Camp David’s Shadow: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinian Question, 1977-1993 Seth Anziska Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2015 © 2015 Seth Anziska All rights reserved ABSTRACT Camp David’s Shadow: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinian Question, 1977-1993 Seth Anziska This dissertation examines the emergence of the 1978 Camp David Accords and the consequences for Israel, the Palestinians, and the wider Middle East. Utilizing archival sources and oral history interviews from across Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Camp David’s Shadow recasts the early history of the peace process. It explains how a comprehensive settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict with provisions for a resolution of the Palestinian question gave way to the facilitation of bilateral peace between Egypt and Israel. As recently declassified sources reveal, the completion of the Camp David Accords—via intensive American efforts— actually enabled Israeli expansion across the Green Line, undermining the possibility of Palestinian sovereignty in the occupied territories. By examining how both the concept and diplomatic practice of autonomy were utilized to address the Palestinian question, and the implications of the subsequent Israeli and U.S. military intervention in Lebanon, the dissertation explains how and why the Camp David process and its aftermath adversely shaped the prospects of a negotiated settlement between Israelis and Palestinians in the 1990s. In linking the developments of the late 1970s and 1980s with the Madrid Conference and Oslo Accords in the decade that followed, the dissertation charts the role played by American, Middle Eastern, international, and domestic actors in curtailing the possibility of Palestinian self-determination. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... ii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Envisioning a Middle East Settlement, 1976-1977 .............................................. 34 Chapter Two: The Failed Promise Of Geneva, 1977-1978 ........................................................ 91 Chapter Three: Preventing a Palestinian State: The Autonomy Talks, 1979-1980 ................. 163 Chapter Four: Neoconservatives Rising: Reagan and the Middle East, 1980-1982 ................ 217 Chapter Five: The Limits of Lebanon, 1982-1984 ................................................................... 268 Chapter Six: Alternatives to the PLO?: 1985-1988 .................................................................. 324 Conclusion: A Stillborn Peace, 1989-1993 ................................................................................ 352 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 375 i Acknowledgements This dissertation grew out of questions I started asking over thirteen years ago, and I have incurred many debts in the hunt for answers along the way. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, I was lucky to take a historiography seminar with Rashid Khalidi, who then generously agreed to supervise an independent study on the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His guidance and mentorship ever since—from advising my senior thesis to sponsoring this doctoral dissertation—went above and beyond all possible expectation. I have learned a great deal from him not only about the Middle East, but also about the importance of scholarship that is engaged with, and informed by, the world beyond the academy. Elizabeth Blackmar taught me how to formulate research questions, how to find my way inside the archives, and how to write my way outside of them. Her exemplary training set me on my way, and her insights helped sharpen this project at crucial junctures to bring it to completion. Coursework and teaching with Anders Stephanson exposed me to the conceptual challenges of international history, and his penetrating approach to U.S. foreign relations enriched my understanding of diplomacy and its practitioners. A seminar in American Political Development with Ira Katznelson brought Political Science into fruitful dialogue with U.S. history, and Ira’s incisive feedback on papers and chapter drafts inestimably sharpened the formulation of my argument and underscored the importance of writing with a measured tone. The remaining members of my dissertation committee supported this project with enthusiasm. Ron Zweig offered research advice, spirited conversation about Israeli history, and a scholarly community at NYU’s Taub Center. Dan Kurtzer sat for a formal interview about his experience in the