WI The Sinai still in Israeli hands?

Say the Camp David talks failed to get an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai?

They were doing a lot, lot, lot of work there, on infrastructure and resorts, and airstrips and all. When they pulled out (oo-err), they blew everything (double oo-err) up and cratered the airstrips and all that. Rather poor sportsmanship if you ask me.

But....how would this have impacted the current conflict? What kind of shape would the Egyptian government have been in for the last twenty-something years?

What would The Sinai look like today?

I'm not advocating this, but could the Sinai been a place for the Palestinians to re-settle, eventually?
 

Shope

Banned
If Israel hadn't given back the Sinai: they wouldn't be getting that 5 billion dollars a year of American taxpayer money (3 billion dollars a year to both Israel and Egypt was the original deal--Egypt still only gets 3 though); they would still be at war with Egypt (Sadat might not've been assasinated either); they wouldn't've been able to invade and occupy sub-Litanian Lebanon for 20 years (and Hezbollah wouldn't've become what it is today); Alfonse D'Mato wouldn't've defeated Jacob Javitz in the 1980 Senate primary (Javitz supported Camp David and lost a big chunk of the NY Jewish vote); Evangelical Christians might not've gotten politically active (they didn't like the way Carter bullied Israel into giving back some of the land promised by God in Genesis--"From the Brook of Egypt to the banks of the Great River Euphrates"); liberal American Jews might even had written off the Begin-led Israel (they never liked Revision Zionism to begin with).
 
Unlikely that a settlement wouldn't have been worked out eventually between Egypt and Israel, provided the Sinai was returned in its entirety.

Evangelicals would still have gotten involved in politics, nor is there the slightest chance they would have been more favorably inclined to Carter.

Liberal Jews would not have written off Israel due to the actions of one politician, even assuming it was the fault of Begin and not Carter or Sadat.

D'Amato still wins since Camp David had nothing to do with his victory, the Democrats running two candidates in the general election are what elected him.

Lastly, there is no possible way several million of anyone could live in the Sinai Penninsula today.
 
Umm...IIRC Carter was the first self-proclaimed "born again" President. I think many evangelicals would be inclined to support him--after all, most of the constituents of the Religious Right voted Democratic for decades.
 

Shope

Banned
Grimm's just making stuff up again.

Javitz lost the Republican primary to D'Amato. What does the general election have to do with that? Everyone with two eyes and two ears who was alive at the time knows why Javitz lost that primary--because of Camp David.

Liberal Jews were ready to jump ship from the Zionist cause after Begin was elected--check the newspapers of the day. He was followed up, OTL, by Yitzak Shamir--whom liberal American Jews liked even less.

Evangelicals loved Carter--until Camp David. The first time I ever heard of Jerry Falwell was during the Camp David negotiations (and I was a fan of Pat Robertson at the time too).
 
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Shope, if you bother to examine the historical record you will find that Javitz might have won a final term(as he died in 1986) if not for his mutual hostility with Elizabeth Holtzman which ruined negotiations to convince one or the other to drop from the race, thus electing D'Amato.

Nor should public awareness of his illness, Lou Gehrig's disease, be forgotten. Voters KNEW he was virtually certain not to finish his term. And where did I deny he was a Republican prior to losing the 1980 primary?

Shope, yes, Begin was elected, followed by Shamir, and the flight you speak of on the part of liberal Jews never happened. Had Camp David not taken place, matters might have been different. For instance, after Sadat's bold visit Begin might well have been removed in the next election.

Lastly, if you really believe that evangelicals or anyone remotely susceptible to voting Republican was pleased with Carter as late as Camp David...
 
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