The Camp David Accords

In 1970 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, a Middle East peace agreement.

Cause of the Camp David Accords

Anwar Sadat was the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel in 1977. After signing the Camp David Accords, he and Menachem Begin both received the Nobel Peace Prize.

There was great distrust between Israel and Egypt because of the events of the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Yet, Sadat traveled to Israel and addressed the Knesset candidly in 1977. The Egyptian president called for peace between the two countries. On 17 September 1978, a year after his plea, Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David Accords in the presence of US President Jimmy Carter.

With the accords, Egypt recognized the State of Israel’s right to exist. Israel, in turn, returned the Sinai Desert to Egypt. Unfortunately, not everyone was pleased about these developments. The peace agreement was a thorn in the side of the surrounding Arab countries. Egypt got temporarily suspended from the Arab League. Sadat himself got shot in Cairo in 1981.

The Oslo Accords

In the 1990s, the Middle East and Israel made another attempt to establish peace. This led to the 1993 Oslo Accords. This agreement was also the first step towards a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In September 2000, the outbreak of the second intifada brought this peace process to a definitive end. The terror war that followed made it clear that peace in the Middle East would not be achieved for a long time to come.