September 17, 2003
Recounting events at the Egyptian-Israeli-American negotiations, a dozen American, Israeli and Egyptian participants recollected those 13 days of negotiations. Negotiators from both sides agreed that they pursued success through “constructive ambiguity” some at high levels so the respective sides could agree, for example in using the term “modalities” to describe a future element that could not be defined in a more tangible way. President Jimmy Carter and Israel’s Attorney General at the time of Camp David disagreed at the conference about what Prime Minister Menachem Begin promised on the duration of a settlement moratorium (p. 34). William Quandt, the National Security Council official, acknowledged that there was no written record of a Begin promise for three months. Carter claimed that the promise was in his diary notes, but others who saw Carter’s diary said no such promise was made or was in Carter’s notes.
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