Camp David Accords Broker Egypt–Israel Peace
- Date
- 1978
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- North Africa (Egypt)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 17 September 1978, after twelve days of secret negotiations mediated by US President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, two framework agreements that reshaped Middle East diplomacy.
The talks at the presidential retreat in Maryland followed Sadat's dramatic 1977 visit to Jerusalem and produced a path toward the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty—the first between Israel and an Arab state. Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula, and Israel gained recognition and a secure southern border, breaking the cycle of full-scale Arab–Israeli wars. Sadat and Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for the breakthrough. Yet most Arab governments and the Palestine Liberation Organization rejected the accords, Egypt was suspended from the Arab League, and the promised framework for Palestinian self-rule went unrealised, leaving that conflict unresolved. Sadat paid with his life, assassinated in 1981, but the treaty held, anchoring a durable if cold peace for decades.
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Empires active in 1978
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Yugoslavia1918 CE – 1992 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Egyptian Revolution and the Free Officers Coup1952
- Iranian RevolutionJanuary–February 1979
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall9 November 1989
- Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe1989 (Autumn of Nations)
- German reunification3 October 1990
Further reading
The wider story
The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence
Gripping account of Africa's nations from independence to the present.
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