376. Letter From the Israeli Ambassador to the United States (Evron) to President Carter1
I have been asked by Prime Minister Begin to transmit to you the following message:
“Dear Mr. President,
I thank you for your letter of May 15 which Ambassador Lewis delivered to me on his return to Israel.2
Indeed, the Ambassador, in the course of our discussion, added valuable details concerning the developments. Among other matters he made it clear to me that you, Mr. President, wrote your letter before [Page 1254] President Sadat had made the second announcement about a further postponement or suspension of the autonomy negotiations.3 Both announcements came to all of us as a complete surprise.
You will recall that at the end of the last round of talks4 in Herzliya on May 7 the three delegations affirmed that the intensified negotiations, as agreed upon in the wake of your conversations with President Sadat and myself, would continue in Cairo on May 12. A day later, without prior consultation, President Sadat decided to postpone the date of the continuing talks to which we had all agreed.
In his speech to the Egyptian Parliament on May 14,5 President Sadat declared that in response to your personal request he had decided to renew the negotiations. However, on the following day, he again surprisingly announced yet a further postponement.
On Sunday afternoon, May 18, I received from our Ambassador in Cairo President Sadat’s personal message6 to me in which he listed three main complaints: The private Member’s Bill in the Knesset pertaining to Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel which elicited the almost universal consensus of the House,7 a statement made by our Minister of Agriculture8 in one of the negotiating sessions concerning the settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District, and the latest measures in Judea and Samaria. I assume, Mr. President, that the Egyptians provided you with the contents of that message so I will not go into its details.
In my reply to President Sadat, dispatched today, I conveyed to him the following. I wrote that the aforementioned Jerusalem Bill does not differ whatsoever in its contents from the letter I communicated to you on September 17, 1978, at Camp David. I, likewise, drew his attention to the Resolution on Jerusalem adopted on April 1, 1980 by the Egyptian Parliament which completely contradicts our innermost beliefs. Israel did not, however, because of that Resolution, interrupt the negotiations.
On the matter relating to Minister Sharon, he legitimately made a statement in the course of the talks regarding our settlements. The Egyptian delegation voiced objections as did our delegation over General Ali’s statement on security issues which we found to be totally unacceptable.
[Page 1255]We did not see this, however, to be a reason for us to suspend the talks.
As for the measures in Judea and Samaria, a horrible atrocity was perpetrated in Hebron9 and we had the clear duty to seek out the murderers who had waited in ambush to cut down the worshippers returning from prayer. I conveyed to President Sadat our hope that peaceful conditions will soon be restored.
I wish to use this opportunity, Mr. President, to thank you for your efforts within the European Community about which you wrote. It is clear that the so-called “European initiative” can only impair our important negotiations conducted in accordance with the Camp David Agreement. I agree with you that we must continue to work together and do our utmost to bring about the successful conclusion of the negotiations which Israel wishes to see speedily renewed.
Yours respectfully and sincerely,
Menachem Begin”
Sincerely,
Ambassador
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 10, Israel: Prime Minister Menachem Begin, 3–12/80. Carter initialed “C” in the upper right-hand corner of the letter, indicating that he saw the document.↩
- See footnote 4, Document 370.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 372.↩
- For a summary of the talks, see Document 368.↩
- See footnote 3, Document 369.↩
- See Document 373.↩
- Carter underlined “which elicited the almost universal consensus of the House” and wrote “!” in the right-hand margin next to this phrase.↩
- Ariel Sharon.↩
- See Document 367.↩