The Arabs and the Israelis had always been in conflict owing to their struggle between Zionist and Arab Nationalism in the Middle East. The State of Israel came into being in 1948 when the United Nations partitioned the British colony of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Arabs and the Jews have had clashes of interest over two main concerns since the late 19th century. Firstly, Jews wanted a state of their own within the Arab world, which they did achieve in 1948. Secondly, they wanted to hold their control over the Palestine territory as they believe it is a part of their historical homeland.
This clash has been the reason for the armed conflict that has occurred on and off between the Arab states and Israel in the form of 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars consecutively. In the Six Day war of 1967 between the Arab States and Israel, the latter not only managed to defeat the Arab world but also acquired control of Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan as well as Gaza and Sinai from Egypt. Following this war, United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242 in which Israel was to pull out of all the occupied territories while a guarantee was given to secure borders to all nations. Hence, Israel was, for the first time, accepted as a sovereign country.
A little before the 1973 war, Anwar Sadat of Egypt showed a slight interest in making a peace deal with the Israelis provided they return the occupied territories. The opportunity was lost when the United States showed lack of interest. This culminated in Egypt and Syria preparing for a surprise attack on Israel in 1973. The 1973 Arab-Israel war also known as the Yom Kippur war clearly roused the two superpowers to find a permanent solution to the Arab-Israel conflict as it started tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, the United States and USSR agreed to call for meetings in Geneva where all the representatives of the Arab States were to decide a solution for the Arab-Israel conflict with Israel. However, Israel was more in favor of bilateral negotiations with an Arab country rather than the Geneva conference where the outnumbering Arab states would belittle Israel’s position. The Geneva Conference of 1973 did not prove fruitful towards resolving the Arab Israel conflict.
The Geneva conference that occurred in 1975 also failed because both the parties could not reach an agreement on the issue of Palestine’s representation and the fate of the occupied territories. In 1976, the president of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter strategized another Geneva conference with the support of Soviet Union. However, this time both the Israelis and the Egyptians preferred bilateral negotiations and hence resisted the idea of another Geneva conference. It was these bilateral negotiations that both countries were interested in that paved the way for Camp David accords that happened on 17th September, 1978, almost a year later.
What catalyzed the peace treaty that Egypt and Israel finally signed was Anwar Sadat’s significant trip to Jerusalem on November 19th to November 21st, 1977 where he spoke before the Knesset. This was significant because it was a move on the part of Egypt to show that it finally recognized Israel as a sovereign country, a move no other Arab State had taken. Historians suggest many reasons why Anwar Sadat took this step and one is that Sadat wanted Egypt to regain its power in the Arab World which he thought was diminishing as the leader of the Arab world. Also, apart from not wanting to deal with the Soviets by having a Geneva Conference, he also feared that Egypt would otherwise not be able to regain its control of Sinai. On the other hand, Israel was also not interested in a multilateral Geneva conference for several reasons. Firstly, they feared the possibility of America inviting PLO to the conference and hence leading to the establishment of a sovereign Palestine state. Secondly, just like the Egyptians, they did not want the involvement of the Soviets and thirdly, like before, they resented the idea of being outnumbered by the Arab states at the conference table.
Following Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, Menachem Begin, the presidents of Israel, agreed to withdraw Israeli troops from the disputed territory of Sinai and hence return Egyptian sovereignty over that region. It was easy to do as this region was not as significant to Israel as was the obstructing of the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. The agreement to withdraw from the territory of Sinai was a diplomatic act on the part of Begin to distract the international world from the issue of Palestine and hence also gain the favor of the United States for making concessions geared towards achieve a peace treaty with the Arab world. For the next half year, both Egypt and Israel continued bilateral negotiations. However, little was achieved. Dreading a conclusion was not being reached, Jimmy Carter invited Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to the United States to hold secret talks in Camp David in the month of September, 1978.
The Camp David Accords were to deal with four basic issues. Firstly, these talks would work at reaching a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and normalize their relations. Secondly, these would deal with the matter of Israel’s demilitarization and withdrawal of its troops from Sinai. Thirdly, these would discuss the future of the West Bank and Gaza and lastly, these would discuss the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all occupied territories and the right of Palestinians to self-determination.
Factors that increased Sadat’s interest in the invitation to Camp David Accords by the United States, at that time, were mainly to regain Arab support by ensuring Israel’s withdrawal from all the occupied territories, establishing a sovereign state for the Palestinians while signing a peace treaty with Israel which would reduce the Israel threat and allow him to lower the defense budget for Egypt. Also, the involvement of the United States increased the hope of the realization of Sadat’s strategy at Camp David.
