{"id":950,"date":"2016-05-19T00:25:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T00:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?p=950"},"modified":"2017-09-13T00:31:21","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T00:31:21","slug":"going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/","title":{"rendered":"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke: a failing president, a former assassin, and a former terrorist meet up at a park in Maryland. But that\u2019s what really happened in 1978 when American President Jimmy Carter convinced Anwar El Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, to meet at Camp David to discuss peace in the Middle East. That nearly two-week summit is dramatized in the play <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theoldglobe.org\/pdp\/15-16-season1\/camp-david\/?id=9453#?startDate=2016-05-01&amp;endDate=2016-05-31&amp;productionSeasonFilter=11922\">Camp David<\/a><\/em>, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning <em>New Yorker <\/em>writer Lawrence Wright (who also wrote the book\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lamag.com\/culturefiles\/new-scientology-documentary-takes-no-cheap-shots\/\">Going Clear<\/a>, <\/em>which spawned a Peabody-winning documentary). It\u2019s running now at the Old Globe in San Diego.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason I wrote the play in the first place,\u201d Wright says, \u201cwas to put forth the idea that peace is possible. Camp David showed it\u2019s possible. These men, at a time of great turbulence, got together and forged peace, and it hasn\u2019t been violated since they signed that paper. We lose sight of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time of our conversation, the company was working on a 55<sup>th<\/sup> version of the play, even though it has already been produced at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. \u201cThe drama was the challenge in this,\u201d Wright reveals. \u201cI am a reporter. I know how to dig out the facts. When the Arena approached me, I said I\u2019d have to deal with it the way I would a book or a <em>New Yorker\u00a0<\/em>article. That was the easy part. The harder part was figuring out how many characters are there, what are the relationships, and how do I bridge fact with imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wright had more than fact. He had cooperation from Carter. \u201cI thought I knew something about Carter,\u201d he says. \u201cI had an opinion about him. All the weaknesses pointed out in his character, his micromanaging, and his refusal to make any concession to political necessity\u2014those are the things that brought him down in many respects, yet at Camp David, they were strengths he put to good use. I came away with a tremendous amount of respect for him and a profound sense of gratitude for what he accomplished there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the historic summit, the current state of affairs in the Middle East has Wright feeling unsure about amicable solutions. \u201cIt may be the settlements in the West Bank have gone so far that it will be very difficult to create a second state there,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to have people who are willing to make the domestic sacrifices to achieve something like Camp David. Begin and Sadat and Carter were unique and determined and persistent. And they had a vision. Those qualities are all part of what goes together to make the character of a peacemaker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Jim Cox<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke: a failing president, a former assassin, and a former terrorist meet up at a park in Maryland. But that\u2019s what really happened in 1978 when American President Jimmy Carter convinced Anwar El Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, to meet at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,10],"tags":[388,383,389,386,382,387,384,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-elsewhere-in-california","8":"category-the-plays-the-thing","9":"tag-anwar-el-sadat","10":"tag-camp-david","11":"tag-going-clear","12":"tag-jimmy-carter","13":"tag-lawrence-wright","14":"tag-menachem-begin","15":"tag-old-globe-san-diego","16":"tag-richard-thomas"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David - Cultural Attach\u00e9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David - Cultural Attach\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke: a failing president, a former assassin, and a former terrorist meet up at a park in Maryland. But that\u2019s what really happened in 1978 when American President Jimmy Carter convinced Anwar El Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, to meet at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cultural Attach\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/attache4culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-19T00:25:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-13T00:31:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Craig Byrd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Attache4Culture\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Attache4Culture\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Craig Byrd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/\",\"name\":\"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David - Cultural Attach\u00e9\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-19T00:25:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-13T00:31:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"KHALED NABAWY AS ANWAR EL SADAT (L), RICHARD THOMAS AS JIMMY CARTER, AND NED EISENBERG AS MENACHEM BEGIN\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/\",\"name\":\"Cultural Attach\u00e9\",\"description\":\"The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c\",\"name\":\"Craig Byrd\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Craig Byrd\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/author\/craiglbyrdgmail-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David - Cultural Attach\u00e9","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David - Cultural Attach\u00e9","og_description":"It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke: a failing president, a former assassin, and a former terrorist meet up at a park in Maryland. But that\u2019s what really happened in 1978 when American President Jimmy Carter convinced Anwar El Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, to meet at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/","og_site_name":"Cultural Attach\u00e9","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/attache4culture\/","article_published_time":"2016-05-19T00:25:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-13T00:31:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Craig Byrd","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Attache4Culture","twitter_site":"@Attache4Culture","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Craig Byrd","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/","url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/","name":"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David - Cultural Attach\u00e9","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-19T00:25:04+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-13T00:31:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/david-800x500.jpg","width":800,"height":500,"caption":"KHALED NABAWY AS ANWAR EL SADAT (L), RICHARD THOMAS AS JIMMY CARTER, AND NED EISENBERG AS MENACHEM BEGIN"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2016\/05\/19\/going-clear-lawrence-wright-turns-attention-secret-negotiations-camp-david\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"After Going Clear, Lawrence Wright Turns His Attention to the Secret Negotiations at Camp David"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#website","url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/","name":"Cultural Attach\u00e9","description":"The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/6d78feed787e95949b0db355148d624c","name":"Craig Byrd","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7705a8cbe60b38ac00ab43c86370922?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Craig Byrd"},"url":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/author\/craiglbyrdgmail-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}