Camp David Accords
Framework for Peace in the Middle East and Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel | |
---|---|
Type | Bilateral treaty |
Signed | 17 September 1978[1] |
Location | Washington, D.C., United States |
Signatories | |
Parties | |
Ratifiers | |
Language |
The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978,[1] following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland.[2] The two framework agreements were signed at the White House and were witnessed by President Jimmy Carter. The second of these frameworks (A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel) led directly to the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Due to the agreement, Sadat and Begin received the shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. The first framework (A Framework for Peace in the Middle East), which dealt with the Palestinian territories, was written without participation of the Palestinians and was condemned by the United Nations.
Preceding diplomacy
Carter Initiative
Carter's and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's exploratory meetings gave a basic plan for reinvigorating the peace process based on a Geneva Peace Conference and had presented three main objectives for Arab–Israeli peace: Arab recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace, Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories gained in the Six-Day War through negotiating efforts with neighboring Arab nations to ensure that Israel's security would not be threatened and securing an undivided Jerusalem.[3]
The Camp David Accords were the result of 14 months of diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Israel, and the United States that began after Jimmy Carter became President.[4] The efforts initially focused on a comprehensive resolution of disputes between Israel and the Arab countries, gradually evolving into a search for a bilateral agreement between Israel and Egypt.[5]
Upon assuming office on 20 January 1977, President Carter moved to rejuvenate the Middle East peace process that had stalled throughout the 1976 presidential campaign in the United States. Following the advice of a Brookings Institution report, Carter opted to replace the incremental, bilateral peace talks which had characterized Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy following the 1973 Yom Kippur War with a comprehensive, multilateral approach. The Yom Kippur War further complicated efforts to achieve the objectives written in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.
Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his successor, Menachem Begin, were both skeptical of an international conference.[4] While Begin, who took office in May 1977, officially favored the reconvening of the conference, perhaps even more vocally than Rabin, and even accepted the Palestinian presence, in actuality the Israelis and the Egyptians were secretly formulating a framework for bilateral talks. Even earlier, Begin had not been opposed to returning the Sinai, but a major future obstacle was his firm refusal to consider relinquishing control over the West Bank.[6]
Participating parties
Carter visited the heads of state on whom he would have to rely to make any peace agreement feasible. By the end of his first year in office, he had already met with
Sadat Initiative
Sadat first spoke about the possibility of peace with Israel in February 1971; Egypt was the initiator of many moves in the 1970s.
The gesture stemmed from an eagerness to enlist the help of the NATO countries in improving the ailing Egyptian economy, a belief that Egypt should begin to focus more on its own interests than on the interests of the Arab world, and a hope that an agreement with Israel would catalyze similar agreements between Israel and her other Arab neighbors and help solve the Palestinian problem. Prime Minister Begin's response to Sadat's initiative, though not what Sadat or Carter had hoped, demonstrated a willingness to engage the Egyptian leader. Like Sadat, Begin also saw many reasons why bilateral talks would be in his country's best interests. It would afford Israel the opportunity to negotiate only with Egypt instead of with a larger
Egyptian–Israeli talks
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2017) |
A mechanism had yet to be created for Israel and Egypt to pursue the talks begun by Sadat and Begin in Jerusalem.[11] The Egyptian president suggested to Begin that Israel place a secret representative in the American embassy in Cairo. With American "cover," the true identity of the Israeli, who would liaise between the Egyptian and Israeli leaders, would be known only to the American ambassador in Cairo.[11]
Carter's acceptance of the proposed liaison scheme would have signaled American backing for Sadat's unprecedented peace initiative, but Carter rejected the proposal. However, Carter could not thwart the Israeli–Egyptian peace push. Within days Israeli journalists were allowed into Cairo, breaking a symbolic barrier, and from there the peace process quickly gained momentum. An Israeli–Egyptian working summit was scheduled for 25 December in Ismailiya, near the Suez Canal.[12]
Accompanied by their capable negotiating teams and with their respective interests in mind, both leaders converged on Camp David for 13 days of tense and dramatic negotiations from 5 to 17 September 1978.
