it possible.
26:40Kissinger decided the way forward was to bring all the parties to a peace conference
26:44in Geneva.
26:45I never thought you would kiss a woman.
26:54The Egyptians and Israelis agreed to attend the conference.
27:00And then there was President Assad of Syria.
27:04I had heard he was impassable, but he greeted me with extraordinary politeness and courtesy.
27:11And I said, you know, it's amazing, they all accuse you of being so difficult.
27:17Whenever Kissinger wanted to change the date or venue, President Assad agreed.
27:22Kissinger told him, you are so accommodating.
27:26I got overconfident, and I said, is there anything I should have asked you that I didn't?
27:31He said, yes, you didn't ask me without going to the conference.
27:35I said, are you?
27:36He said, no.
27:38Assad did not want to negotiate with Israel.
27:44But Kissinger was able to get the rival armies to disengage.
27:57Sadat then attempted to strengthen his hand by embracing Syrian and Palestinian objectives.
28:06Israel must move on all the fronts, the Egyptian front, the Syrian front, the Jordanian front,
28:17the Palestinian front.
28:19At a time when Arafat wanted to replace Israel with a Palestinian state, Sadat pledged unity.
28:29You see, we are cooperating together.
28:33And as we have mentioned, there are three partners, Egyptians, Syrians, and the Palestinians.
28:47Two restless years passed.
28:52Then, Israeli elections brought forth a leader determined to hold on to the West Bank and Gaza.
29:01What occupied territories?
29:03If you mean Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, they are liberated territories.
29:08They are part, an integral part of the land of Israel.
29:13The new prime minister made the building of settlements his first priority.
29:19Settlements like the new town of Yamit, where 5,000 Jews lived in the Sinai.
29:27Begin was highly suspicious of Sadat.
29:32Sadat is an implacable enemy of Israel.
29:35This is also the truth.
29:36Sadat.
29:37He is no fool, but he is an enemy.
29:44Sadat's response would write his name indelibly into the history books.
29:52He announced he would make a keynote speech to the Egyptian parliament.
29:56He invited the leader of the PLO to attend.
30:01Arafat was happy to be in the parliament and he was happy that Sadat is paying attention to the Palestinian
30:06problem.
30:12Sadat put his text aside, but he carried on speaking.
30:18I told the foreign minister, he is about to throw a political grenade.
30:25After seven years of trying everything else but talking to Israel, Sadat broke the ultimate Arab taboo.
30:32I am willing to go anywhere.
30:35Israel will be surprised to hear that I am ready to go to them, even to the Knesset itself, and
30:43negotiate with them.
30:45The idea that Sadat would negotiate directly with Israel was so unthinkable, the audience applauded without realizing what he had
30:54said.
30:57Everyone was applauding Sadat.
31:01Even Yasser Arafat was clapping.
31:03I know, because he was sitting next to me.
31:10In Tel Aviv, no one was sure if Sadat really meant it.
31:18Sadat then said, if Begin invited him, he would come next week.
31:23The next day, Prime Minister Begin was hosting a lunch at the Hilton Hotel.
31:31The head of CBS in Israel wanted Begin's reaction.
31:35Begin was eating at the head table.
31:37I went up and gave him the message.
31:40He said, sure, I'll invite Sadat from here.
31:43Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby invite President Sadat on behalf of the government of Israel to come to Jerusalem and
31:54to stop negotiations to establish permanent peace between Israel and Egypt.
32:02Before accepting the invitation, Sadat flew to Syria to persuade President Assad that the trip to Jerusalem would not be
32:09a betrayal of the Arab cause.
32:14We asked the President to arrest Sadat to stop him going anywhere.
32:20But Assad considered Sadat his guest and preferred to hear him out.
32:28President Assad was trying to make Sadat change his mind.
32:34He told me, it will be proof that you are wrong.
32:37I said, very well, Assad.
32:39This is a sacred mission for me.
32:43And if this is going to be the last mission as a president, I shall be very happy to fulfill
32:50it.
32:51President Assad was not impressed.
32:54They talked for seven hours.
32:57Assad's ministers urged him to act.
32:59The presidential guard was standing by.
33:05President Assad refused.
33:07He said, it is against the Arab tradition for a man to arrest his guest.
33:12President Sadat returned safely to Egypt.
33:15Three days later, he set off for Jerusalem.
33:23I feared for his safety.
33:26We had been enemies for 40 years.
33:29He was putting himself at their mercy.
33:32He would be sleeping there that night.
33:35I was very anxious.
33:50Sadat's plane was late.
33:53I overheard a senior security officer talking.
33:59He was saying, hold on.
34:01Maybe instead of Sadat there is a suicide squad on the plane.
34:08And they will jump out and kill the assembled Israeli leaders.
34:31When we arrived in Tel Aviv, it was like I was coming to outer space.
34:37It means it was something completely new.
34:41I find myself in a car, sitting near Moshe Dayan,
34:45and we have to find how to begin a conversation.
34:49And I've read in the book that he was interested in archaeology.
34:53So I mentioned that I was interested in archaeology.
34:57And we begin to talk archaeology.
34:59The Israeli people greeted Sadat's arrival from Egypt as though he were Moses.
35:04Come again.
35:16I come to you today with a firm desire to make peace.
35:22Sadat offered peace, but he was careful not to abandon the other Arab states or the Palestinians.
35:32There are Arab lands still under Israeli occupation.
35:38We insist on complete withdrawal from these territories, including Arab Jerusalem.
35:48It was quite a speech, quite disturbing.
35:52I passed a note to Begin saying we must be on our guard.
36:00Ezra Weitzman, the defense minister, who was a great advocate for peace,
36:04said when he heard the speech that maybe we should mobilize the reserves.
36:14The visitors went from the Knesset to a dinner in their honor.
36:20It was a kind of dinner where there was not much talk.
36:25The atmosphere was cool.
36:30President Sadat and Mr. Begin were not speaking to each other.
36:34They were sitting with their backs to each other.
36:39I decided to invite Ezra Weitzman and another minister up to my suite after dinner.
36:50Mustafa Khalil told me, we have to do something.
36:53Otherwise, the whole trip will be without any follow-up.
36:58What about having a meeting together? I said, no objection.
37:03So now I found myself sitting with our worst enemy at the King David Hotel, drinking Black Label.
37:10I want to enter directly in the process and mentioning what are the problems of Cairo today
37:18and the problems of Egypt and this is why we need peace.
37:23I said, let me show you something.
37:25I took him to the window.
37:27I said, take a good look.
37:29Do you really think you can divide this city?
37:35I say the solution is this direct talk with the leadership of Israel
37:41and through this direct talk, direct contact, everything will be solved.
37:50It wasn't that simple.
37:52After the trip to Jerusalem, the two sides continued to talk for seven months.
38:04But Begin would not give an inch.
38:09Sadat confided in the new president of the United States.
38:13Sadat felt that the peace process, instead of having been moved forward,
38:18had actually been almost terminated by a fruitless gesture to go to Jerusalem.
38:24So he was quite discouraged.
38:26I asked President Carter, the Senate, the Congress to take their share as full partners
38:35in the dispute that's between us and Israel.
38:42I'm waiting for this moment.
38:44I found myself isolated from all my advisers.
38:48All of them thought that it was a bad idea.
38:50President Carter then set out to resolve 30 years of conflict
38:55in a week of talks at the presidential retreat at Camp David.
39:03We arrived by helicopters and we find this kind of small bungalows in the forest.
39:10People quite relaxed.
39:12People were using bicycles and it was quite strange for us.
39:18Some of the Americans even brought their children.
39:23The national security adviser challenged Israel's prime minister to a game of chess
39:29and got a preview of his negotiating technique.
39:33I was about to make my first move when he dramatically seized my hand in mid-air and looked me
39:40straight in the eye and said,
39:42and he's always very serious and formal,
39:44Dr. Brzezinski, do you know when I played my last chess game?
39:50And quite frankly, I was a little dismayed because I couldn't care less.
39:55And he says to me, September 1940, when the NKVD broke into my hiding place in Vilna to arrest me.
40:06So I said to myself, oh my God.
40:08And in the midst of the game, Mrs. Begin appears.
40:11She looks at us and says, oh, the two of you are playing chess.
40:16You know, Mr. Brzezinski, Menachem just loves to play.
40:19He just loves to play. He plays all the time.
40:22When President Carter brought the two leaders together, Sadat listed the demands.
40:27The return of the Sinai to Egypt and a Palestinian state in the West Bank with its capital in Jerusalem.
40:36Sadat and I both knew that this was not going to be at all acceptable to me or the Israelis.
40:44We all hit the roof, not just Begin.
40:47They were taking a hard line.
40:50We all said, this simply won't work.
40:54They wanted to storm out, to terminate the talks.
40:59And I jumped up from the desk where I was sitting and writing and got in the door in front
41:05of them.
