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time. For example, there is no specific reference to the Israeli
occupied Golan Heights region, or to the future of East (formerly
Jordanian) Jerusalem.
The agreements also do not mention what may have been the major
American contribution to the Israeli willingness to agree to cede
control of the Sinai back to Egypt. On this point, Mr. Begin told
reporters the day after the Camp David conference ended that the United
States agreed to build two new air bases for Israel in the Negev
Desert to compensate for the bases it will give up in the Sinai
under the Camp David Middle East agreement. Mr. Begin said the
Negev air bases would be located just a few miles from the inter
national border line marking Israel's original frontier and will
be of equivalent strategic value to the bases being surrendered in
the Sinai.
According to former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, who made
numerous trips to the Middle East in search of a peace agreement
during the Nixon and Ford administrations, the Camp David advances
are so great that the situation in the region has changed for the
better, no matter what happens in the coming months.
"Everything in the Middle East has a fragile quality, but this is
a major achievement," Kissinger said on NBC's "Today" program. He
said Carter "deserves the gratitude of the American people and the
gratitude of the world."
What is clear now is this: if both Israel and Egypt are able to live
up to the terms of the agreement, if Mr. Begin is supported by his
own parliament, especially over the volatile Sinai settlements issue,
if Jordan supports the new initiative, if Saudi Arabia lends its
tacit support, and if President Sadat miraculously escapes an
assassin's bullet, we could see peace -- or rather.a state of "non
war" (except for bloody guerrilla attacks) -- in the Mideast for the
next five years at least.
A key factor, unseen by all the parties involved -- Egypt, Israel
and the United States -- is the Work that God may yet want to accomplish
in Israel and the Middle East!
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But in the meantime it would also pay us well to note the admonition
given in I Thessalonians 5:3 -- "For when they shall say, Peace and
safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them."
--Gene Hogberg, News Bureau