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The Carter Center Celebrates the Camp David Accords:
25 Years of a Framework for Peace in the Middle East

Twenty-five years ago, U.S. President Jimmy Carter gathered two bitter foes, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, at the White House retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. President Carter asked the two leaders to meet face-to-face, secluded from the outside world, to try to resolve issues at the root of their countries' long-standing conflict.

What resulted from 13 days of long, intense negotiations was "A Framework for Peace in the Middle East," known as the Camp David accords. This laid the groundwork for the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, signed in March 1979, and for potential future peace treaties between Israel and the other parties to the conflict.

Negotiations at Camp David were delicate and required persistence. President Carter stopped the face-to-face meetings between Begin and Sadat after the third day when arguments between them convinced him that the two men were personally incompatible.

President Carter began negotiating with each side separately, moving back and forth, continually revising his draft agreement.

"Throughout the Camp David negotiations, as President Carter worked with Begin and Sadat to devise ways to reach compromise, he continually kept before them the ultimate goal of achieving peace in the Middle East," said Dr. Steven Hochman, director of research at the Center.

Three months after Camp David, Begin and Sadat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and President Carter was awarded it in 2002, for Camp David and for role as a peacemaker after his presidency.

"President Carter's successful mediation at Camp David has done far more than transform relations between Egypt and Israel, an enormous accomplishment to begin with," said a Sept. 24, 1979 Washington Post article. "His bold exercise in summitry has greatly expanded the already considerable American commitment to that region and has added to it an implicit U.S. promise to help protect the budding Egyptian-Israel alliance."

Drawing on Lessons Learned

Now, on Sept. 17, 25 years after the Camp David accords were signed, President Carter will gather the delegations from each of the three participant nations-Israel, Egypt, and the United States-in Washington, D.C. to discuss lessons learned and how they can be applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.

"We must recognize peacemaking is a long and difficult process," President Carter said. "It doesn't yield to quick fixes or sudden bursts of enthusiasm."

During the symposium, President Carter will lead a discussion on how lessons learned from 1978 might be applied to the current Middle East road map. Participants will discuss their respective strategies and negotiating styles during the 13-day negotiations, and reconsider achievements and missed opportunities.

"Comparing the negotiation at Camp David to processes in place for resolving conflicts in the Middle East today might help us find some approaches that work. History may provide us with some lessons learned that are useful today," Matthew Hodes, Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program Director.

Panelists will include: President Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, Egyptian Presidential Foreign Policy Advisor Osama el-Baz, Israel Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein, and Israeli Supreme Court President Aharon Barak. Participants from the U.S. delegation include former Vice President Walter Mondale, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Council Staff for Mideast Affairs William Quandt, former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Harold Saunders, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Hermann Eilts, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis, former White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, and former White House Press Secretary Jody Powell.

Camp David Anniversary Resources

Read President Carter's reflections on the Camp David accords in his keynote speech

Watch President Carter's interview with Jim Lehrer of NewsHour.

Listen to President Carter's interview on NPR's Morning Edition

Watch the archived Webcast of the Camp David symposium

Photos of the Camp David reunion

Read President Carter' s briefing book for Camp David, now declassified (PDF format)

Carter Center News Release: Parties Convene to Recognize 25th Anniversary of Camp David Accords

The Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program: Learn about its ongoing work around the world.