Camp David Accords

The role of the Middle East has been very crucial to the United States, especially after WWII. The U.S. had three strategic goals in the Middle East and consistently followed them throughout various events that unfolded in the region. First, with the emergence of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the U.S., policymakers began to recognize the importance of the Middle East as a strategic area in containing Soviet influence. This also coincides with the U.S. becoming increasingly wary of Arab nationalism and the threat it posed to U.S. influence. Secondly, the emergence of the new Israeli state in 1948 further deepened U.S. policy and involvement in the region while also creating friction between the U.S. and Arab states which were

On May 14, 1948, the first Jewish state in 2,000 years was established at an afternoon ceremony in the Tel Aviv Art Museum. The words announced by the then Jewish Agency Chairman Ben-Gurion were “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel.” The next day, the Arab-Israeli War broke out.

The whole crowd was excited and very proud. A song called “Hatikvah” was sung by many. The official creation of the state of Israel was declared by David Ben-Gurion. David Ben-Gurion was the prime minister at the time.War had broken out, and on May 13, danger struck Israel. An air attack was ordered on Tel Aviv. Many surrounding groups attacked Israel. These groups destroyed Jewish cities and defense forces. All of these events happened very close after independence was declared. The attack was most likely planned to provoke Israel right after they were excited to get their own homeland. It was a brutal attack to intimidate and show them how they did not approve of their presence. That year, in 1948, the “Arab-Israeli War” started. The Palestinian area was invaded by five other Arab countries practically immediately after Israel was announced. Some other countries included Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Around 30 million people attack Israel (The New York Times Upfront). An extraordinary amount of Palestinian Arabs were deported to other places. This was due to the war going on. Part of the motive for this war was that Jerusalem, an very religious area located in Israel, would be managed by the UN. Some Palestinian Arabs were angry and therefore war broke out. Fortunately, most of the fighting stopped in 1949. The bordering nations accepted armistice lines. The armistice lines lasted until 1967.

The Israel-Palestine Conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a part of the greater Arab-Israeli long-running conflict in the Middle East. The main point of this conflict is the existence of the state of Israel and its relations with Arab states and with the Palestinian population in the area. The idea and concept of Israel was born in the mid 19th century. Jews of Europe and America wanted a place for their homeland, where they could go and be with others of the same race and religion. Palestine was chosen because of its religious routs from The Bible as the “promised land” from God, and the motherland of Jews fled, known as the Diaspora.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the one of the world’s oldest conflicts, and it is still an ongoing problem in the world. Zionists and Arabs: two groups with conflicting beliefs who both claim Israel as their own. In wake of the Holocaust the U.N decided to gift the Jews a homeland for the lives lost in the genocide. In 1947, the U.N Partition divided the land of Israel (Historic Palestine) into two separate states: Arab and Jewish. Since then, the state of Israel has been the center of conflict between the Arabs and the Zionists. As time passed the Zionists gained more land from winning the Six-Day War, and consequently the Palestinians had to live as refugees in other Arab countries. Additionally, more than 75% of the land belonged to

Lastly he helped solve global conflicts between nations by putting together the United Nations Emergency Force to help stop the Suez Canal crisis in 1957. We support the effort that is being done and come together and mutually agree with one another that a peace treaty must be agreed upon (Lester B. Pearson, 148-150). The Newspaper stated that an immediate cease-fire was in effect for both countries and a U.N force was to patrol the borders if need be (John English, 136). At the time what he did by creating the United Nations Emergency Force was considered the first real demonstrations of what would be called

Since his presidency did not begin with Israel becoming a state, his focus was greatly adjusted and at first there was a noticeable decline in aid and care for Israel’s wellbeing. Israel was also rather vulnerable during this time, due to the fact that there more Jewish refugees entering Israel from surrounding Arab states. President Eisenhower convincingly proved that America had the ability to influence Israel in a good way, although his presidency ended with the Middle East still in a state of war. During Eisenhower’s administration, there were two successful incidents of U.S. management of Israel and in both circumstances, Eisenhower avoided the political compulsions of America’s attachment to Israel and instead forced the Israelis to act upon principle. Unfortunately, his presidency was the last to give Israel undivided focus, for the ones to follow were absorbed in other affairs and did not provide the same constructive support.

• President Carter arranged the Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt. (In the Middle East, America favored the country of Israel. The Soviet Union favored Israel’s Arab neighbors.)

Since then, Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War the two most major conflicts between the Israelis and the Arabs. The former, in 1967, was a show of superior military force from Israel, launching preemptive strikes after battles were being fought between them and Arab forces. In 1973, Syrian and Egyptian armies launched a surprise attack while Israel was observing Yom Kippur. The war that followed lasted only 20 days, but cost at least 10 thousand lives. In 1978, The Egyptian President and Prime Minister of Israel met with Jimmy Carter in Camp David in order to attempt establishing peace in the Middle East. The resulting document, the Camp David Accords, states, “The agreed basis for a

On the other extreme is Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981. Ranked last for both his foreign affairs and his overall presidency, Carter left the Oval Office a very unpopular man. Carter’s sole accolade came from the Camp David Accords of 1978-9. Carter invited Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian prime minister Anwar Sadat to Camp David, the presidential retreat, to work out an agreement. Carter played a major role in the negotiations, mediating a dispute that resulted in a peace treaty, that is still intact to this day. Not only did this agreement lay down a long-held peace between two neighboring countries, but it also solidified U.S. ties in the Middle-East. Carter’s other policies and actions are very different, such as the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. These treaties between Panama and the U.S. granted Panama control over the Canal as of 1999 for almost nothing in response. The conservatives of Americans felt as though Carter had “given away” the Canal without receiving anything in return, and this made them believe that our nation was becoming weak under his power. The people’s “Crisis of Confidence” clearly and accurately portrays the conservative’s opinions during Carter’s presidency.

A popular and most recent debate has been whether Israel should exist as a state. Currently, Israel is the only country in the world that has a relatively extensive Jewish population. More recently, Israel has been combatting against Palestinian soldiers in Gaza to prevent attacks on Israel coming from the Palestinian Government. This war has gone on for quite some time now; for years, actually. But how did this conflict develop? It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

In 1977 a visit to Jerusalem by the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat opened the door to a peace understanding between Egypt and Israel, the first and most fundamental of the agreements between Israel and the surrounding countries. Sadat 's counterpart in Israel was Prime Minister Begin. Sinai in his vision and ended up being a peacemaker with Egypt. In 1978, the US President Jimmy Carter invited Begin and Sadat to Camp David, near Washington, and there they made an agreement in principle

By 1978 the thirty-year war that had been fought between Egypt and Israel had come to a point where there was a chance for peace. The area that had been at the center of the turmoil was the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. The problem was that both countries believed that they had the rights to this land: Israel, biblically and Egypt, politically. So an invitation by President Jimmy Carter to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel was extended. The invitation was for a meeting in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland at the presidential retreat, Camp David. The meeting was so that the framework of a peace agreement, known as the Camp David

In the early 1980s, Saddam Hussein took control of Iraq and the U.S. gave aid to them to control Turkey. Chomsky then goes into the Camp David sessions and beyond into the present. The ramifications of this meeting are very little if any leaving behind only the idea of peace talks for both Israel and Palestine.

As for foreign relations, Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Egypt has a major authority between other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as an intermediary in resolving disputes between various Arab nations, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.