Nation: A Sudden Vision of Peace

From the beginning it had been one of the most remarkable meetings of world leaders ever conceived, let alone enacted. In the end it turned out, against all expectations, to be a summit of astonishing and perhaps ultimately historic achievement. After 13 days of being cloistered with their closest aides at Camp David, President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin emerged Sunday night to sign before the television cameras and the watching world two documents that were giant efforts toward peace in the Middle East. Though considerable obstacles and hard bargaining remain, it was a major breakthrough in areas that have defied all the efforts of war and diplomacy for three decades. The outcome was substantially more than anyone except perhaps Host Jimmy Carter had believed possible before the summit began—and immensely more than had been anticipated right up to the Sunday on which the summit was to end, apparently in failure.

The first document was titled "A Framework for Peace in the Middle East." As ambitious as its name, it envisaged in great detail the mechanics, if not all the solutions, that would enable Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians to work out over five years the final status of the West Bank and Gaza, a measure of autonomy for the Palestinians in those regions, and gilt-edged guarantees of security for Israel.

The second document was "A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty Between Egypt and Israel." Except on one critical point left unresolved, the status of Israeli settlements in the occupied Sinai, it was even more precise and explicit. It called for an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty to be signed within three months, major Israeli withdrawals within three to nine months after that, the normalization of all relationships between the two countries within a year and complete Israeli withdrawal from Egyptian territory within three years. Though the two agreements were not contingent upon each other, the aim was clear: through their joint application they could create a climate and a context of progress toward peace that would bring along the more reluctant elements in the Middle East that were not represented at Camp David, upon whose ultimate cooperation any durable peace depends. That includes not only the other Arab nations and the Palestinians, but also those in Israel opposed to any return of Arab territories or dismantling of Israeli settlements in them.

The magnitude of their triumph was evident as the three leaders spoke in turn Sunday night in the gold and crystal East Room of the White House where some 400 Congressmen, Cabinet members and the trio's staff had hastily assembled. His face ashen with fatigue but punctuated by repeated smiles, Carter announced the broad outlines of the two agreements, declaring, "My hope is that the promise of this moment will be fulfilled." Sadat, initially somber, was almost reverential in his praise of Carter for calling the summit. Said he: "You took a gigantic step."

Begin, chatty at first, turned serious to sound the same note of praise. "It was really the Jimmy Carter conference ... the President of the U.S. won the day," he said. "Peace now celebrates a great victory for the nations of Egypt and Israel and