From Gettysburg to Camp David: 30 Years of Egyptian-Israeli Peace

In September 1978, about 11 months after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic trip to Jerusalem, President Carter invited Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin to Washington for talks. On a break (or was it a lark?) he took them to Gettysburg National Battlefield, where Sadat and Begin, naturally, converged on a cannon.

There they are, Sadat admiring the artillery piece up close and probably wondering how his fortunes might have turned had he had it with him during the 1973 war (the Soviet hardware he did have wasn't of much fresher vintage). Carter, holding back daughter Amy, who was one of Carter's informal nuclear and foreign policy advisers, is looking at Begin, who's shielded by a park ranger. The man with the eye patch is the debonair Moshe Dayan, who was either foreign minister or defense minister at the time (the two positions might as well be interchangeable).

Five months later at the White House (that is, 30 years ago today), Egypt and Israel signed the first peace treaty between the Arab and the Jewish state, with some 1,500 invited guests and millions watching on television. "Peace has come," Carter said. "We have won, at last, the first step of peace--a first step on a long and difficult road." He probably didn't know how long and how difficult that road would be. That peace accord, along with the Jordanian-Israeli peace of 1994 that did not involve American mediation, remain the only substantial achievements in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Begin got emotional and spoke at length at the ceremony: "No more war, no more bloodshed, no more bereavement, peace unto you, shalom, saalam, forever." Actually, the Israeli army had invaded Lebanon the previous March in a war that would kill some 2,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and would invade Lebanon again in 1982 in an "operation" that would kill 10 time as many Lebanese and Palestinians. Peace with Egypt had freed Israel to point its weapons elsewhere, earning it, as well as Egypt, renewed scorn and resentment from Palestinians, who felt abandoned by the peace process.

It's unfortunate to note that history has borne out the Palestinians' fears: For all of Sadat's greatness in that mold-breaking moment with Israel, Carter was right when he reportedly said at the time, "Sadat doesn't give a shit about the West Bank." (Aaron David Miller, the State Department Middle East analyst who was involved in two decades of Arab-Israeli affairs, reports the remark in his book, The Much Too promised Land.)

Sadat had some memorable words of his own in that signing ceremony, calling Carter "the unknown soldier of the peacemaking effort." Two years later, Sadat was assassinated by Islamists to whom peace is a disease. That mentality, and not only just among Islamists, has the upper hand to this day.

Three amigos: Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menahem Begin in the early stages of what led to the Camp David peace accords, signed at the White House on March 26, 1979. This particular picture dates from September 17, 1978. (Jimmy Carter Library)

See Also:

• Review: The Much Too Promised Land, by Aaron David Miller
• Anwar Sadat: Profile
• Anwar Sadat's Address to the Knesset
• When Anwar Sadat Was Assassinated
• The 1974 and 1975 Egyptian-Israeli “Disengagement”
• Hypocrites of Sharm el Sheikh