Carter's advisers insisted on the establishment of an Egyptian–Israeli agreement which would lead to an eventual solution to the Palestine issue. They believed in a short, loose, and overt linkage between the two countries amplified by the establishment of a coherent basis for a settlement. However, Carter felt they were not "aiming high enough" and was interested in the establishment of a written "land for peace" agreement with Israel returning the Sinai Peninsula and West Bank.[13] Numerous times both the Egyptian and Israeli leaders wanted to scrap negotiations, only to be lured back into the process by personal appeals from Carter.
Begin and Sadat had such mutual antipathy toward one another that they only seldom had direct contact; thus Carter had to conduct his own microcosmic form of shuttle diplomacy by holding one-on-one meetings with either Sadat or Begin in one cabin, then returning to the cabin of the third party to relay the substance of his discussions. Begin and Sadat were "literally not on speaking terms," and "claustrophobia was setting in."[14]
A particularly difficult situation arose on the tenth stalemated day of the talks. The issues of Israeli settlement withdrawal from the Sinai and the status of the West Bank created what seemed to be an impasse. In response, Carter had the choice of trying to salvage the agreement by conceding the issue of the West Bank to Begin, while advocating Sadat's less controversial position on the removal of all settlements from the Sinai Peninsula. Or he could have refused to continue the talks, reported the reasons for their failure, and allowed Begin to bear the brunt of the blame.
Carter chose to continue and for three more days negotiated. During this time, Carter even took the two leaders to the nearby Gettysburg National Military Park in the hopes of using the American Civil War as a simile to their own struggle.[15]
Consequently, the 13 days marking the Camp David Accords were considered a success, in part due to Carter's determination in obtaining an Israeli–Egyptian agreement, which represented considerable time focused on a singular international problem. Additionally, Carter was beneficiary to a fully pledged American foreign team. Likewise, the Israeli delegation had a stable of excellent talent in Ministers Dayan and Weizman and legal experts Dr. Meir Rosenne and Aharon Barak. Furthermore, the absence of the media contributed to the Accord's successes: there were no possibilities provided to either leader to reassure his political body or be driven to conclusions by members of his opposition. An eventual scrap of negotiations by either leader would have proven disastrous, resulting in taking the blame for the summit's failure as well as a disassociation from the White House. Ultimately, neither Begin nor Sadat was willing to risk those eventualities. Both of them had invested enormous amounts of political capital and time to reach an agreement.[16]
Partial agreements
The Camp David Accords comprise two separate agreements: "A Framework for Peace in the Middle East" and "A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel", the second leading towards the Egypt–Israel peace treaty signed in March 1979. The agreements and the peace treaty were both accompanied by "side-letters" of understanding between Egypt and the U.S. and Israel and the U.S.[17]
Framework for Peace in the Middle East
The preamble of the "Framework for Peace in the Middle East" starts with the basis of a peaceful settlement of the Arab–Israeli conflict:[18]
The agreed basis for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors is United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, in all its parts.
The framework itself consists of 3 parts. The first part of the framework was to establish an autonomous self-governing authority in the
The Accords recognized the "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people", a process to be implemented guaranteeing the full autonomy of the people within a period of five years.
The second part of the framework dealt with Egyptian–Israeli relations, the real content worked out in the second Egypt–Israel framework. The third part, "Associated Principles," declared principles that should apply to relations between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors.
Key points of the West Bank and Gaza section
- Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the representatives of the Palestinian people should participate in negotiations on the resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects.
- (1.) Egypt and Israel agree that, in order to ensure a peaceful and orderly transfer of authority, and taking into account the security concerns of all the parties, there should be transitional arrangements for the West Bank and Gaza for a period not exceeding five years. In order to provide full autonomy to the inhabitants, under these arrangements the Israeli military government and its civilian administration will be withdrawn as soon as a self-governing authority has been freely elected by the inhabitants of these areas to replace the existing military government.
