by Chris Pearce

Created on: August 25, 2009   Last Updated: February 25, 2012

The Camp David Accords are landmark peace agreements between Israel and Egypt. The leaders of both countries signed the agreements in 1979 in front of then US president Jimmy Carter at Camp David. The road to the agreements was often torturous and the results have been mixed. Nevertheless, peace has prevailed between the two countries.

After the Yom Kippur War in 1973, US diplomacy efforts towards peace in the Middle East had been stepped up. Under President Ford, this had involved a series of bilateral peace talks with Israel and Egypt. President Carter opted for a multilateral approach, realizing the importance of other players in the Middle East peace process.

In 1977, he met individually with Egypt's Anwar El Sadat, Israel's Yitzhak Rabin, Jordan's King Hussein, and Syria's Hafez al-Assad. He was aware of objections to making peace with Israel from other Arab nations as well as some European countries, such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia, who had fought alongside the Egyptians. Some Arab groups threatened to attack Egypt if they entered a peace agreement with Israel and NATO armies were in readiness.

In the middle of all this, Menachem Begin became Israel's prime minister and Egypt and Israel became engaged in secret bilateral talks. The US wanted a peace plan along the lines of the 1954 Geneva Conference, but Sadat felt things were not progressing due to the large number of players and his lack of confidence in the West.

Israel also saw benefits in bilateral negotiations. It preferred dealing with one country rather than a number of Arab nations, and even felt that Egypt could help lessen the angst Arabs and communists had for Israel. Unbeknown to the rest of the world, Sadat visited Israel in November 1977 and gave a speech at the Knesset on his views for peace, territories occupied by Israel, and the Palestinian issue. His visit prompted a number of eastern European countries to threaten war against Egypt if it continued to recognize Israel or pursued any peace agreement with the Israelis.

Sadat's visit to Israel prompted the Cairo Conference the following month and the Camp David Accords in 1978. Both he and Begin arrived at Camp David on 5 September of that year for what became 13 days of negotiations. Talks became bogged down and both men wanted to abandon them. There was little direct contact between the pair, and it was left to Carter to shuttle between the two in their separate rooms, trying to get agreement.

On the tenth day, talks stalled over

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