September 13, 2018
Center for Israel Education President Kenneth W. Stein applies decades of document-based research, interviews and scholarship, including new insights gleaned from the study of detailed minutes in the Israel State Archives, to examine the Camp David Accords 40 years after Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin signed the agreement Sept. 17, 1978, that concluded 13 days of negotiations led by President Jimmy Carter.
Stein, the author of “Heroic Diplomacy,” a definitive history of the Camp David process, explains why Egypt and Israel were able to take a leap of faith for peace and why only one other Arab nation, Jordan, has signed a peace treaty with Israel in the four decades since. Aside from Sadat, Begin and Carter, who were the key players in the 1978 negotiations? Why was Sadat the essential man in reaching a deal, and did he realize he was risking his life to do so? What did the accords accomplish, and what did they leave for future leaders who have failed to emerge?