The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty:

Moving Towards Democracy

Emma Bakken & Sydney Melnick

Senior Division
Group Website
Word Count: 500

Process Paper
During the process of choosing a topic, we were extremely interested in Middle Eastern
affairs. We are both members of speech and debate, and currently, the Middle East the area that
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. 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 that 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 the
Egypt-Israel peace treaty, 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 country, 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. Upon deciding 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. While it by no means stabilized volatile
politics in the Middle East, the legacy 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.