Camp David Accords
Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords on 17 September 1978, after thirteen days of negotiation at the American presidential retreat brokered personally by Jimmy Carter. Sadat had made the opening the previous November by flying to Jerusalem and addressing the Knesset — the first Arab head of state to visit Israel and to recognise it in person. It followed the October War of 1973, which Egypt had begun and had not won, and which had restored enough Egyptian standing to make negotiation possible rather than humiliating. The talks nearly collapsed several times. Carter kept the two men largely apart after the first days and shuttled between cabins with successive drafts. Two frameworks emerged. The first, for peace between Egypt and Israel, produced the treaty signed in Washington in March 1979: Israel withdrew from Sinai in stages, dismantled its settlements and airfields there, and received recognition, diplomatic relations and passage through the Suez Canal. Egypt became the first Arab state at peace with Israel. The second framework, on Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza, was vague, was not implemented, and is generally regarded as the price paid for the first. Egypt was expelled from the Arab League and the League's headquarters moved from Cairo to Tunis. Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. Sadat was assassinated by Islamist officers during a military parade in October 1981. The treaty has held for over four decades. Sinai was returned in full in 1982. The peace has been formally correct and socially cold, and Egypt receives American military aid dating from the agreement.
- Year: 1978 CE
- Category: Political
