Anchor men: Before making it to Camp David (or Jerusalem), Egypt's Anwar Sadat used Walter Cronkite to mediate his travel plans. (Carter Library)
The breakthrough in the Egyptian-Israeli peace process that led to the 1979 Camp David treaty took place in November 1977 when Egypt’s Anwar el Sadat went to Jerusalem and addressed the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. But Sadat couldn’t simply get on a plane and fly to Israel. The two countries had no diplomatic relations. He had to be formally invited.
An unlikely intermediary played a pivotal role toward that end: Walter Cronkite, at the time the anchorman of the CBS News.
Read the full account of "How Walter Cronkite Mediated Egyptian-Israeli Negotiations Before Camp David."
See Also:
- From Gettysburg to Camp David: 30 Years of Egyptian-Israeli Peace
- Anwar Sadat's Address to the Knesset
- Review: "The Much Too Promised Land," by Aaron David Miller
- Sadat Profile
- Sadat's Assassination
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