Egypt and Israel Establish Diplomatic Relations
The establishment of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel in 1980 marked a significant milestone in Middle Eastern history, following decades of conflict. This relationship began to take shape after the 1978 Camp David Accords, mediated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, where Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin negotiated peace terms. The accords culminated in a peace treaty signed in 1979, which included Israel's agreement to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula—an area it had occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War—in exchange for Egypt's commitment to peace and security guarantees.
The normalization of relations, formalized with the exchange of ambassadors on February 27, 1980, was met with mixed reactions. While it ended a prolonged state of war and initiated limited economic cooperation between the two nations, it also incurred backlash from other Muslim countries, some of which cut diplomatic ties with Egypt. The peace process was not without personal cost, as Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by extremists opposed to the peace agreement. Despite these challenges, the peace between Egypt and Israel has endured, representing a critical step in the broader pursuit of stability and cooperation in the region, even amid ongoing tensions elsewhere in the Middle East.
Egypt and Israel Establish Diplomatic Relations
Egypt and Israel Establish Diplomatic Relations
On February 27, 1980, Egypt and Israel exchanged ambassadors, marking the progress that had been made in normalizing relations between two historic enemies and ending 30 years of war between the two nations. The peace established by the two countries, which had fought several wars since Israel became an independent Jewish state on the northeast border of Muslim Egypt, has lasted ever since.
Israel became an independent nation and Jewish homeland in 1948. From the very beginning there were ethnic and religious tensions with its neighbors. Most of the Middle East is Muslim, and Muslims resented the Jewish presence, especially since the new Jewish immigrants were primarily European refugees who brought Western ways and beliefs with them. Right after Israel achieved independence, several of the Muslim nations formed an alliance and invaded. Against great odds, the Israelis won and expanded their territory at the expense of their defeated neighbors.
Egypt, the most populous of the Muslim states in the region, emerged as Israel's most bitter enemy. In the conflicts that followed in the 1950s and 1960s, Israel was consistently victorious and Egypt lost the Sinai Peninsula (a triangular shaped piece of land in northeastern Egypt which borders the Suez Canal) to Israeli forces. Even the Yom Kippur War of 1973 failed to produce a victory for Egypt. In that war, Egypt attacked Israel from the south and west while Syria attacked from the north and east on October 6, the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, when most Israelis engaged in religious observances. Despite the surprise, the Israelis recovered and defeated the Egyptians and Syrians. Only the threat of intervention by the Soviet Union, which supported Egypt, prevented Israeli forces from taking the Egyptian capital of Cairo.
Realizing that additional wars would further weaken his country, the Egyptian leader Anwar el-Sadat took advantage of American diplomacy to begin talks with the Israeli leader Menachem Begin. The United States, which supported Israel, also had an interest in promoting peace in the Middle East, since the United States depended heavily on oil imports from the Muslim nations of that region. Following a historic visit by Sadat to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem to meet Begin, the two leaders began peace talks under American auspices at the presidential retreat known as Camp David just outside of Washington, D.C. American president Jimmy Carter worked to bring the two sides together, smoothing the way with promises of economic assistance to both sides, and eventually Israel agreed to return most of the territory it had taken from Egypt in return for certain security guarantees and Egypt's commitment to forego future attacks. Sadat and Begin both received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.
The peace treaty was signed in 1979 and ambassadors were exchanged in 1980. The initial reaction of the other Muslim nations was hostility toward Egypt for signing a separate peace agreement, and many of them temporarily severed diplomatic relations. Extremists within Egypt assassinated Sadat in 1981. However, there have been no further wars between Egypt and Israel, and there is even a limited amount of economic cooperation between the two countries. By and large, Egypt has been able to re-integrate itself into the Muslim community of nations, and while other nations remain hostile toward Israel the Camp David Accords remain a major achievement in the ongoing quest for peace in the Middle East.