Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David

by Lawrence Wright,
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 14, 2014

At the end of the summer of 1978, almost a year after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic trip to Israel, negotiations between the two countries had stalled. In March, after Palestinian terrorists killed 38 Israelis, the Israelis invaded Lebanon, inflaming the Arab world. And Prime Minister Menachem Begin made clear that he was unwilling to stop Israeli settlements in “occupied territory,” withdraw from the Sinai or the West Bank or grant Palestinians any real authority.