The Warlike Peace

All right, now, has the euphoria died down yet? I hope so, for after a therapeutic deep breath, I am going to take a calm, hard look at President Carter’s Arab-Israeli “peace” treaty. My quotation marks do give the game away, I admit, but I am not writing in a willfully disrespectful vein: it really is Jimmy Carter’s treaty, and Anwar al-Sadat said so. I give the President high marks for trying so hard. The question I address is whether his efforts were not misdirected.

I note, then, that the treaty does seem to make hostilities between Israel and Egypt less likely to start up again, so long as President Sadat is around and in power. I note, too, that Mr. Menahem Begin (by no means the first terrorist turned statesman) has made substantial territorial and other concessions to Egypt. Finally, on the good side, I note that the defection of Egypt from a previously united Arab front (united on Israel, if on nothing else) makes it that much more difficult for the Arabs on the other fronts to launch further aggression, and that much easier for Israel to hit back if they do.

BC

About the Author

Brian Crozier

Featured Tags

All right, now, has the euphoria died down yet? I hope so, for after a therapeutic deep breath, I am going to take a calm, hard look at President Carter’s Arab-Israeli “peace” treaty. My quotation marks do give the game away, I admit, but I am not writing in a willfully disrespectful vein: it really is Jimmy Carter’s treaty, and Anwar al-Sadat said so. I give the President high marks for trying so hard. The question I address is whether his efforts were not misdirected.

I note, then, that the treaty does seem to make hostilities between Israel and Egypt less likely to start up again, so long as President Sadat is around and in power. I note, too, that Mr. Menahem Begin (by no means the first terrorist turned statesman) has made substantial territorial and other concessions to Egypt. Finally, on the good side, I note that the defection of Egypt from a previously united Arab front (united on Israel, if on nothing else) makes it that much more difficult for the Arabs on the other fronts to launch further aggression, and that much easier for Israel to hit back if they do.