- (2.) Egypt, Israel, and Jordan will agree on the modalities for establishing elected self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza. The delegations of Egypt and Jordan may include Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza or other Palestinians as mutually agreed. The parties will negotiate an agreement which will define the powers and responsibilities of the self-governing authority to be exercised in the West Bank and Gaza. A withdrawal of Israeli armed forces will take place and there will be a redeployment of the remaining Israeli forces into specified security locations. The agreement will also include arrangements for assuring internal and external security and public order. A strong local police force will be established, which may include Jordanian citizens. In addition, Israeli and Jordanian forces will participate in joint patrols and in the manning of control posts to assure the security of the borders.
- (3.) When the self-governing authority (administrative council) in the West Bank and Gaza is established and inaugurated, the transitional period of five years will begin. As soon as possible, but not later than the third year after the beginning of the transitional period, negotiations will take place to determine the final status of the West Bank and Gaza and its relationship with its neighbors and to conclude a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan by the end of the transitional period. These negotiations will be conducted among Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the elected representatives of the inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza. ... The negotiations shall be based on all the provisions and principles of UN Security Council Resolution 242. The negotiations will resolve, among other matters, the location of the boundaries and the nature of the security arrangements. The solution from the negotiations must also recognize the legitimate right of the Palestinian peoples and their just requirements.
The framework merely concerned autonomy of the inhabitants of West Bank and Gaza. It neither mentions the
UN Rejection of the Middle East Framework
The
Framework Peace Treaty Egypt and Israel
The second framework
Consequences
The Camp David accords changed Middle Eastern politics. Notably, the perception of Egypt within the Arab world changed. With the most powerful of the Arab militaries and a history of leadership in the Arab world under Nasser, Egypt had more leverage than any of the other Arab states to advance Arab interests. Egypt was subsequently suspended from the Arab League from 1979 until 1989.
Jordan's King Hussein saw it as a slap to the face when Sadat volunteered Jordan's participation in deciding how functional autonomy for the Palestinians would work. Specifically, Sadat effectively said that Jordan would have a role in how the West Bank would be administered. Like the Rabat Summit Resolution, the Camp David Accords circumscribed Jordan's objective to reassert its control over the West Bank. Focusing as it did on Egypt, the Carter administration accepted Sadat's claim that he could deliver Hussein. However, with Arab world opposition building against Sadat, Jordan could not risk accepting the Accords without the support of powerful Arab neighbours, like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.[19] Hussein consequently felt diplomatically snubbed. One of Carter's regrets was allowing Sadat to claim that he could speak for Hussein if Jordan refused to join the talks, but by then the damage was done to the Jordanians.[19]
The Camp David Accords also prompted the disintegration of a united Arab front in opposition to Israel. Egypt's realignment created a power vacuum that
According to The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East:
The normalization of relations [between Israel and Egypt] went into effect in January 1980. Ambassadors were exchanged in February. The boycott laws were repealed by Egypt's National Assembly the same month, and some trade began to develop, albeit less than Israel had hoped for. In March 1980 regular airline flights were inaugurated. Egypt also began supplying Israel with crude oil".[25]
According to Kenneth Stein in Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab–Israeli Peace:
The Accords were another interim agreement or step, but negotiations that flowed from the Accords slowed for several reasons. These included an inability to bring the Jordanians into the discussions; the controversy over settlements; the inconclusive nature of the subsequent autonomy talks; domestic opposition sustained by both Begin and Sadat and, in Sadat's case, ostracism and anger from the Arab world; the emergence of a what became a cold peace between Egypt and Israel; and changes in foreign policy priorities including discontinuity in personnel committed to sustaining the negotiating process[.][19]
Historian Jørgen Jensehaugen argues[26] that by the time Carter left office in January 1981, he:
was in an odd position—he had attempted to break with traditional US policy but ended up fulfilling the goals of that tradition, which had been to break up the Arab alliance, side-line the Palestinians, build an alliance with Egypt, weaken the Soviet Union and secure Israel.
