CASE HISTORIES

Egypt & Israel Peace – One Surprise Leads to Another

From 1948 to 1973, Egypt invaded Israel four times and Israel defeated Egypt four times. Israel conquered the vast Sinai Desert in the 1967 Six Day War and occupied it for the next 13 years, developing oil fields, roads and settlements. Israel also built military warning systems, airfields and bases in the Sinai to preserve Israeli security against any further aggression from Egypt.

In November 1977, President Anwar al-Sadat surprised the world by announcing that he was ready to go to Israel for the sake of peace. He made his historic visit to Israel, addressed the Knesset and made a direct appeal for peace. The next month, Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin made his first visit to Egypt and a peace process started that culminated in the September, 1978 Camp David Accords. An Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty was signed in March, 1979.

The terms of the treaty are unprecedented and were certainly unexpected. Egypt had been an aggressor against Israel four times and had lost four times. Israel was the country that had been attacked four times and had won four times, and the attacked country returned to the aggressor everything the aggressor had lost. Israel agreed to return sovereignty over the Sinai to Egypt because Egypt agreed to turn the Sinai into a vast demilitarized buffer zone to protect Israel. Once Egypt had been made whole, it could agree to peace and to recognize Israel and establish diplomatic relations. However, Egypt paid a price - Arab states cut diplomatic ties with Egypt, the Arab League headquarters was moved from Cairo to Tunis and Arab financial aid to Egypt was cut off.

Each side made significant contributions to secure an otherwise improbable peace. For their courage and leadership, Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. Without President Jimmy Carter’s perseverance, the Camp David Accords would not have happened and he received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his peacemaking at Camp David and after his Presidency.