Word: jerusalems
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Vance realized that the proposed letter would upset Jerusalem because it would require Israel to meet all its treaty obligations to Egypt before there was any exchange of ambassadors, and that such an exchange could be indefinitely postponed. Still, Vance was greatly encouraged. He felt that the Israelis would recognize that he had won important concessions from Sadat and therefore react favorably to the trade-offs sought by the Egyptian. Abandoning caution, Vance ventured a statement that, for him, was daring in its finality: "We have finished those two issues." Added the Secretary after arriving in Israel...
...Israelis were shocked by the proposals Vance had brought from Cairo, and especially by the implicit endorsement of them by the U.S. To Jerusalem, this amounted to adding "new elements" in a negotiating process that, the Israelis felt, was near completion. In its special session, Begin's Cabinet condemned the Egyptian proposals as "inconsistent with the Camp David framework, or not included in it" and declared that it "rejects the attitude and interpretation...
Earlier in the week, other Israelis had already vented their feelings about the proposals brought by Vance. One morning, a car pulled up outside Jerusalem's King David Hotel, where Vance was sleeping, and a loudspeaker started blaring: "Vance go home! Vance go home!" From a second loudspeaker came the chant, "Cyrus Vance. Go see your friends in Egypt. We don't want you here...
Almost as bad as linkage, in Jerusalem's eyes, was the letter about recognizing Egypt's right to aid an ally attacked by Israel. Charged Lavie: "This neutralizes the peace treaty of its real and meaningful essence. If this is accepted, we will not have peace with Egypt." There was concern, for instance, that Syria could mass troops threateningly on Israel's border in order to provoke an Israeli pre-emptive attack, thereby giving Cairo an excuse to join in a war against Israel...
...criticism aimed at Jerusalem is at least in part deserved. At several crucial steps in the peace process, it has been Israel rather than Egypt that has moved grudgingly, split hairs and seemed to shrivel the spirit of the proposed agreement with excessive legalisms. A glaring example is the stubbornness with which the Begin government has pursued its policy of expanding Israeli settlements in the territories occupied since...