Israeli public support
Although most Israelis supported the Accords, the
In Israel, there is lasting support of the Camp David Peace Accords, which have become a national consensus, supported by 85% of Israelis according to a 2001 poll taken by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (Israel-based).[29]
Assassination of Anwar Sadat
President Sadat's signing of the Camp David Accords on 17 September 1978 and his shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Begin led to his assassination on 6 October 1981 by members of the
In total, 11 were killed from collateral gunfire and 28 were injured. Among the killed were the Cuban ambassador, an Omani general, and a Coptic Orthodox bishop. Among the wounded were Egyptian Vice-President Hosni Mubarak, Irish Defence Minister James Tully, and four U.S. military liaison officers. One of the assassins was killed and the other three were wounded and taken into custody. The surviving assassins were tried and found guilty of assassinating the president and killing 10 others in the process; they were sentenced to capital punishment, and were executed on 15 April 1982.[31]
Arab–Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties
Treaties and meetings
- Paris Peace Conference, 1919
- Faisal–Weizmann Agreement(1919)
- 1949 Armistice Agreements
- Geneva Conference (1973)
- Camp David Accords (1978)
- Egypt–Israel peace treaty (1979)
- Madrid Conference of 1991
- Oslo Accords (1993)
- Israel–Jordan peace treaty (1994)
- Camp David 2000 Summit
- Abraham Accords (2020)
General articles
- International law and the Arab–Israeli conflict
- Israeli–Palestinian peace process
- List of Middle East peace proposals
- Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs
See also
- 1948 Arab–Israeli War
- 1956 Suez War
- 1967 Six-Day War
- 1970 War of Attrition
- 1973 Yom Kippur War
- Arab–Israeli conflict
- Arab League and the Arab–Israeli conflict
- Egypt–Israel relations
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Palestinian autonomy talks
- Proposals for a Palestinian state
References
- ^ a b c Quandt 1988, p. 2.
- ^ a b Camp David Accords – Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archived 3 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Camp David Accords: Jimmy Carter Reflects 25 Years Later". cartercenter.org.
- ^ a b Stein, Kenneth. Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab–Israeli Peace. Taylor & Francis, 1999, pp. 228–229
- ^ "Stein, Kenneth 2000, pp. 229–228"
- ISBN 978-0-8223-0972-7. From Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Advisor 1977–1981, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983), p. 88.
[Carter] outlined to Begin his program, which consisted of five points: (1) achieve a comprehensive peace affecting all of Israel's neighbors: (2) peace to be based on UN Resolution 242: (3) peace would involve open borders and free trade; (4) peace would call for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories to secure borders; (5) a Palestinian entity (but not an independent nation) should be created. Begin responded that he could accept all of these points except the Palestinian entity.
- ^ "Jordan – The Camp David Accords". countrystudies.us.
- ^ a b The Middle East: ten years after Camp David, William B. Quandt, p. 9
- ^ Stein 1999, p. 7.
- ^ Feron, James. "Menachem Begin, Guerrilla Leader Who Became Peacemaker." The New York Times. 9 March 1992. 15 February 2009.
- ^ a b "How Jimmy Carter Almost Derailed Peace With Egypt". The Forward. 24 April 2008.
- ^ "Americans for Peace Now: Archives". peacenow.org.
- ^ "Camp David Accords: Jimmy Carter Reflects 25 Years Later". Carter Center. 17 September 2003. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8157-1344-9.
- ISBN 978-0-19-022746-3.
- ^ Stein 1999, p. 252.
- ^ "The Camp David Accords." Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. 21 July 2001. 28 April 2008.
- ^ a b Jimmy Carter Library, The Framework for Peace in the Middle East Archived 16 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, 17 September 1978
- ^ a b c d Stein, 1999, p. 254.
