JAKARTA March 26 is a historic time after Egypt and Israel officially signed the results of the Camp David Agreement. The peace agreement, which was signed in 1973, was finally officially signed on March 26, 1979, involving two main actors, namely Egypt representing the Arabs and Israel as representatives of the Jewish nation. The United States became promoters of the peace agreement.
The 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter immediately boosted his country's foreign policy after officially taking office on January 20, 1977. Assisted by Foreign Minister Cyrus Vance, Carter conducted intensive negotiations with Arab and Israeli leaders in hopes of resolving the dispute between Arab and Israeli.
"It has been more than 2,000 years since the creation of peace between Egypt and an independent Jewish state. If our current hope is realized, this year we will see such peace again," Carter said in a speech on the Camp David agreement, ahead of the US Congressional Joint Session on September 18, 1978.
Carter is so worried that a big war will happen again in the Middle East, after the leader of the conservative Likud Party, Menachem Begin, won the election and became Prime Minister of Israel. Begin insisted on perpetuating his party's policy on 'Israel Raya'.
Israel, previously led by PM Yitzhak Rabin of the liberal Labor Party, signed a peace agreement at the Geneva Conference on December 21, 1973. The agreement ended the conflict between Israel and Arab countries commanded by Egypt and Syria in the two-week, 6-25 October 1973 Yom Kippur War. However, after Begin was elected as a replacement for Rabin, fears that bad things would emerge.
The Geneva Conference agreement signed to end the Arab-Israeli conflict did not go as expected. The result of the agreement stalled, without any further strategic steps to make it happen. The rejection of Arab countries such as Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq to make peace with Israel is still quite strong. This condition frustrated the Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. He also made a revolutionary decision, expressing his willingness to visit Jerusalem and he realized it on November 9, 1977.
Sadat's move is clearly very surprising to the world. The Egyptian president tried to break the deadlock by directly engaging with Israel, ignoring the 1973 Geneva Conference decision first. Although there has been no substantial progress, Sadat's visit is the gateway to realizing peace in the Middle East.
During the spring and summer of 1978, the United States sought common ground regarding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Sinai, the West Bank, and Gaza. Egypt wants Israel to withdraw troops to the agreed limits on June 4, 1967, in exchange for security arrangements at the border. But Israel did not refuse to withdraw troops from the West Bank and Gaza.
On the other hand, the Jewish country demands the establishment of a Palestinian autonomous region not sovereignty as a country. The deadlock made Carter feel it had to intervene. He also decided to hold a summit, which directly involved Israel and Egypt, with the United States as intermediaries.
Carter then held a meeting at Camp David, the US President's resting house in Maryland state. The decision was announced by the White House on September 8, 1978, and Sadat and Begin agreed to meet at Camp David.
Camp David's summit was held on September 5-17, 1978. During 12 days all delegates argued excitingly to formulate real peace between Arab and Israeli countries. The summit is an important moment in the history of dispute between Arab-Israel and US diplomacy.
Rarely, there is a US President who devotes enormous attention to peace in the Middle East as Carter does. Carter's ambitious target is only one, producing points of agreement in detail to realize peace between Arab-Israeli.
Talks at Camp David's summit discussed the status of an Israeli military base on the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. Also about Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, which are the most complicated problems. The delegates have different views on UN Security Council Resolution number 242 regarding the long-term agreement between Israel and Palestine.
In the end, although Camp David's summit did not produce formal peace agreements, it has established a foundation for Egypt-Israel peace as well as a form of Palestinian autonomy rule in the West Bank and Gaza. The process towards real peace is still very long, especially after Shah Iran, Reza Pahlevi was defeated by Ayatollah Khomeini through the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
After Mechen Begin's visit to the White House in early March 1979 failed to break the deadlock, Jimmy Carter took the initiative to come to Israel on March 10. Carter came as Egyptian representative, after he received approval from Anwar Sadat.
During the three days Carter had tough negotiations with Begin, compromise was generated. Some of the most important thing is that the US guarantees Israel's oil supply will remain safe despite a change of power in Iran from Reza Pahlevi who was previously very close to Israel to Khomeini who hate so much.
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Egypt's role in Gaza was agreed to be eliminated, and Israel was given the freedom to regulate Palestinians in the autonomous region. The agreement was approved by the US and Israel on March 13, before being brought to Egypt. President Sadat finally approved the agreement, and peace peace from Egypt-Israel as a result of the Camp David Summit was finally officially signed on March 26, 1979.
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