The consequences of Israel’s territorial gains from the Six Day War for peace with EgyptChristopher Haynes27/7/09

Introduction“Peace,” Shimon Peres once wrote, “like a tree, is a process of growth; it demands great patience, continuous nurturing and the surmounting of many obstacles.” (Peres, 887)Peace between Egypt and Israel was certainly a process of growth: a step-by-step processwith various mediators over more than ten years. The peace struck between the twoformer rivals was long in coming, suffered setbacks and hurt the pride of many, but onething is for certain: it has held. How did Egypt and Israel manage to secure a lasting peace?One possibility is that Israeli leaders felt that withdrawal from the Sinai was aninsignificant price to pay for peace. But given the strong public sentiment in favour of annexing the territories won in the Six Day War, the settler movement and the Greater Israel movement, it is unlikely many Israelis were nonchalant about the land.Arab leaders, in general, felt a responsibility to the Palestinians, and demanded their rights or independence. They also demanded a resolution of the Palestinian refugee crisis.Egypt’s government addressed these issues as well. However, judging by the Egyptiangovernment’s actions and results, some of its demands for Palestinian rights were merelip service, and the underlying issue was the Sinai and the Suez.My contention is that the formerly Egyptian territory Israel gained in the Six Day War was the key motivation in Egypt’s signing of the Camp David Accord with Israel, thehardest negotiated concession Israel made and as such, was the principal factor for peace between the two countries. This essay seeks to understand the role Israel’s territorialgains of the Sinai Peninsula and the waterways around it played in securing its peace withEgypt. It will examine Israeli and Egyptian leadership, their decisions, the externalinfluences on their decisions, and the importance of territory in peace negotiations andthe Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt. It will focus on the time between theend of the war and the signing of peace treaties, and will not consider ancient Arab andJewish territorial claims.

Decisions made by Israel’s cabinet in the wake of the Six Day War related to the newlyoccupied territories have influenced all subsequent territorial negotiation with Egypt.Land-for-peace accords could have been struck with Egypt earlier, but because of theIsraeli cabinet’s decisions, territorial concessions could not be attained until later. Mindschanged because, as it became clearer that Egypt was willing to offer lasting peace, the prospect of losing the Sinai seemed an increasingly small price to pay.On the other side, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s intransigence precluded a peace treaty. Nasser was seen as the leader of the pan-Arab movement and thus the figurehead for Arab pride.It had been damaged and thus so had he. While some concessions could have been made,simply opening negotiations over territory would have been so damaging to Nasser thathe would have lost everything. Nasser’s successor, Anwar al-Sadat, started the Yom Kippur War to regain territory toshow Israel land-for-peace was in its interest and force it to the bargaining table. HadSadat waited, there could have been more settlers, more raids on Israel and more desire togain new territory for more secure borders. Territory was also the biggest factor in the peace talks after the Yom Kippur War.Israel’s LeadershipWhen the dust settled and the guns went silent on June 10, 1967, Israel had quadrupled insize. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had captured the Golan Heights, the West Bank,East Jerusalem and the Sinai. How did Israel’s cabinet react to this unexpected but highlywelcome victory over their Arab rivals?Many government ministers were initially ready to trade new land for peace. Butreturning territory to its neighbours was never an easy decision. Moshe Dayan wrote that,since 1948, Jewish population centres had been attacked from the hills. How could they be guaranteed these attacks would not happen again? Territory like the Sinai and the