Ordeal In the Mountains

Isolation from the world was a key element in the Camp David summit, and only after it was over did the participants start to tell bits and pieces of this extraordinary two-week confrontation. The pieces add up to a dramatic chronicle of clashes and near breakdown before the final accord.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 5. Bright sunshine for opening day. Jimmy Carter, who arrived the day before, gets up early, plays tennis with Rosalynn. The Carters greet Anwar Sadat in afternoon. He's weary from Paris flight. Menachem Begin, rested from his two-day stay in New York, holds first meeting with Carter in President's Aspen Lodge. Begin worried about new violence in Lebanon. The two discuss how conference will proceed.

WEDNESDAY. Sadat visits Carter at Aspen. They sit on back porch overlooking pool. First surprise of conference: Sadat has detailed, ten-page proposal for West Bank and Gaza problems. Some points old and often rejected by Israel: total Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories, even the flying of Arab flags over Jerusalem. But Sadat also offers security provisions for Israel. Americans see hope.

Carter tells Begin that Sadat has a proposal. The three convene for first time. Sadat and Begin keep addressing each other as "my dear friend." Sadat puts on black-rimmed glasses, reads his proposal for an hour and a half. Begin several times throws hands up in disgust. Mutters disagreement. Carter invites Begin to respond immediately. Begin declines, asks for time to study whole paper. Begin summons other Israelis to his Birch Cabin. Appalled at Sadat proposal. Some of Begin's advisers figure Sadat wants to blow up the conference, blame Israel. Others see it as tough opening ploy.

THURSDAY. Americans gather in Aspen at 7:30 a.m. They see Sadat, who has heart problem like Begin, stride past with walking stick. Carter and Aides Cyrus Vance and Zbigniew Brzezinski sound out Begin and Aides Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman on their reaction to Sadat proposal. Israelis very critical.

The three leaders meet alone. Begin blisters Sadat proposal, point by point. Keeps jabbing his finger at the paper in front of him. Begin accuses Sadat of purposely attacking while Israelis worshiped for Yom Kippur in 1973. Sadat, stung, calls the attack a "strategic deception." Retorts Begin: "It's still deception." Sadat and Begin keep interrupting each other, sometimes shouting. "Please let him finish, Mr. President," Carter pleads with Sadat during one exchange. Emotions subside after more than three hours. An Israeli later warns an American that Begin and Sadat should not meet for a while. Begin worries own delegation by seeming pleased -- he feels that Sadat proposal is so unacceptable that world will not blame Israel if summit fails.

FRIDAY. Americans decide to change tactics, avoid three-way meetings for a time. Carter meets Begin in afternoon. Carter meets Sadat in evening. Stalemate. Sadat tells Carter it's time for U.S. to make its move, if it has proposals of its own. Carter and aides begin to draft paper setting out key issues, with Egyptian and Israeli positions on each, plus U.S. alternatives. As evening begins, Israelis hold Shabbat dinner. Jimmy and Rosalynn attend, stay for two hours, drink Carmel wine, sing songs, including one from Fiddler on the Roof, which Carter likes be cause it keeps repeating "hallelujah!"

SATURDAY. While Begin stays in his cottage during Sabbath, others play Ping Pong and billiards. Sadat again up early, walking in woods, stays aloof even from his own delegation. Vance Aide Harold Saunders, after nightlong labors, produces first draft of American proposals. Americans spend all day working through three more drafts. (There will ultimately be 23.)

SUNDAY, SEPT. 10. After Carter, Sadat and Begin tour Gettysburg battlefield in morning, Americans unfold proposals in marathon 5 1/2-hour session with Israelis. Mood is more conciliatory because Begin is now responding to suggestions from Carter rather than from Sadat. But Begin still criticizes many points in great detail, then grows visibly tired after midnight. Carter patiently defends U.S. compromises, keeps the meeting moving. "Carter was incredible," Weizman says. "He never lost control of the meeting for a minute." Outside, says one official, the long Israeli-American meeting makes the Egyptians "nervous as hell." A few of them try to watch a movie in Hickory Lodge, but fidget and leave. They fear some kind of American-Israeli common front against them. But Sadat sleeps in his cabin while the other two delegations argue on until 3 a.m.

MONDAY. Carter asks Israelis to put their reactions to the U.S. proposals in writing so he can consider them before 10:30 a.m. meeting with Sadat. Israelis on bicycles pedal breathlessly to Carter's cabin to deliver their response, page by page. For two hours, Carter meets with Sadat, laying out U.S. position, incorporating some Israeli counterideas. Sadat promises formal reply that night, but misses the deadline. American delegation senses more give-and-take emerging.

TUESDAY. Carter seeks breakthrough on Sinai problem, pores over maps with Weizman. President sees possibility of working out two agreements, one on Israeli-Egyptian peace, one on framework for overall peace. Carter retreats to private study, scrawls details of separate Sinai agreement on yellow pad, putting in dates for Israeli withdrawals, size of security positions, hard numbers. He puts proposals in his pocket, then meets with Sadat. They go over Egyptian response to U.S. overall peace principles. Carter pulls Sinai proposals from pocket. Sadat surprisingly receptive, merely modifies some security zone dimensions, other figures.

