Roadblocks to the Road Map: A Negotiation Theory Perspective on the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict After Yasser Arafat

Abstract

In 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty arising from their negotiations at Camp David, bringing an end to the state of war that had existed between the two nations since Israel had declared its independence thirty-one years earlier. In so doing, Egypt and Israel created a new international legal order in the Middle East and a framework for future treaties. The basis for the agreement was, simply, "land for peace": Israel returned to Egyptian sovereignty the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured in the 1967 Six-Day War; Egypt recognized Israel's right to exist and established diplomatic and trade relations with the Jewish state. The two nations have maintained a peaceful relationship, if not a friendship, for a quarter-century since.