Jimmy Carter last week saw the process that he set in motion with the Camp David accords reach its crowning moment.

The Camp David accords wouldn't have been the same if they were the Washington accords.

Egypt was expelled after it signed the Camp David accord with Israel in 1978.

The pullback from Sinai generated parallel costs after the Camp David accord.

Israel mistakenly refused; the Camp David accords were signed later that year.

Even the Camp David accords had to be initiated by Sadat; Begin never would have done it.

Even so, one needs no telescope to see the wide, and widening, chance for progress, the largest since the Camp David accords of 1978.

These, he maintained, are covered by the Camp David accords' formula of local self-government for the Palestinians.

It is hard to overemphasise how important the Camp David accords are to Israel's security.

He said the letter raised questions about the American commitment to the Camp David accords of 1978.