41:06And I wouldn't let them get out of the room until they both agreed to let me try to continue.
41:12And after that, the two men never saw each other for the next ten days.
41:22The incompatibilities between the two sides were so intense that some sort of an American document bridging the gap
41:30and extracting from each side those relatively few elements on the part of each side that were of a compromise
41:38nature
41:38seemed to us to be the only way to proceed.
41:41So I carried the same text back and forth.
41:46Begin and Sadat agreed to go with the same text, with brackets and modifications and marginal notes.
41:56Carter focused their attention on a clause that would require Israel to give up Gaza and the West Bank to
42:02the Palestinians.
42:04Begin simply dug in his heels and says this is totally unacceptable.
42:08As far as he was concerned, this was greater Israel, or Israel.
42:12And they hadn't acquired territory by force.
42:16It had always been ordained as part of Israel.
42:23Begin remained intransigent.
42:25So Carter persuaded Sadat to give up his demand for a Palestinian state,
42:30to the outrage of his advisers.
42:32It was a real shock for us.
42:36Our main preoccupation was to avoid a bilateral agreement between Israel and Egypt at the expense of the Palestinians.
42:50But that wasn't enough for the Israelis.
42:56They say, no, no, no, no, no, they are refusing to withdraw from the Sinai,
43:00that they want to maintain the three airports, that they want to maintain the settlements.
43:06The Israelis delegated Moshe Dayan to convince Sadat that he would have to compromise on the Sinai too.
43:14Dayan told him, Mr. President, if anybody has told you that Israel can leave the Sinai settlements,
43:21they are deluding you.
43:23Fred Sadat was so upset that he asked me for airplanes.
43:27He said, I'm leaving.
43:28If I cannot even get Sinai back, then what is the use of my continuing this peace process?
43:37I asked Sadat if he would go back in his cabin and talk to me.
43:41All of his bags were on the front porch.
43:44I told Sadat he had betrayed our friendship.
43:47He had violated a commitment that he made to me,
43:50that he would give me full opportunity to resolve any differences that arose,
43:55and that I thought that his peremptory action in leaving without giving me another chance
44:01would also seriously and adversely affect the relationships between our two countries.
44:09Sadat unpacked his bags.
44:12Carter would now have to get the Israeli prime minister to yield.
44:17I was about to play tennis. I was dressed in whites.
44:21Begin was always dressed as if he was about to go to a funeral.
44:23And we went for a walk in the Camp David woods.
44:28And he says to me very dramatically,
44:30I want you to understand that my right eye will fall out.
44:35My right hand will fall off before I ever sign a single scrap of paper
44:43permitting the dismantling of a single Jewish settlement.
44:47Prime Minister Begin had taken a solemn oath before God
44:52and the Israeli people that he would not dismantle Israeli settlements.
44:56So I had to devise an alternative to that, so that he would not do it.
45:04Carter urged Begin's advisers to find a way around their prime minister's solemn oath.
45:10The only way was to let the Knesset make the decision and not him.
45:16Dayan and Weizmann started speaking up to Begin in Hebrew
45:21rather than in English as they did in the past.
45:26I said, we cannot go back empty handed.
45:29We must find a compromise.
45:35Begin's colleagues concluded that the only way to persuade him
45:38that dismantling the settlements would not damage him politically
45:41was to get the settlers' champion on the phone.
45:47Prime Minister Begin, God rest his soul, told me,
45:52there are problems over the Jewish settlements in the Sinai.
45:56He wanted to know where I stood.
46:00I answered in one sentence,
46:03I will support any decision you take.
46:13Prime Minister Begin's phone call opened the way for a White House ceremony.
46:17The Knesset voted to dismantle the Sinai settlements.
46:29Egypt became the first Arab state to recognize Israel's right to exist.
46:38Israel gave back the Sinai.
46:40Let's have a handshake.
46:43Sadat and Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
46:48I'm so proud of both of them.
46:50God bless you both.
46:52While we have the ceremony and the different speeches
46:55and the different signatures,
46:56we were listening to the Palestinians,
46:59which were outside,
47:02and were just shouting to remind us
47:05that the Palestinian problem have not been solved.
47:11the peace with Israel that Sadat concluded has lasted to this day.
47:19But many Arabs were enraged.
47:25Two years later,
47:27at a military display in Cairo,
47:29Islamic extremists assassinated Anwar Sadat.
47:44They were in the same place.
47:47They were in the same place.
47:47They were in the same place.
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