Egyptian teams, prayed with Sadat, attended a Jewish Sabbath
moment. Now even my hopes for a harmonious departure
On September 12—day eight—Carter “decided to work that
I didn’t know what to do; Sadat was leaving, I couldn’t do
meal with the Begins, and took the delegations for a tour of
Gettysburg National Military Park.
were gone.”10 He later recalled:
afternoon on the terms for an Egyptian-Israeli treaty, and
anything about it. And I went in a back room and I knelt down
spread the Sinai maps out on the dining room table to begin
and prayed, and I asked God to help me. And then I walked over
this task, writing the proposed agreement on a yellow scratch
pad.” He noted, “Within three hours I had finished….”
to Sadat’s cabin, and he had all of his suitcases out in front, and
all of his aides were there ready to load his suitcases into the
8
helicopter. And I went in to his room, and I told everybody else to
Featured below is a letter drafted by President Carter, with
get out, and Sadat and I stood with our noses almost touching,
sight, Carter requested of both leaders “that today we receive
would be dealt a severe blow. And he went over in a corner by
input from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East
and I told Sadat that he had betrayed me, and betrayed his own
your most constructive recommendations.”9 In fact, Carter and
himself and he came back and said, “I’ll stay.”11
Affairs Harold Saunders, on September 15. With only two days
people, and if he left, our friendship was seve