FBIS Coverage of the Middle East Peace Talks- 1978 September

V. 19 Sep 78 N 25 ISRAEL
PPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS DIVISION AR 70-14 13NOV201
I called him and told him that I wanted to come to him. I also had to thank him for auto-
graphing--for my grandchildren--the picture showing himself, President Carter and me.
President Carter signed too, so did President as-Sadat. It is interesting that Mr Carter
was so kind as to bring these signed pictures to me personally. They are for Merav, for
Mikhal,.for Yehonatan and for 'Aminadav. and for Orit and for Ayyelet and for .Osnat.
Did I mention all my eight grandchildren? [somybody mentions the name of Na'ama) Oh,
and also for Na'ama, who is the beauty in our family, precisely her I had forgotten for
a moment. I signed under my picture in Hebrew, granddad. That's all.
Then I told President as-Sadat that I came to thank him first of all for the autographs,
and a very friendly talk ensued. We promised each other that we shall have negotiations
between ourselves and that we shall show understanding to one another and try to overcome
difficulties. Later, after I had left his cabin, as it is called in English, so to speak--
I wish every man in Israel had such a cabin, especially those living in poor housing--he
replied: In a quarter of an hour I will be at your place. Indeed, he returned my visit,
and then.I invited all my colleagues: the foreign minister, the defense minister, all
the members of the delegation. We worked as a team. I cannot remember a better team,
honestly. I always work with a team, but this time our sessions would continue till
0400, because after the meetings with the Americans and the Egyptians I would convene the
entire delegation to hear, and voice, a report, hold a debate on what was to be done the
following day, what was to be accepted and what was to be rejected, and that is why, up
to yesterday, during that special meeting with Mr as-Sadat, there was no need. When we
finished,. we made visits to each other, shook hands--we still did not embrace, that we
did only at the White House--and said that we shall endeavor to sign a peace treaty, so
that there is real. peace with cooperation, with ambassadors and visits. Really, I wish
for you to be able to travel and see the pyramids soon.
[Shilon] Did you find outefrom President as-Sadat why he called you the obstacle to peace?
[Begin) No. It was not tactful to return to the past. We had two talks together with
President Carter which took 5 hours. The first talk was pretty hard, naturally, and we
occasionally exchanged words which I would not say were hurtful, but which were sharp.
There was a lot to talk about. However, we all agreed that all this belongs to the past,
it is very personal and such things happen. One draws a line through them and turns a
new page. I reminded President as-Sadat that both of us, without contacting each other,
have used the same turn of phrase, he in Cairo and I in Jerusalem: Let us, turn a new page,
aid indeed we have. -
- iissan]' Mr Prime Minister, the representatives of the press do not recall such confi-
dentiality, such successful confidentiality, being applied to a summit like this., and
yet there were rumors of crises in the course of the summit. Perhaps you could say at -
what point in fact the breakthrough was made toward the agreement which we now see?.
[Begin] There were crises, and this is just natural. Occasionally it seemed that we
were going to go home, each delegation wanted to go home. - -