How Far Was the Us Desire for Peace in the Middle East the Main Reason for the Camp David Agreement?

How far was the US desire for peace in the Middle East the main reason for the Camp David agreement?

The US was very important in the eventual peace talks between the Egyptians and the Israelis and most certainly had their incentives such as the need for the Arab oil. However, Egypt and Israel both had incentives for peace and were also important in cooperating with each other to end to long running tension and conflict between the two.

From the US view point they had a lot to gain by sorting out the situation on the Middle East and at the end of the day really wanted to get out of the situation. They did not want to have to deal with any more conflicts between the Egyptians and the Israelis because they were starting to realise that it was often down to them or the soviets to negotiate a cease fire like with the Yom Kippur war. In the aftermath of that war Henry Kissinger had the arduous job of jetting from capital to capital trying to sort the whole situation out and the US definitely didn’t want that hassle again. Furthermore, the support the US was giving the Israelis and after the Yom Kippur war Egypt was very expensive for them. The demand for supplies was high and the money to build these supplies and guns was coming straight from the US national pocket. They didn’t want all of this money going out of the US and being spent on a war that they weren’t even contributing in so that was another major incentive for the US. Finally and possibly most importantly of all, the Arab nations had the oil the Americans needed to carry on the massive growth of their country and they simply wouldn’t sell it to the US until they sorted out the situation in the middle east. This was huge for the US because without the oil their country would fall into a period of economic decline and they would possibly not have their superpower status on the global stage.

From an Egyptian point of view they wanted to enter the Camp David peace talks for a few main reasons. Firstly, they were one of the only Arab nations that realised the terrorism between the two sides needed to stop as many innocent people were getting hurt. Sadat was concerned that Palestinians were leaving Egypt in search of peace in Israel and was frustrated that his people were leaving so wanted to negotiate peace for his people to feel safe in Egypt rather than moving. Secondly, Sadat wanted the Sinai back that they had failed to take during the Yom Kippur war. Much like before he decided to attack in the Yom Kippur war, Sadat wanted to get the Sinai back through an offering of peace with the Israelis rather than through even more fighting in vain. The Israelis also wanted the terrorism to stop to not let terrorism acts that would hurt civilians happen again such as the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972. Begin also realised that the Israeli sense of invincibility was long gone and if there was to be another war they could potentially lose and again sustain the number of losses sustained during the Yom Kippur war. To stop another war and to keep the land the Israelis had secure, Begin saw peace as an opportunity to sort out Egypt and Israel. It became fairly clear that peace talks were a good option for both sides due to their collective incentives for peace.

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