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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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274 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONestablished a new outpost, the forerunner to a civilian settlement,at Nueima, northeast <strong>of</strong> Jericho — making it the fifty- first on theWest Bank — where about 5,000 Jews were living among 692,000Palestinians.In the midst <strong>of</strong> this chaos, Carter, in March, launched his own sixdaymission to Cairo and Jerusalem. Despite the odds against it,he managed to persuade the two sides to agree to a U.S.-writtencompromise, bringing the two hostile nations closer to peace thanthey'd been in more than 30 years. The price Carter paid for thiswas more than $5 billion in extra aid over the next three years toEgypt and Israel. Two <strong>of</strong> the major stumbling blocks had been oilstarvedIsrael's concerns about giving Egypt back its captured oilfields in the Sinai and, <strong>of</strong> course, the still-unsettled question <strong>of</strong>Palestinian autonomy.In May, Carter appointed Texan Robert S. Strauss, 60, formerchairman <strong>of</strong> the Democratic National Committee, as a superambassadorfor the second stage <strong>of</strong> the peace negotiations. WhileIsrael formally approved, it continued to launch assaults on PLObases in Lebanon. Begin's cabinet voted eight to five to establishyet another new Jewish settlement, at Elon Moreh on the occupiedWest Bank, prompting 59 prominent U.S. Jews to send Begin anopen letter criticizing Israel's policy <strong>of</strong> setting up new Jewishsettlements in the densely populated Arab areas.To further complicate matters, Begin had a mild heart attack, andDayan discovered he had cancer. Inflation inside Israel waspushing 100 percent. The country's balance<strong>of</strong>-payment deficit wasapproaching $4 billion, and total foreign debt had doubled in fiveyears to $13 billion, prompting a domestic political crisis. This wasexacerbated by Jewish outrage at Carter's comparison <strong>of</strong> the plight<strong>of</strong> the Palestinians with the U.S. civil rights movement.Both Sadat and Carter began to pressure Israel to agree to a planfor Palestinian autonomy. The Arab countries favored anindependent sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza, home forthe Palestinians already there, and the millions in the diaspora.The Israelis were totally opposed to the notion <strong>of</strong> a hostile state —particularly one run by PLO chieftain

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