Reagan administration, enduring the historian’s attempt to understand and explain policymaking, including his own role in the story that follows. ii In Columbia’s history department, it was a privilege to work with Mark Mazower, Sam Moyn, Michael Stanislawski, and Rebecca Kobrin, while farther afield I benefitted immensely from conversations with Linda Kerber, Gershon Shafir, Derek Penslar, David Myers, Marilyn Young, Gabi Pieterberg, William Quandt, George Chauncey, Ron Gregg, Jon Randal, Lawrence Wright, Sylvain Cypel, Jacob Norris, Andrew Arsan, Osamah Khalil, Paul Chamberlin, and the late Tony Judt. I have valued the continued engagement and support of my Oxford supervisors, Avi Shlaim and Eugene Rogan, and have been the beneficiary of George El-Hage’s formidable Arabic training many years ago. The research for this dissertation was carried out across several continents, made possible by generous funding from Columbia’s Middle East Institute and Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies; a field grant from Columbia’s Center for Democracy, Toleration and Religion; a GSAS International Travel Fellowship; a Boren NSEP Graduate Fellowship for International Study at the American University of Beirut; a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; a Research Exchange Fellowship at the London School of Economics; and a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. A Wexner Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Jewish Studies supported my doctoral studies early on, and continues to provide an exceptional community of friends and colleagues deeply invested in the issues raised by this work. In Atlanta, Keith Shuler, Brittany Parris, and Amanda Pellerin assisted with my research at the Carter Library, while Sarah Anne and David Minkin offered hospitality. In Los Angeles, Kelly Barton and Shelly Williams guided my work at the Reagan Library, while Evan and Alison Anziska and their family provided a second home. In Stanford, Carol Leadenham assisted at the Hoover Institution Archives, and Judy and Milt Grinberg put me up in sunny Palo Alto. Mary iii Curry assisted with sources at the National Security Archive in Washington D.C., and Ariana Berengaut offered a place to stay and lots of encouragement. In Jerusalem, Helena Vilensky, Galia Weissman, Louise Fischer and Arnon Lamfrom welcomed me at the Israel State Archives and answered every query with pleasure (and more files), and Ziv Rubinovitz, Rami Shtivi, Dror Bar Yosef, Iris Berlatzky, Ori Rub, and Moshe Fuksman-Sha’al did the same at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. Bernard Avishai, Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Gerhom Gorenberg, Amos Goldberg, Omri Ben Yehuda, Eitan Buchvall, Amit Mandelkern, Yoav Alon, Maya Katzir, Jeremie Bracka, Michelle Lesh, and Hagai and Judith Tamir offered insights, friendship, and conversation. At the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Jeanette Serouphim and Mona Nsouli provided invaluable help, and Ramzi Mezher, Wael Lazkani, Lina Mounzer, Kristine Khouri, Mazen Khaled, Karam Nachar, Eyad Houssami, Jowe Harfouche, Meris Lutz, Omar Christidis, Josh Hersh, and Andrew Lee Butters helped me settle and kept me coming back to Lebanon. A chance visit to the Arab Image Foundation and meeting with Akram Zaatari proved fortuitous, shaping my approach to history in exciting new ways. In London, the Department of International History at LSE hosted me while writing up, and Virginia Forbes, Ahmad Khalidi, Natasha Gill, Daniel Levy, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Jill Waters, Lisa Jepson, Davina Mendelsohn, Rebecca Steinfeld, Charlie Keidan, Dimi Reider, Dania Akkad, and Julian Weinberg pulled me away from my desk. Fellow graduate students back in New York, especially Rosie Bsheer, Victoria Phillips, Stephen Wertheim, Simon Stevens, Simon Taylor, Tsolin Nalbantian, Liz Marcus, Suzy Schneider, and Tom Meaney offered support and solidarity, while Natasha Wheatley was a roommate, confidant, interlocutor, and so much more. iv Many friends and colleagues provided historical documents, bounced around ideas, and offered critical feedback on various aspects of the project, including Tehila Sasson, Ahmed Dailami, Avi Raz, Noa Schonmann, Dan Strieff, Dirk Moses, Simon Jackson, Sewell Chan, Victor McFarland, Nathan Kurz, Shay Hazkani, Nadim Bawalsa, Laila Ballout, Daniel Zoughbie, Maher Bitar, Jessica Marglin, Jennifer Johnson, Raffaella Del Sarto, Kristen Loveland, Zev Nagel, Olivia Sohns, and members of the Siyagh reading group. Even when I seemed to vanish from the earth, Brook Armstrong,