EDITORIAL: Building a bridge for peace

Every so often, a fascinating bit of history comes out quite unexpectedly.

That was the case Monday when President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter made an appearance in Plains for Presidents’ Day and talked about the highlight of the Carter presidency — the Camp David Peace Accords.

That single agreement has been the most successful in a troublesome section of the world — the Middle East — that has been in constant turmoil for centuries. While a number of U.S. presidents have tried their hands at fostering peace in the region, Carter’s effort ended hostilities between Egypt and Israel. The deal brokered in late 1978 resulted in a formal peace treaty that was signed in March 1979 by the two nations that had been officially at war for more than three decades.

It’s a peace agreement that has held for nearly 38 years. It’s also a treaty that almost did not happen.

From the president’s remarks, he brought to Camp David two people who did not like each other — Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In 1977, Sadat made the first move to find a peaceful relationship with Israel, riling the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Syria, Iraq, Libya and others that didn’t want an agreement to come about. Sadat became the first Arab head of state to visit Israel that year and Begin visited Egypt in December.

That led to the Camp David negotiations, which Carter said appeared to be failing toward the end. Sadat and Begin blamed each other for problems stemming back to the time of Abraham and nearly resorted to fist-fighting. Carter separated the two leaders and served as a go-between over the final 10 days of the 13-day summit, noting he “didn’t get much sleep” those last 10 days.

And it all appeared to be wasted effort. Begin, who refused to compromise, and Sadat planned to leave without an agreement. Carter prayed and then persuaded Sadat to stay a bit longer. Begin, however, appeared to be a lost cause, saying any concessions he made would violate his promise to God.

The turning point was an act of kindness, of going the extra mile and reminding a political leader of what was important. Carter, asked to autograph photos for Begin’s eight grandchildren, wrote a personal note to each one after his secretary took the initiative to contact Israel and get each of the grandchildren’s names.

It brought tears to both leaders’ eyes and inspired Begin not to abandon a peace process that would mean a more secure future for both his grandchildren and future generations of Israelis, who would have one less enemy if the talks were successful.

“I think with Prime Minister Begin, in the end, getting emotional over the photographs, I think he was thinking about his children living in peace, his grandchildren living in peace,” Rosalynn Carter observed. “I think that had a big influence on him that made him agree.”

Carter’s plan to go to the Israeli Parliament with the agreement allowed Begin to agree to the accords while not violating his oath. In the end, two old adversaries, Sadat and Begin, embraced in friendship.

“Camp David was a glorious achievement because both Begin and Sadat agreed that Israel and Egypt not have any more wars with each other,” President Carter said. “And that was the first time, Sadat said, in more than 2,500 years that the Jews and the Egyptians had not been at war with each other. And not a single word of that peace treaty has ever been violated.”

Carter said Monday he believes that, had the American voters re-elected him, he would have been able to broker an equally lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Whether that would have happened with negotiators who weren’t motivated by seeing the value of democratic principles like Sadat was is something that can’t be proven. Faith, persistence and love did, however, build a bridge of peace in 1978, so perhaps spans over other chasms of hate and mistrust could have been built as well.

We’ll never know.

Still, there is a powerful lesson from the behind-the-scenes story about the Camp David Accords, one we as Americans should take to heart. We live in a nation of increasingly narrow vision and interests. We have too many Americans — too many political leaders — who can’t disagree without despising the individual with the opposing point of view. We have come to prefer retaliation to negotiation.

If we and our elected officials could look beyond today and consider the nation that will be inherited by our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we might be inspired to do greater things for the greater good.

We can build and reinforce our own bridges, or we can wait for them to crumble out from under us.