What were the 1978 Camp David peace accords?
Egypt maintained a state of war with Israel since Israel’s founding in 1948, a strategy that did not bring any benefit to Egypt. In the course of the Six-Day War of 1967 Israel occupied Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. After losing badly to Israel again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Egypt finally saw that they could not eliminate Israel through outright war. Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat turned to diplomacy, unlike other Arab states that continued their state of war with Israel. The Camp David Accords had their origin in Sadat’s unprecedented visit to Jerusalem on November 19-21, 1977, to address the Israeli Knesset, the first visit by an Arab head of state to Israel. Sadat was named “Man of the Year for 1977” by Time Magazine. Sadat’s visit initiated peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt that went on sporadically through 1977 and into 1978. Reaching a deadlock, both Sadat and Begin accepted President Carter’s invitation to a US – Israeli – Egyptian summit meeting at the Presidential retre
