ABSTRACT
The signing of the second disengagement was inevitably received with extreme suspicion in many quarters. No amount of careful draftsmanship could keep other parties from interpreting the document as they saw fit. As we expected, Syria greeted the agreement with a new, bitter campaign against Egypt, accusing it once again of betraying Arab solidarity and moving towards a separate peace with Israel. This campaign eventually subsided, just as the first one had, and by late 1976 relations between Egypt and Syria had become close and cooperative once again. The PLO, too, initially reacted with hostility to the agreement, but the cooling of relations with Egypt did not last long. One reason was that all our actions after the signing of the agreement made it crystal clear that our policy had not changed at all, that we were not seeking a separate peace, and above all that we were more convinced than ever that the solution of the Middle East conflict hinged on the recognition of Palestinian rights.