- ^ Gold, 175
- ^ UNGA, 7 December 1978, Resolution 33/28 A. Question of Palestine Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine (doc.nr. A/RES/33/28)
- ^ UNGA, 6 December 1979, Resolution 34/70. The situation in the Middle East Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine (doc.nr. A/RES/34/70)
- ^ UNGA, 12 December 1979, Resolution 34/65 B. Question of Palestine Archived 29 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. [doc.nr. A/RES/34/65 (A-D)]
- ^ Jimmy Carter Library, Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel Archived 16 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sela, "Arab–Israel Conflict", 100[full citation needed]
- ^ Jørgen Jensehaugen. Arab–Israeli Diplomacy under Carter: The US, Israel and the Palestinians (2018) p. 178, quoted on H-DIPLO)
- ^ Sela, "Sinai Peninsula," 774
- ^ Armstrong, 414
- ^ Ronen, Joshua. "Poll: 58% of Israelis back Oslo process." Archived 2 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Tel Aviv University. 7 June 2001. 28 April 2008.
- ^ "On this day: 6 October". BBC. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ^ "Sadat Assassins are Executed". The Glasgow Herald. 16 April 1982.
Further reading
- Ashton, Nigel J. "Taking friends for granted: the Carter administration, Jordan and the Camp David Accords, 1977–80." Diplomatic History 41.3 (2017): 620–645. online
- ISBN 978-1-59264-278-6
- Armstrong, Karen. Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.
- Brams, Steven J., and Jeffrey M. Togman. "Camp David: Was the agreement fair?." Conflict Management and Peace Science 15.1 (1996): 99–112 [ online].
- Brands, H.W. Into the Labyrinth: The United States and the Middle East, 1945–1993 (1994) excerpt pp. 143–153.
- Bregman, Ahron Elusive Peace: How the Holy Land Defeated America.
- Eran, Oded. Arab–Israel Peacemaking. Sela.
- Gold, Dore. The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2007.
- Findlay, Scott D., and Paul Thagard. "Emotional change in international negotiation: Analyzing the Camp David accords using cognitive-affective maps." Group Decision and Negotiation 23.6 (2014): 1281–1300. online
- Hinton, Clete A. Camp David Accords (2004)
- Meital, Yoram. Egypt's Struggle for Peace: Continuity and Change, 1967–1977.
- Quandt, William B. Camp David: Peacemaking and Politics (1986), by leading political scientist
- Quandt, William B. "Camp David and peacemaking in the Middle East." Political Science Quarterly 101.3 (1986): 357–377. online
- Sela, Avraham, ed. The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. New York: Continuum, 2002.
- Telhami, Shibley. "From Camp David to Wye: Changing Assumptions in Arab–Israeli Negotiations." The Middle East Journal (1999): 379–392. online
- Telhami, Shibley. "Evaluating bargaining performance: The case of Camp David." Political Science Quarterly 107.4 (1992): 629–653. online
- Telhami, Shibley. Power and leadership in international bargaining: the path to the Camp David accords (Columbia UP, 1990).
- Quandt, William B. (1988). The Middle East: Ten Years After Camp David. Brookings Institution Press. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-0-8157-2052-2.
Primary sources
- ISBN 978-965-229-456-2
Other sources
- Adam Curtis' 2004 documentary The Power of Nightmares, in its second and third part, studies the Camp David Accords from the point of view of fundamentalist Muslims.
External links
- Text of the Accords, Israeli government
- Text of Accords and additional material, Carter Library
- Israel's Self-Rule Plan. Knesset website, 28 December 1977
- Interview with King Hussein from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
- 2006 Egyptian public poll on attitudes to Israel Archived 10 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine and other countries, 'The Sun (New York) article. Alternate link to poll results from a BBC News article
- The Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation
- Jaffe Center Poll on Israeli public Attitudes to the Peace Process
- NY Times: Anti-Semitic 'Elders of Zion' Gets New Life on Egypt TV
- "Camp David 25th Anniversary Forum" (led by President Carter)