Carter meets Begin and hopeful mood ends. Begin insists Israel cannot accept principle of total withdrawal from West Bank and Gaza. But for first time, two written proposals --one for general peace principles, one for separate Egypt-Israel treaty--are on table.

WEDNESDAY. Carter takes a new tack. Ignoring protocol, he deals not with leaders but with their aides to work out technical details. Key aides: Egyptian Under Secretary of State Osama el-Baz and former Israeli Attorney General Aharon Barak. Carter keeps aides in session 10 1/2 hours, sending out for tea and sandwiches. Begin walks in woods with Wife Aliza. Sadat too goes strolling again.

Carter surprised in talks with aides. He finds elBaz, aide to moderate Sadat, unexpectedly technical and difficult. Barak, aide to rigid Begin, seems reasonable and flexible. "Barak was the unsung hero of the entire summit," one U.S. official says. "There would have been no agreement without him. He refused to accept the idea that a particular problem just wasn't solvable."

That night Carter and Vance discover Begin is adamant against U.S. Sinai proposals, as amended by Sadat. He starts talking in Hebrew with Weizman. Carter and Vance look at each other in dismay. Carter notes that it is nearly midnight, everyone is exhausted and all should sleep on it. Begin agrees.

THURSDAY. Rosalynn is restless, awakes at 4:30 a.m. Carter wakes up, too, decides to go right to work. He telephones Brzezinski and asks security adviser to bring over some papers. The pace is tiring everybody. During nightly movies, Begin keeps falling asleep, once while watching An Unmarried Woman. At a showing of Patton, Weizman makes a graphic point: "If this thing falls apart, this is what we're going to have--another war." On this day conference almost does fall apart. Carter shuttles between Israelis and Sadat, who is emotional, one minute hopeful, the next gloomy. Despite Carter's reassurances that U.S. is not pushing too many Israeli positions, Sadat tells his staff to pack and be ready to leave.

FRIDAY. Carter makes morning visit to Sadat in desperate bid to keep conference going. He makes the issue very personal. Aside from the dangers to the Middle East, he says, breakdown would badly damage his own political position in U.S. Sadat later says he has "a soft spot in my heart for President Carter," and that he would do what he could. Explains a Sadat aide: "Sadat told us that no American President has ever so Involved himself in our problems. We can never expect to have another like him."

Sadat agrees to remain at Camp David. Carter proposes a deadline of Sunday to wind up the summit, hoping the pressure may help. "He wanted it to end neatly at a fixed time, rather than die by gasps," says one American. The sticking point now is Begin's refusal to agree to withdraw settlements from the Sinai. But he does offer alternative: he would leave that issue up to the Knesset to resolve. Told of this, Sadat reluctantly agrees.

SATURDAY. Begin wants to go to Washington to hear Leonard Bernstein conduct the Israel Philharmonic. Carter doesn't want him to go. Begin jocularly tells Brzezinski that Camp David is a "deluxe concentration camp." He recalls he has a friend who tunneled out of a British prison camp after six tries. Says he: "If we don't finish soon, I'll call my friend. He'll start working immediately."

But another crisis is developing over West Bank because Begin insists that the preamble to U.N. Resolution 242, banning territorial "acquisitions by conquest," should not be part of any Camp David agreement. Arguments over this, says one participant, are "mind-blowing" and incredibly legalistic. Three hours devoted to "the inadmissibility of acquisitions" phrase. Worried Americans take lunch on a patio, ponder some way to bridge the West Bank gulf. They devise ingenious two-track solution: let Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Palestinians negotiate at one level over final status of West Bank; let Israel and Jordan also seek a peace treaty at same time, with Palestinian participation. Israel's Barak is shown this U.S. proposal. "This is much better," he says. "I think we're getting somewhere." But Sadat tells Carter he still wants Palestinians to have right to select their own form of government and something must be done about Jerusalem. Carter sees Begin for four hours after the Sabbath ends, meeting until 12:30 a.m., pins down Begin's agreement to buck the settlements issue to the Knesset. "For the first time, we started thinking it might work," says one U.S. official.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 17. Thunderstorm deluges Camp David on final, decisive day. U.S. official delivers Carter message to Begin outlining U.S. views on Jerusalem, rejecting Israel's claim that East Jerusalem, seized in 1967, is part of Israel. Begin blows up. He hands back letter, declaring: "I'd rather cut off my right hand than sign that." Carter decides to postpone all reference to Jerusalem. The outcome is now up to Egypt. Carter meets one last time in climactic negotiations with Sadat. At 4:30 p.m. U.S. Aide Hamilton Jordan looks up to see Carter flashing thumbs-up signal through window. Sadat has agreed with final wording of the two historic documents.

That night, after signing ceremony at White House and incredible sight of Sadat and Begin embracing on national television, Carter calls his mother in Plains. "Mother, it's the toughest thing I've ever done," he says. Tears run down his cheeks.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.