by Barry Marcus

Created on: August 15, 2009   Last Updated: October 14, 2009

The Camp David accords were the result of thirteen days of intense negotiations at the US presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland. Talks between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el Sadat were mediated by US President Jimmy Carter from September 5-17, 1978. The results, known as the Camp David accords, laid the foundation for the signing of an historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt on the lawns of the White House on March 26, 1979. Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize as a result of their efforts.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 had never been accepted by Israel's neighbours. Israel was regarded as a state to be destroyed. The response of the Arab world to the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948 was to attack the fledgling nation. The aftermath of the war were new borders between Israel and its neighbours. Jordan now occupied the West Bank of the river Jordan and East Jerusalem, while Egypt controlled the Gaza strip. The Palestinians did not have the land envisioned in the United Nations plan.

An uneasy peace interspersed with conflict existed between Israel and its neighbours. In June 1967, Israel initiated a pre-emptive attack against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Israel gained control of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

After many years of a Labour government in Israel, a right-wing coalition, Likud, under the leadership of Menachem Begin, was elected to the Israeli Knesset. Likud took a generally harder line than its predecessors on the future of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The West Bank reverted to its biblical names of Judea and Samaria. Settlement development in the occupied territories increased.

Anwar Sadat had become the Egyptian President following the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970. He broke the ties between Egypt and the Soviet Union in 1972, and launched a surprise attack against Israel in October 1973. The Yom Kippur war provided Egypt with some military success, but ultimate defeat by Israel.

By 1977, President Sadat had come to believe that there was more to be gained from peace with Israel than through war. Secret negotiations between Israel and Egypt began. These were unknown even to these countries' closest friends.

In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat initiated the peace process by publicly stating that he would travel anywhere - even to Jerusalem - for

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