Where I Stand — Hank Greenspun: A first-hand look at Middle East crisis

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 9:26 a.m.

Note to readers: This column by Sun founder Hank Greenspun appeared on Dec. 11, 1977.

War has been renounced as a method of solving outstanding problems in the Middle East.

The agreement was reached between the two major powers, Israel and Egypt, when President Anwar Sadat met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin after a most courageous and historic move on the part of the president of Egypt.

The immediate impact of Sadat's visit was to take the Palestinian Liberation Organization out of any negotiating picture because the Egyptian leader knew that Israel would never meet with terrorists.

This was the most formidable of obstacles to any peace move between the confrontation states. The largest Arab power in that part of the world and the one which has paid most heavily in blood and territory, it recognizes Israel's determination to never again leave itself at the mercy of its neighbors or the superpowers by giving up boundaries which ensure her total security and defensibility.

And if Egypt can realize it and agree to negotiate on such terms, why should the United States, which should be the most interested in peace in that area, have doubts and uncertainties? Why should President Jimmy Carter continue to press for a separate Palestinian state when there can be no hope of achieving one?

I personally can attest to Israel's determination to resist all pressures from any and all nations as a result of my visit with the Israeli prime minister a few days before Sadat arrived in Jerusalem.

Sitting in Begin's office in the Knesset, which is the Israeli parliament, he interrupted our coffee drinking and discussion by calling me over to the window which serves as an entire wall of his office.

Begin pulled the drape aside and said, "A short time ago the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Michael Blumenthal, sat in the same seat where you were just sitting telling me of President Carter's beliefs and desires. I asked him to come over to this window and I pointed to that hill. I told him it was one of the Hills of Judea and the distance from that hill to this Knesset was less than the distance between the White House and the Capitol of the United States where your Congress meets.

"From that hill you don't need rockets, a 155-millimeter cannon or even 105s. All you need is an 81-millimeter mortar, and from that hill you can destroy this Knesset. Do you expect me to to give back that hill to the PLO?"

The prime minister also asked Blumenthal, "Do you think the people elected me their prime minister to administer this government so that it will lead to the destruction of Israel and the Holy City of Jerusalem?"

Blumenthal responded that it was certainly a different view when you stand here and actually see where the 1967 borders were than looking at a map and drawing lines.

Begin then said, "That's what you must tell your president."

There is no record of whether Blumenthal relayed the information or Begin's determination, because Carter is still speaking one way and acting another.

During the same visit, Blumenthal met with Teddy Kolleck, mayor of Jerusalem, and asked Teddy to show him around the Holy City, but insisted that they only tour the new part and not the old city. Blumenthal did not want to offend the PLO by acknowledging Kolleck's jurisdiction over all of Jerusalem.

Teddy told him he was mayor of all of Jerusalem and if he couldn't show him the whole city, he would not show him any part of it.

When President Sadat met Mayor Kolleck, he said, "Teddy, you are the most famous mayor in the whole world. I want you to show me all of Jerusalem."

The president of Egypt knew the risks he was taking, but nevertheless chanced them in his desire for peace.

Peace has many risks, none of them as fierce and monstrous as war.

If the president of Egypt, who has the most to lose, is willing to take the risk, why should the United States place obstacles in the way?

The road to peace in the Middle East will be a certainty if the superpowers stay out of it and permit the confrontation parties to sit alone and negotiate their own survival.

The nations of the Middle East that face death will find the road to life if no outsider places roadblocks in the way.