After thirteen days of secluded negotiations brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the Camp David presidential retreat, Sadat and Begin agreed to a framework for peace between their nations and for broader Middle East negotiations. The agreement led directly to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, though it drew fierce condemnation from much of the Arab world and contributed to Sadat's assassination three years later.
Carter had gambled his presidency on the talks, sequestering Sadat and Begin at the wooded Maryland retreat and refusing to let either leave until a deal was struck. The two men, who despised each other personally, reportedly avoided direct conversation for much of the summit, forcing Carter to shuttle between their cabins carrying proposals and counterproposals like a marriage counselor.
At one especially tense moment, negotiations nearly collapsed over the fate of Israeli settlements in the Sinai. Carter later wrote that he prepared farewell photographs for each delegation to sign, a subtle signal that failure, and its historical verdict, was imminent, which helped push both sides back to the table.
The accords produced two framework documents: one for a comprehensive Middle East peace, largely unrealized, and one specifically for an Egypt-Israel treaty, signed the following March. Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the achievement, but the deal isolated Egypt from the rest of the Arab League for a decade and made Sadat a target; he was assassinated by Islamist militants in October 1981, partly over this very treaty.
Key people: Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter