On September 5, 1978, three world leaders arrived at the Camp David presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of northern Maryland to work toward forging peace in the Middle East. U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and their delegations would spend 13 days there, isolated from the world, steeped in frustration over radically different Israeli and Egyptian perceptions, but refusing to give up hope. Both Egypt and Israel shared a desire for peace and security and sought to build on that common foundation. After much negotiation and 23 revised drafts of the agreement, on September 17, 1978, Begin and Sadat signed the Camp David Accords in which Begin agreed to relinquish the entire Sinai Peninsula, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, in exchange for peace and full diplomatic relations with Egypt.
On September 17, 2003— 25 years to the day when the accords were signed—members of the three delegations reunited at the Woodrow Wilson Center for an event organized by the Carter Center to commemorate this unprecedented moment in history. Panelists reflected on their experiences at Camp David and discussed both difficulties and opportunities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.
0 Comments