Sadat and Begin: "Best Wishes"

The Aug. 2 letter from Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, addressed to "Dear Prime Minister Begin," started with a solicitous inquiry. Wrote Sadat: "I hope you have fully recovered from what befell you and have regained your health in order to be able to confront the great responsibilities you are shouldering at this delicate stage." In Sadat's letter and Begin's reply, which were made public last week, the two leaders spelled out their thinking on the differences that have led to the breakdown in the Egyptian-Israeli talks on Palestinian autonomy. By turns eloquent, sentimental and accusatory, the letters also provided a fascinating insight into the thinking and style of the two men as the bilateral negotiations once more reached an impasse.

The tone of Sadat's letter was courteous, care fully respectful and almost devoid of passion, especially in view of the provocation that prompted it: the Knesset's resolution proclaiming Jerusalem Israel's capital. The Egyptian President praised Begin for remaining "firm in your resolution to follow up the noble cause of peace without regard for the huge efforts required for such a venerable task."

Sadat wrote of Israel's actions in a curiously passive way, never blaming Begin personally. For example, he noted that "numerous provocative and negative actions have been taken in flagrant de fiance of the peace process and its very essence.

I am referring to the actions being taken with respect to Jerusalem and the settlements, together with the repressive measures taken in the West Bank and Gaza."

Sadat the that such measures ran counter to the letter and spirit of the Camp David accord. He then recalled that he had proposed a formula that would restore Arab legal and historic rights in Jerusalem, but still keep the city united.

"In all frankness" Sadat added, "I believe that the ideas I submitted in this regard have not been given due consideration on your part. Dear Mr. Prime Minister Begin," Sadat concluded, "I am certain that deep in your heart you know that the attitude virtually impossible to continue the negotiations if the present attitude continues. I urge you to take the remedial measures necessary for removing the obstacles. With best wishes to you and Mrs. Begin, Muhammad Anwar Sadat."

Begin engagingly two days later, in a letter that started with an engagingly chatty you on his health: "Thank God my health is good. May I tell you something of my thoughts during the illness that befell me. My good doctors put me you a machine, made in Israel, unique in its sophistication, which you saw in of and which we even export to the U.S. After nearly two hours of or deal, they had a photo of my heart. The professor decided to show it to me. So what is the human heart?

Simply, it is a pump. And, I thought, God Almighty, as long as this pump is working, a human being feels, thinks, speaks, writes, loves his family, smiles, weeps, enjoys life, gets angry, gives friendship, wins friendship, prays, dreams, remembers, forgets, forgives, influences other people, is influenced by other people -- lives. But when this pump stops -- no more!

What a wonder in the cosmos is this frailty of the human body, without which the mind, too, becomes still, helpless or hapless."

After this "quasi-philosophical introduction," Begin's tone changed abruptly. He was tough and unyielding on Sadat's substantive points. "Jerusalem is and will be one, under Israel's sovereignty, its indivisible capital. The same applies to our settlements in Judea, Samaria, the Gaza District and the Golan Heights. They are legal and legitimate, and they are an integral part of our national security. None of them will ever be removed." Begin chastised Sadat for suspending the talks, seemingly more in sorrow than in anger. "Let us negotiate," he concluded. "Let us, as the past proves, reason together until we reach the agreement and pave the way for peace in this region, the cradle of human civilization. With my best wishes to you and Mrs. Sadat, Menachem Begin."

By week's end Sadat had added another chapter to the correspondence, this time a 35-page letter to Begin. Apparently resigned to writing rather than talking for the time being, Sadat suggested that they might get together for a summit -- but only after the U.S. elections in November.

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