Peace treatyIn force, relations strained
A full peace treaty between two states, the first between Israel and an Arab state. It does not settle the Palestinian question.
On 26 March 1979 Sadat and Begin signed a peace treaty in Washington, with President Carter signing as witness.9 Israel left all of Sinai; Egypt recognised Israel and opened full relations. The two countries have not fought since, but the peace has stayed cool.
As of August 2026, according to the Carnegie Endowment, security coordination still works and a new gas deal has been ratified, despite deep tensions.15 Political relations are at a low point: according to reports from May 2025 and January 2026, Egypt has no ambassador in Tel Aviv and is holding back the accreditation of Israel's ambassador-designate.2627
To end the state of war between Israel and Egypt: all of Sinai in exchange for full peace.
Egypt wanted all of Sinai back, which Israel had captured in 1967. Israel wanted the largest and strongest Arab state out of the cycle of war. The Camp David Accords set the principle; it took six more months to turn it into a treaty. The treaty was the last stop on a road that began under the Meir and Rabin governments and ran through Sadat's visit to Jerusalem.
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Classification follows the original research as of 7 Oct 2026. This schematic map is not a legal boundary map or a live update.
Schematic map. Lines are approximate and are not a legal determination. Data: Natural Earth (public domain), 1:10m scale; line classification and place names by this site. Lines as of October 2026. Peace map
No more war, no more bloodshed, no more bereavement.
Signing ceremony of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, the White House, Washington, 26 March 1979
Official US transcript (Public Papers of the Presidents), in English. These are the closing words of a longer sentence in Begin's remarks. The wording is singular – "war", not "wars".
Quote source: The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara (Public Papers of the Presidents)
Yes, there are difficulties in peace, there are. There are pains in peace, there are. There are sacrifices for the sake of peace, there are. All of them are preferable to the victims of war!
Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, 2 March 1982: the Prime Minister's reply to a no-confidence motion by the Tehiya faction, which demanded a halt to the withdrawal from Sinai, in the weeks before the withdrawal under the peace treaty with Egypt was completed.
Wording in the source: כן, יש קשיים בשלום, יש. יש מכאובים בשלום, יש. יש קורבנות למען השלום, יש. כולם עדיפים מקורבנות המלחמה!
The wording as quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth (ynet, 2017). The speech is catalogued in the Begin Heritage Center's database of Begin's writings (65th sitting of the Tenth Knesset). In public memory the sentence is sometimes shortened to "the difficulties of peace are better than the agonies of war". The Hebrew uses one word for both "sacrifices" and "victims".
Quote source: Yedioth Ahronoth / ynet (Yehuda Nuriel), quoting the Knesset speech of 2 March 1982
At the ceremony sealing the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state, Begin declared an end to war, bloodshed and bereavement. Under the treaty Israel withdrew from all of Sinai, and the peace with Egypt has held ever since.
The Knesset was the stage of the historic moment: Sadat's speech, Begin's reply, then the debates and votes on the agreements.
Carter flew between Cairo and Jerusalem to close the last gaps in the treaty text. Two weeks later it was signed in Washington.
This trip rescued the negotiations when they looked stuck. At its end Carter announced both sides had accepted the final proposals.
This is how listeners in Israel heard Begin, Sadat and Carter sign the treaty on the White House lawn.
The El Arish handover was the first stage of the Sinai withdrawal under the treaty, only two months after the signing.
Sadat was assassinated by extremists at a military parade in Cairo on 6 October 1981. Nixon, Ford and Carter flew to the funeral together, and Begin attended too.
On 25 April 1982 Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai. In Egypt the day is marked every year as Sinai Liberation Day.
The evacuation was a painful price of peace: residents lost their homes and the debate in Israel was fierce. Begin's government kept its commitment.
The dispute over the small coastal strip was settled by international arbitration in 1988: a border quarrel resolved by peaceful means.
Signing of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, Washington, 26 March 1979 – short archive clip
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