On the other hand, although, Israel had defeated the Arab world singlehandedly with its trained military, Begin still wanted regional security among all Arab states in the Middle East region. Hence, Israel wanted a peace deal with Egypt, which was the largest member state of the Arab coalition. This way Israel would afford to reduce its defense expenditure and reduce the threat of any attack from any other Arab state as it would be on peaceful terms with Egypt. However, Israel was not ready to discuss the issue of Palestine or commit anything regarding the self-determination of the Palestinians. The involvement of the United States, for Begin too, was seen as a catalyst to such a deal.
Jimmy Carter, then again, wanted to succeed in reaching any agreement at all between Egypt and Israel in order to save his presidency as the next presidential elections were nearing and there had been no fruitful results with regards to Egypt-Israel peace process.
The Camp David Accords lasted for thirteen days where the talks between Begin and Sadat, mediated by the U.S president Jimmy Carter were held secret from the press or the outside world at all.
Soon in the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations, personality conflicts of Sadat and Begin became very obvious where according to Telhami, the meetings even turned into shouting matches between Begin and Sadat showing that the leaders “could not interact constructively on a personal level”. In the aftermath, Begin and Sadat had to be kept apart where Jimmy Carter and his assistants used a kind of “shuttle diplomacy” where Carter played the role of a real mediator. He went to each delegation to talk to them separately and then move to the other cabin to discuss the matter.
Progress appeared in a couple of days where the U.S delegation managed to come up with a draft proposal concerning the major issues to be resolved. Every version of the draft proposal written by the United States was criticized and rewritten to improve in the light of their critique which ended up resulting in deadlock in a few more days.
The deadlock was mainly due to Begin and Sadat’s differing demands regarding the issue of Sinai and the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. After ten days, when the Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan was unable to come to a resolution, Carter felt sure the Camp David talks were going to fail.
However, Carter did not give up at this point for the sake of presidency. He strategized a way to solve the issue by going to its root. The reason the Sinai issue was not coming to a conclusion was because Begin did not abandon the Israeli settlements and air basis there for which Carter offered a solution. He offered to guarantee Israel’s continued access to oil supplies as well as to build two new air bases in the Negev Desert to make Israel agree to the peace treaty. As this issue was settled, the deal was finalized on 17th September, 1978, the thirteenth day of the Camp David Accords and signed by all three parties.
The first issue dealt in the Camp David Accords was the future of the Sinai and a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt to be concluded within three months. Israel, in the Camp David accords, agreed to withdraw from Sinai within three years while also consented to demilitarize it by destroying its air bases near the Gulf of Aqaba and Yamit. In return, Egypt offered full diplomatic relations with Israel and allowing Israel to pass through the Suez Cana, the Strait of Tiran as well as the Gulf of Aqaba. Though peace treaty between the two countries was very clear in addition to the demilitarization of Sinai and withdrawal of the Israelis from there, the issue of the future of Palestinians’ right to sovereignty was not clear. The language used in the Camp David Accords for this issue was, “a self-governing authority (administrative council) in the West Bank and Gaza” which seemed to favor both parties.
This play of diplomacy at the Camp David Accords greatly revealed the personality differences between Sadat and Begin where Sadat was proving to be too accommodating and trusting than Begin was. In fact, Sadat, during the meetings, offered Carter a written document explicitly outlining Egypt's position which only one other member of the Egyptian delegation was aware of at the time. Shortly following this, Carter had been willing to reveal the Egypt’s position to Begin as he really wanted to reach an agreement between Israel and Egypt in order to sustain his presidency. On the other hand, the Israeli delegation was very cautious and hesitant in trusting the United States delegation with their position, motives or any possibility of a compromise on their part. Furthermore, Begin was also very good at embellishing the only accommodation that Israel did make regarding Sinai which proved him to be more diplomatic in dealing with Egypt and the United States than Sadat was and thus Israel had an advantage in the Camp David agreement.
The impact of this agreement mainly was that the result of this bargaining fairly went in favor of Begin. Begin accomplished his goal of signing a peace treaty with the most important of the Arab countries, which was Egypt, by only demilitarizing Sinai while also skillfully diverting the international attention from his bigger concern; the issue of Palestine. On the other hand, all Sadat achieved was a peace treaty with Israel and some other minor concessions but could not settle the Palestine issue. It was also after the Camp David Accords that the Egyptian-Israeli Peace treaty was signed on 26th March, 1979 a year later. According to some historians, it was perhaps the security and confidence that Israel gained from this agreement that led to the Israel attack on Lebanon in 1982. After this agreement, Egypt, not only regained its control of Sinai but also held prestige among the Arab countries for enjoying closer diplomatic relations with the United States.
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