Camp David agreements

the Camp David agreements were signed the September 17th 1978, by the Egyptian President Anouar el-Sadate and Israeli the Prime Minister Menahem Begin, under the mediation of the President of the the United States, Jimmy Carter. They consist of two outline agreements which were signed with the White House after 13 days of secret negotiations to Camp David. They were followed signature of the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country: the Peace treaty israélo-Egyptian of 1979.

General context

With its taking of the January 20th 1977, President Jimmy Carter wished to start again the peace process with the the Middle East which had evolved/moved little because of the American electoral campaign of 1976. According to the councils of the Brookings Institution, Carter decided to choose rather an new approach of multi-party discussions than for the usual American diplomatic tradition to send emissary in the area, the made-to-order of a Henry Kissinger after the Guerre of Kippour of 1973. Thus, Carter wished to include a delegation Palestinian in the negotiations in the hope to find a final solution and total. At the end of the first year of the administration Casing, the President had already met Anouar el-Sadate for Egypt, Hafez el-Assad for the Syria and Yitzhak Rabin for Israel.

Casing wished to leave the conclusion of the Conference of Geneva of 1973 to start again the peace process while requiring of Israel to withdraw itself from all the territories conquered on each face, and in particular in the West Bank. The political situation in Israel changed with the election of Menahem Begin and a government Likoud (Right Israeli) in May 1977. Begin seemed more favorable than the Labor which had followed one another the capacity since 1948, to take again the terms of the conference of Geneva. It was not opposed to the idea to return the the Sinai to Egypt, nor to discuss with Palestinian interlocutors, but it preferred (just like Sadate) bilateral discussions, and especially he was very firm on his refusal to lose the control of the the West Bank.

The peace initiative of President Sadate

President Sadate left the principle which the conference of Geneva had led to nothing solid, being given dissensions with the Syria. He did not believe any more in the American pressure on Israel and took the step secretly to meet the Israelis. In November 1977, without very warning the Americans, Sadate announced that it was ready to go to Jerusalem to undertake negotiations with the Israelis. He became thus the first leader of an Arab country to return an official visit to Israel, recognizing thus implicitly his existence. The motivations of Sadate were of economic order (assistance of the United States to an Egyptian economy in bad posture), but it thought especially that was going to be used as catalyst to establish agreements concerning the dead end of the relations between Israel and all its neighbors Arab, and especially the Palestinian problem. Begin had on its side any interest to see such a step favorably because that made it possible to treat bilaterally and on an equal footing with most powerful of the Arab countries.

Discussions

The two leaders went from September 5th to 17th 1978 to Camp David, with their teams of negotiators and the idea of the concessions which they were ready to make. The discussions were tended but Carter refused to let leave the negotiators without them managing an agreement. Several times, each of the two parties wanted to leave the negotiations but they were retained by President Carter. It made the shuttle between Begin and Sadate which refused to treat directly together.

The dead end seemed final at the tenth day, in connection with the withdrawal of the Israeli establishments of the peninsula of the Sinai and the statute of the West Bank. To save the discussions, Carter chooses to defend the position of Sadate on the Sinai and the position of Begin on the West Bank. The discussions led finally to the Camp David agreements.

Terms of the Agreements

There were two outline agreements of Camp David in 1978.

The first agreement fixed a framework for peace at the Middle East and comprised three parts:

the first part, which was to pose the principles of the future negotiations on the fate of the the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, should have led to a transitory autonomy of this new entity, in the respect of the Résolution 242 (1967). She was considered to be less clear than the second agreement and was interpreted later differently by Israel, Egypt and the United States. She will thus never be applied.

the second part was a preamble with the second agreement, concerning the diplomatic relations maintained between Israel and Egypt.

the third part declared certain principles which should have applied to the relations between Israel and the other countries Arab. It remained dead letter.

It is the second agreement which related to the concluding of a peace treaty between the two countries in the six following months. This one was signed the March 26th 1979 with Washington and made it possible Egypt to recover the the Sinai in 1982 after the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army and the dismantling of certain Jewish establishments as to Yamit. N the other hand, Israel obtained to a standardization of the diplomatic relations israélo-Egyptian women and guarantees on freedom of circulation on water the ways of the Suez Canal and the strait of Tiran. The agreement also related to the military forces, that each country was laid out not to gather more close to the border. Israel also offered a guarantee of unrestricted passage of Egypt towards the Jordan.

The agreements and the peace treaty were accompanied by letters of mutual comprehension of the Americans, the Egyptians and the Israelis.

Consequences

Menahem Begin and Anouar el-Sadate accepted the Nobel Prize of peace in 1978.

Perception that the Arabs had of Egypt changed after the signature of these agreements. Egypt, which had carried the leadership among the Arab countries at the time of Nasser, found itself isolated not to have put more ahead the Arab interests. In particular, it was reproached Sadate for not having obtained Israeli concessions on the recognition of the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination. Hatred was maintained until involving the assassination of Sadate in 1981. Egypt was also excluded from the Arab Ligue of 1979 with 1989.

The Arab unit against Israel was broken following these agreements. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein tried to fill the vacuum left by the loss of the Egyptian leadership. Certain observers thus explain the reason of the invasion of the Iran after 1980.

Especially, the Camp David agreements showed with the Arab countries, that it was possible to negotiate with Israel. The Conference of Madrid of 1991, the Agreements of Oslo of 1993 and later the Sommet of Camp David II in 2000 would probably never have taken place without this precedent.

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