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The premiere foreign policy achievement of the Carter administration was
the signing of the Camp David peace accords. The peace process in the Middle
East that began with Henry
Kissinger
accelerated after President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt undertook the unprecedented
step of traveling to Jerusalem in November 1977. There, he extended an olive
branch to the Israeli Government in the form of a peace proposal: the return
of occupied lands in exchange for a guarantee of security. Picking up on
the initiative after it had become moribund, President Jimmy Carter invited
Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the presidential retreat
in the Catoctin mountains of Maryland for a series of meetings in September
1978. Carter, supported by Department of State experts, played a key role
during the intensive rounds of bargaining, eventually compelling both sides
to compromise short of their maximum demands by offering massive amounts
of foreign aid. Two agreements in principle arose from the Camp David meetings.
The first included a statement on eventual self-government for the West Bank
and Gaza Strip areas as well as the inclusion of Jordanian and Palestinian
representatives in future talks. The second agreement consisted of diplomatic
recognition of Israel by Egypt in exchange for the return of territories
occupied since 1967. As negotiations toward a formal treaty ensued, Carter
continued his personal involvement in the process. On March 26, 1979, Sadat,
Carter, and Begin signed the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, which formalized
the specific details of the arrangements agreed to at Camp David. However,
the Camp David Accords and the subsequent treaty did not include a comprehensive
settlement of the problems in the Middle East. A substantive peace framework
among Israel, its other Arab neighbors, and the Palestinian Liberation
Organization would not emerge until the 1990s.
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Detente
