The Momentum of Camp David

The other day we read an interview in the Atlanta Constitution with President Carter, in which he expressed his sadness over the fact that the "momentum" had gone out of Camp David. We know what he means, but we nonetheless beg to differ with him. In our opinion, the momentum of the Camp David agreements, which were signed just five years ago, has indeed kept going—inexorably and ruthlessly.

The difference in viewpoint between Mr. Carter and ourselves stems basically from our differing perceptions of what actually happened in Camp David. Mr. Carter, understandably, still regards Camp David as having been the beginning of a "peace process" for the Middle East—which Mr. Carter, of course, intended it to be—whereas we regard it as having been the beginning of an "expansion process" for Israel, which is what Menachem Begin intended it to be. Mr. Carter's peace momentum has certainly faltered, but Mr. Begin's expansion momentum has not.

The way Mr. Begin looked at it, Camp David gave him an opportunity to return the piece of Arab territory which least interested him—the Sinai desert, to which he had in any case never made any biblical claim—in return for an opportunity to nail down for Israel the territories he really did want. After evacuating Sinai, Mr. Begin kept the momentum going first by speeding up his intended takeover of the West Bank and Gaza—confiscating Arab land, building Jewish settlements, and quashing Palestinian aspirations for a political identity. Then he annexed the Golan Heights, and then he invaded Lebanon. All of these he could do because Egypt's army was no longer a factor that had to be taken into account, and because President Carter at Camp David and later President Reagan had reconfirmed the traditional U.S. reluctance to stand up to Israel.

It is possible that the momentum of Camp David may finally have slowed for the Israelis, as their failure to achieve all their goals in Lebanon has sunk home. But south Lebanon is still in Israel's hands, and U.S. marines are dying in Beirut. These, too, are vestiges of what was wrought by Camp David, and serve as reminders that the momentum of Camp David is still very much to be feared.