Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Signed at the White House: Sadat and Begin Shake Hands

Carter locked Begin and Sadat at Camp David for thirteen days, threatening to blame whoever left first for destroying peace. Begin's security team slept in cabins between the two delegations, terrified of an assassination attempt that would ignite war. Sadat had already stunned the Arab world by flying to Jerusalem sixteen months earlier—Egypt got expelled from the Arab League within weeks. The treaty handed back the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, including Israeli settlements and oil fields worth billions. Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize but paid with their reputations: Arab nations called Sadat a traitor, and Jewish extremists murdered him two years later at a military parade. Begin got his land for peace, then spent his final years a recluse, haunted by Lebanon.