First off, I was pleased with the historical chronology at the beginning of the book. It gave some good insight on what the Israelis and Palestinians have gone through already and up to this point. I thought it was cool to see Saladin's name in there, and a few other references to things we have already seen in class. It's mind boggling to think of how deep the divide is between these two, and how it has fueled such violence for so long.
Jimmy Carter wanted to help this situation in the Middle East, and he cared deeply for the region to establish lasting peace. In Chapter 4, he describes how he invited Menachem Begin, the elected leader of the PLO, and Sadat, the Egyptian leader, to come together at Camp David to discuss various possibilities of peace. Carter quickly found that the two were completely incompatible, and went back and forth between the representatives of each trying to establish a genera
l peace agreement. After twelve days, the resulting agreement was called the Camp David Accords. This outlined the agreement to establish peace within the Middle East, what to do with Gaza and the West Bank, and granted full autonomy for the Palestinians. If you want to see the actual document, I found a website with the exact document in the Jimmy Carter Library.The picture on the right was taken after the Camp David Accords and features Begin, Sadat, and Carter shaking hands, a sign of cooperation and peace.
It is really amazing how history has played out with the Jews and Palestinians. There have been so many attempts made to create peace and please people on both sides of the conflict. Each side, however, seems somewhat unwilling to compromise. It kinda sounds like they both want "all or nothing," which is completely impossible if lasting peace is to be achieved. One thing is for sure: this conflict has taken it's toll on a tired Middle East, and a sucessful peace agreement seems far away to me.
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