Taking Friends for Granted: The Carter Administration, Jordan, and the Camp David Accords, 1977–1980

Abstract

4 Several broader studies of the reign of King Hussein and of U.S.-Jordanian relations have taken similarly negative views of the Carter administration's approach. 5 In a recent, positive assessment of the administration's achievements at Camp David, Jeremy Pressman represents Hussein as a key proponent of what he terms the most negative assessment of Camp David: that it was "an American-Israeli conspiracy to prevent Palestinian self-determination and ensure Israeli control of the West Bank." Pressman cites Hussein's comments that Camp David was a "fig leaf," which provided "sugarcoating" for the Begin Plan, amounting to permanent Israeli