The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty:

Moving Towards Democracy

Emma Bakken & Sydney Melnick

Senior Division
Group Website
Word Count: 492
Process Paper

During the process of choosing a topic, we were extremely interested in Middle Eastern
affairs. We are both members of the speech and debate, and currently, the Middle East is one of
the areas we study the most. The current relationship between Israelis and the Arab world is a
crucial part of understanding the international community and Middle Eastern politics. So, we
looked into Middle Eastern history, and came across the Camp David Accords, which culminated
in the creation of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. We were fascinated how after taking power,
Anwar Sadat was able to change the face of Egyptian foreign policy regarding Israel, and make
the efforts to establish long lasting peace that former president Nasser was never capable of
doing, or even attempting. We looked further into the treaty, and discovered the long lasting
peace that it created between Egypt and Israel, as well as strengthening the relations the countries
had with the United States, solidifying our decision to continue with the topic.
One of the first steps in the research process was to gain a general knowledge on our
topic, which we achieved through reading portions of many books, and then continued on to use
other secondary sources to give us a broader understanding. After doing significant amounts of
research, we discovered one of the most helpful resources was conducting interviews. We
reached out to professors around the nation, and they are one of our most valuable sources
because we can specify exactly what information we want to receive. Additionally, the primary
documents we found on the Carter Foundation website and other government pages gave us great
insight into what was happening at the time of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.
We chose to do a website because we competed in National History Day last year, and
felt we could improve upon our previous knowledge of working with a website, and add new
features this year. It gives us the best template to incorporate quotes, pictures, documents, videos,
and other interactive aspects. Once we decided to do a website, we created pages and tabs in
order to split up our information both chronologically, and in the most visually appealing way
possible for the viewer. We added our information under the page that made most sense, and
made sure that every piece related back to our thesis, which is the first thing that is seen on the
website.
The Egypt-Israel peace treaty relates to the NHD theme of legacy and leadership, because
the leadership that Sadat, Begin, and Carter exercised in order to draft an agreement that would
end years of war in the Middle East was unprecedented. The legacy and impacts that the treaty
yielded not only repaired the relationship between Egypt and Israel, but Israel and the entire Arab
world. The treaty created long lasting results for the United States, by increasing its influence in
this region of the world, and solidifying its role as an international mediator.