The Basis for Camp David

The Basis for Camp David

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Introduction

The world has seen its fair share of conflicts between different aspects of the human society. Indeed, almost every country has had to grapple with conflicts both within and outside its borders. Of course, the magnitudes and the basis for conflicts changes between countries, not to mention the time that is taken for the predisposing issues to be resolved. In the contemporary world, the shape of conflicts has only change with regard to the technology that is used in these conflicts. While there have been numerous conflicts both in the ancient and contemporary human society, none has been more controversial than the conflict between Israel and Arabs.

As much as the conflict between Jews and Arabs can be traced way back to the ancient societies, the current conflict has its basis on the 1948 declaration of independence by Israel on 14^th May 1948. The independence had been predicated by the 1947 Partition Resolution, where the former Palestinian mandate of the Great Britain was to be divided into Arab and Jewish states, while the areas that had religious significance in Jerusalem were to remain under the administration of the United Nations (Geary, 2011). This, however, did not resolve the conflict as the Palestinian Arabs were unsatisfied with the arrangement as they saw it as unfair to the Arabs who were to remain in the Jewish territory, while favoring the Jews (Quandt, 1986). The conflict that took shape was, essentially an attempt by the Arabs to block the implementation of the Partition Resolution, as well as prevent the Jewish state from being established. On the other hand, the Jews were hoping to have the Partition Resolution implemented so that they can have full control over the allotted territory (Nido, 2006). The new Jewish state of Israel endured attacks from the seven Arab countries, including Egypt, with Arab refugees fleeing to Arab lands. Unfortunately, these refugees were intentionally not integrated to the Arab lands where they fled. Arab nations have maintained the descendants of the refugees in squalid conditions in the hope that they will at one time dislodge Jews in Israel. Numerous attempts have been made to resolve the conflicts between Israel and the Arab states, with Camp David accords remaining to be the most significant negotiations (Lesch, 2008). Camp David Accord was signed in 1978 between Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin with United States President Jimmy Carter as a witness (Mangle & Langone, 2005). Underlining the critical role played by this accord in resolving the conflict is the fact that the accord has been the basis for numerous other accords and negotiations (Quandt, 1986). These include the Camp David II, between Yasser Arafat of Palestine and Ehud Mu Barak.

Why did it fail?

While the Camp David accord remains one of the most significant steps towards resolution of the conflict, it has failed in bringing the conflict to an end. Indeed, the Jewish and Arab states are in a state of constant conflict with numerous talks and negotiations being held in an effort to resolve the conflict. There are varied reasons for the failure of Camp David Accords.

First, the two nations, despite agreeing on the varied provisions did not trust each other’s commitment to implementing the accord. This seemed to emanate from the countries’ varying degrees of importance to the United States, which was brokering the peace accords (Smith, 2007). As much as the two parties had underlined their commitment to the negotiations process, Israel had kicked off efforts at removing Egypt from the conflict using another peace deal that was overwhelmingly in the best interests of Israel (Telhami, 1990). Researchers note that Begin seemed to be buying time to the extent of allowing the negotiations to nearly collapse over non-issues so as to avoid being pressed on fundamental issues (Schulze, 2008). On the other hand, Sadat flatly refused to undertake any negotiations on matters that deeply concerned him including the sovereignty and land of Egypt (Mangle & Langone, 2005). At one time, Sadat had packed his bags and prepared to leave after being frustrated by the refusal by Begin to cede any ground on West Bank. Of particular note is the fact that such a departure would essentially mean an end to the relationship between America and Egypt (Telhami, 2012). This underlined the fact that as much as the positions presented by Sadat were more similar to the ones presen.............