Weeks after the Camp David Accords framework was signed at the White House, the Nobel Committee recognized Sadat and Begin for their historic diplomatic breakthrough ending decades of hostility between Egypt and Israel. The award was contentious: Begin faced criticism over continued settlement policy, and Sadat, isolated in the Arab world for making peace with Israel, would be assassinated by extremists in 1981.
The Camp David Accords, brokered by President Jimmy Carter over thirteen days of intense negotiation at the presidential retreat in Maryland, produced a framework that led to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, the first formal peace agreement between Israel and an Arab state. It was a diplomatic earthquake: Egypt had led military coalitions against Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973, and Sadat's willingness to negotiate directly, including a historic 1977 visit to the Israeli Knesset, was seen by many Arab leaders as betrayal.
The Nobel Committee's October 1978 announcement recognized both leaders for the framework agreements, though the formal peace treaty was not signed until March 1979. The award drew criticism from multiple directions; some Nobel committee members reportedly objected to honoring Begin given Israel's settlement expansions in occupied territories, and one committee member resigned in protest.
Sadat paid the ultimate price for his diplomacy. Ostracized by the Arab League, which suspended Egypt's membership and relocated its headquarters from Cairo, he was assassinated on October 6, 1981, by Islamist militants during a military parade, angry over the peace treaty and his domestic policies. Begin, meanwhile, faced his own political reckoning over Lebanon in the 1980s. Their shared prize remains one of the most consequential yet contested in Nobel history, a recognition of genuine risk-taking for peace amid deep regional fracture.
Key people: Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin