Meeting At Camp David

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a very high-risk thing for me politically." Indeed, no previous American President has assumed such a direct personal responsibility for resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute, which has erupted in four wars and taken 39,000 lives in the past three decades.

U.S. officials have tried, as usual, to prevent any exaggerated expectations of the outcome at Camp David. Said one: "There is no magic formula. On the basic questions, nothing has changed. There'll be no deus ex machina coming up with a great plan." In fact, even a modest success is far from assured. It will depend in large part on the stern and cantankerous figure of Menachem Begin—and on whether any mixture of pressure and persuasion can induce the onetime guerrilla fighter to lessen his intransigency and make at least some concessions for the sake of a settlement. The temperamental Sadat will have to make compromises too, of course, but the Egyptians are pinning their hopes on the perhaps illusory belief that Carter can influence Begin to change his course. Warned one of them: "If the U.S. is ever going to use its power to get a Middle East peace, there is no better time."

It would be hard to imagine a conference site more remote from the tensions of the Middle East than Camp David, a 143-acre aerie perched atop a 1,880-ft. hill in Maryland's Catoctin Mountain, 75 miles northwest of the capital. Franklin Roosevelt was so fond of sneaking off to his hideaway that he called it Shangri-La. There he and Winston Churchill planned Dday. Dwight Eisenhower changed the name of the retreat to that of his grandson David, and the new name later became synonymous with a thawing of the cold war. "The spirit of Camp David" derived from the 1959 summit conference between Eisenhower and the Soviets' Nikita Khrushchev. In all, 20 leaders of foreign countries have stayed there.

The retreat provides the privacy and intimacy that Carter seeks for the summit, especially if the "chemistry" is going to work. The camp is sealed off from the rest of the world by a fence topped with a double strand of barbed wire, and guarded this week not only by the usual contingent of Marines, but also by a squadron of U.S., Israeli and Egyptian special agents armed with submachine guns, shotguns and pistols.

The press is barred, except for a small pool that records the arrivals of the participants and some minor activities. The leaders are thus spared any barrage of questions. By general agreement, White House Press Secretary Jody Powell will handle the daily briefings, either at the White House or at the makeshift press center inside an American Legion hall in Thurmont, Md., the town closest to Camp David. But on some issues he may be joined by his Egyptian and Israeli counterparts.

Administration aides hope that the camp's facilities will encourage informal mixing. The presidential retreat offers tennis courts, a one-hole golf course, a bowling alley and a heated swimming pool. It is difficult to imagine Begin or Sadat working off tensions on the trampoline, but they may take to the nature trail that winds through the thick woods. For evening entertainment, Carter enjoys showing movies to his guests in Hickory Lodge, and both the Egyptians and the Israelis have expressed interest in westerns. (White House aides were joking last week that both would like to see How the