The Camp David Accords
  • Home
  • Background
    • Historical Context
    • Need for Peace
  • Political Will
    • Sadat's Attempts
    • Begin's Will
  • U.S Involvement
    • The Camp David Negotiations>
      • Key Players
      • At Camp David: The Thirteen Days
    • The Agreement
  • Reactions
    • In Israel
    • In Egypt & the Arab League
  • Turning Point
    • In U.S. Foreign Policy
    • Negative Impacts
    • A Leap towards Peace
  • Conclusions
  • Timeline
  • Supplements
    • Process Paper
    • Bibliography
    • Interviews

Short Term Reactions: In Egypt & the Arab League

Negative criticism and Nobel Peace Prize

Unlike Prime Minister Begin's relatively warm welcome home, President Sadat faced enormous criticism.
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"Why don’t we stretch out our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we might remove all suspicion of fear, betrayal and bad intentions?” (President Sadat)
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In the aftermath of Camp David, Sadat faced "daily problems" (New York Times).

The negative sentiment in Egypt escalated when Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Begin.
ABOVE: Sadat's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
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Sadat from 1978 Nobel Prize Ceremony brochure.
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Reaction of the Arab League

"It was unpopular in Egypt. Even though Egypt didn't seem to win in [1973], this idea of having a unified front, of only signing a peace treaty when there's justice for the Palestinians, this was abandoned in [1979]. As a result, Egypt is kicked out of the Arab League for a period. And I mean so this is a part of the jockeying among these Arab leaderships; it's not like Hafez El-Assad really loved the Palestinians. This was a rivalry. As you can see though, it is still going to have an effect on the Egyptian public. Because here is the leader of the Arab World essentially being kicked out of the modern Arab organization."
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The 1978 Arab League Summit (pictured above) expelled Egypt in the wake of the Camp David Agreements. (Click to enlarge)
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In the long term, Egypt was re-admitted into the Arab League.
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Sadat's Personal Price

Sadat paid with his life for his role at Camp David when he was assassinated by the Egyptian military jihad.
It was October 6th, a hot, sunny day. Sadat, dressed in the uniform of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, was reviewing a military parade in a Cairo suburb. The parade had been going on for about two hours when the attackers struck. They apparently timed their assault to coincide with an aerial show by a squadron of jetfighters performing maneuvers. 

As officials in the reviewing stand looked to the skies above, a military vehicle traveling by the reviewing stand suddenly stopped. 

Four men jumped out and headed towards Sadat, throwing hand grenades and opening up with machine gun fire. Security guards fired back, but it was too late: Sadat had already been hit five times. He was rushed to a military hospital, but even the best Egyptian surgeons were unable to save him. He died on the operating table two hours later, and it was several more hours before the Egyptian Government confirmed his death. (United Press International)
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Sadat's assassination: in pictures, from the New York Times. (Click to enlarge)

Yet, few Arab nations mourned, reflecting the general Arab sentiment against the Camp David Accords.
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SOURCE: New York Times (Click to Enlarge)
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Sadat was assassinated on October 6th, 1981 by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. This showed that there were many factions who radically opposed Sadat's signing a peace treaty with Israel.
In essence, the reaction across Egypt and other Arab nations was bitter, as evidenced by Sadat's assassination and the expulsion of Egypt from the Arab league.

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next: turning point in u.s foreign policy
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Dhweeja Dasarathy
Junior Division

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