Book Reviews / Bustan: ]he Middle East Book Review 3 (20n) 63-90 75

Harry Hurwitz and Yisrael Medad, eds., Peace in the Making: The Menachem Begin-Anwar El-Sadat Personal Correspondence Qerusalem: Gefen, 20II), 349 pp. ISBN 978-9-652-29456-2

This handsome book assembles primary sources £rom the era of the original Camp David Accords and the forging of the Egyptian-Israeli peace, 1977- 1982. With a minimum of introductory material, the pages are dominated by the personal letters between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the texts of relevant treaties and agreements, and their related speeches, press conference transcripts, interviews and pho- tographs. Some of the documents are ubiquitous on the web and in print, such as Sadat's 20 November 1977 speech to the Knesset, the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1979 Treaty of Peace between Israel and Egypt. Nevertheless, it is useful to have them collected here, along with forgotten or even never- before-published materials to which editor Harry Hurwitz, a Begin confidante and advisor, was privy. Hurwitz divides the correspondence into four parts, marking the pace and growth of Egyptian-Israeli relations while reminding the reader how rocky the road was, even in the immediate aftermath of Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem. This reader was reminded how frequently the two leaders met and how actively they promoted peace together. Part Four, "Constructing Peace," is evidence of their joint appearances in Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, El Arish, Ismailia, Sharm el-Sheikh, Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheva, where Sadat received an honorary degree £rom Ben Gurion University. Over time, the standard Camp David storyline produced two caricatures: Sadat the big dreamer, with soaring vision and no patience for details, versus Begin the cautious attorney, assuming worst case scenarios and obsessed with the picayune wording of each document. This book restores to each man his full personality and allows his humor, indignation and other emotions to show. Also contributing to this is the photo gallery, in which informal pictures capturing smiles and comfortable postures challenge the popular notion of interpersonal tension and stiffness. The book is a testament to the heady days of Egyptian-Israeli peacemaking and also, perhaps unwittingly, testimony to the one-sidedness of the love affair: after Sadat was gone, it became clear that Israel's enthusiasm for peace with Egypt was unrequited. In an ideal world, this book itself would be a product of Egyptian-Israeli collaboration, but instead it is an all-Israeli affair, with nary an Egyptian name in sight. The epigraph is from Baruch Spinoza; the individuals acknowledged for their helpfulness in the Preface are all Israeli; the blurbs on the back cover are by former Israeli ambassadors and Martin Peretz. Where

© Koninklijke Brill NY, LeiJen, 2012 DO!: 1O.1163/187853012X633553 76 Book Reviews / Bustan: ]he Middle East Book Review 3 (20n) 63-90 is Jihan Sadat, who has not shied away £rom promoting and defending her husband's legacy? Where is Sadat's grandson Ahmed El Sadat, who served for a while as First Secretary at the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv? And where are any of the four Egyptian Ambassadors to Israel? The absence of the Egyptian partner is painfully obvious in the short section entitled" For Further Reading," composed of English sources and followed by a list of suggested" Hebrew Titles ... for the researcher and Hebrew reader" (pp. 347-349). Are there no relevant Camp David works in Arabic? Or is there an assumption that Arabic readers are not interested in this topic? This curiosity is compounded in the" Sources" list, which includes the archives of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center and four primary source websites: two Israeli (Knesset and Ministry of Foreign Affairs), one Egyptian (Anwar El-Sadat) and one the Nobel Peace Prize. Oddly, the Sadat site appears to be in Arabic only. The superb Anwar Sadat Archives hosted by the University of Maryland does not appear. One is left to wonder: Were the editor and publisher thinking in terms of a family affair, for which they went to those Israeli individuals who had been personally close to or ideologically devoted to Begin? Or were overtures made to Egyptian parties and rebuffed? In his Introduction, Yehuda Avner tells us that while Begin wrote every- thing himself in longhand in small, cramped writing, Sadat "added personal passages here or there" but otherwise" his letters were drafted by a commit- tee of presidential advisors" (p. xix). However, it is hard to keep that in mind as one reads Sadat's correspondence, because his letters are written in the first person and maintain an authentic and consistent voice. While the letters have been translated and transcribed for this volume, they are rendered in an old- fashioned typewriter font, imbuing them with a personal, historical feel. Some are reproduced in their original forms. Avner characterizes Begin's letters as opening in a manner best described as "chatty, followed by meticulous, hard-hitting, and often legalistic argumenta- tions, [whereas] Sadat's were invariably grandiloquent, replete with a penchant for long-winded obfuscations and even bouts of mysticism. Religion shaped the minds of both men" (p. xix). In fact, both men's letters similarly reveal inti- mate knowledge and familiarity with the smallest of details, often quoting £rom the various agreements and previous correspondence at great length. They also follow a similar formula: each begins with warm greetings and an assertion that the writer is glad to know the other is committed to peace. Next come tough, albeit polite, words detailing all the things the other is doing wrong, incorrectly interpreting, and misquoting, thus breaking, if not the letter of their under- standings, then surely the spirit. Each letter invariably ends with the writer's statement that he is confident, now that he has clarified the situation, that he