319. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter1
SUBJECT
- My Lunch with Ambassador Evron
The Ambassador told me that Begin is extremely concerned about the proposed U.S. military aid package for Egypt,2 on which he was briefed by Sol.
I explained to Evron that we have no intention of scaling it down because we have legitimate long-term interests in Egypt that we need to protect, and that these interests are also to Israel’s advantage. More specifically, I said:
1. That Israel’s qualitative edge over Egypt will be preserved in the years ahead in part because of what the U.S. is doing for Israel and in part because of what the Israelis are doing for themselves. And we are confident of this;
2. That the U.S. has to make certain that there is a wider constituency in Egypt favoring U.S.-Egyptian ties, and it is especially important that the military be part of that constituency. The Egyptian military capabilities have become degraded and the Egyptians cannot help but notice that the Soviets are providing very advanced equipment to Syria and Algeria. It would be damaging to all concerned if the only basis for Egyptian-U.S. ties and for further progress of the Camp David peace accords were Sadat himself;
3. That we are encouraging the Egyptians to redirect the focus of their defense efforts away from Israel and toward regional stability—including the Sudan and perhaps eventually some contingencies in Saudi Arabia. This is clearly also in Israel’s interest.
Evron is going home for Christmas and he would like to be able to convey the above as an authoritative expression of U.S. thinking. He says he has spoken about this to the Vice President and he hinted that he would like to see you personally in order to get a message to that effect. I made no promise, but an alternative would be for me to phone him and restate the three points above as representing an oral comment [Page 1041] by you. (Evron himself said that a written message would probably not be helpful, given Begin’s sensitivity and inclination to pick it apart word by word.)
What is your guidance?
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Office, Presidential Advisory Board, Box 72, Middle East: Box 5. Top Secret. In the upper right-hand corner of the memorandum, Carter wrote: “Zbig. J.”↩
- In the right-hand margin next to this phrase, Carter wrote: “What pkg. have I approved?”↩