Nation: A Sudden Vision of Peace

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worse now.

The Saudis will be torn between their interest in peace and moderation and their desire for Arab unity. There is nothing in the frameworks to please Syrian President Hafez Assad—Syria is hardly mentioned. A harsh critic of Sadat's peace moves, Assad earlier said Camp David was "the final striptease" in which the Israelis "won't even leave Sadat a fig leaf." Radio Damascus called the frameworks "a phony deal signed by two phony men. It represents American imperialism and a complete sellout of the Palestinians."

The frameworks fall far short of what King Hussein had previously demanded as his price for joining the talks. The P.L.O.—left, center and right—is sure to be outraged and even in Sadat's own camp there is contention and bitterness on the grounds that he had given up too much.

Even though on balance it was Begin who conceded the least, he, too, cannot expect a totally euphoric welcome home. Opposition Leader Shimon Peres was quoted as saying: "With such concessions we could have finished a long time ago. It's a hard thing to take." Geula Cohen, a member of Begin's own party in the Knesset, also found it hard to take: "Begin has always talked of living on both sides of the Jordan River. Now we will be living on both sides of the Yarkon (a little stream that flows through Tel Aviv). Begin has committed national suicide." Still, most Israelis in the end would likely go along with Begin.

Indeed, the first wave of reaction to the agreements confirmed, in a sense, the quality of the diplomacy achieved at Camp David. Like the result of any tough bargain struck in a complicated situation, there was a little something for almost everyone—and something to upset and chagrin almost everyone. Given the depth of antagonisms and the sharp clash of multiple interests in the Middle East, it could hardly be otherwise; that is precisely why peace has eluded the combatants for so long. It may again. Everything about the Middle East suggests the truth of the proverb that goes: "When you are 90% finished with a task, you are only halfway there."

Nonetheless, all the participants deserve high marks for the extraordinary effort the summit represented, and none more so than Jimmy Carter. Alone of the principals he should benefit at home from an unequivocal, sorely needed and well-earned rise in the esteem—and the opinion polls—of his countrymen. His summit, for all the hazards that lie ahead, moved the troubled Middle East a little closer to peace—and a little farther from war. ∎