It can be said that the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel received a significant controversy from different nations in the Arab region where it was considered a treachery and was condemned. In particular, the sense of this outrage was quite strong among the people of Palestine. It was also exclaimed by Yasser Arafat, Palestine Liberation Organization’s leader that whatever treaty must be signed between the communities, it will not take time for false peace to disappear. Meanwhile, the prime ministers of both Egypt and Israel were led by this development to share the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for eliminating fight between the two nations. But due to the treaty, the nation was suspended in 1979-89 from the Arab league and Sadat was also killed in 1981 by Islam Jihad’s members (Bickerton & Klausner, 2018).

All relationships with Egypt were served by the president of Syria after the peace deal was signed between the two and diplomatic relationships were also not established until 2005 when warm relations were enjoyed by Egypt with Syria. The peace between Israel and Egypt has actually lasted since treaty was implemented and the latter has also become Israel’s critical strategic partner. For instance, it was stated by the defense minister of Israel that Egypt is the closest friend of Israel and that is the reason by cooperation between the two is more than just strategic. In addition to it, as a part of agreement, military and economic aid were delivered by the United States of America to Egypt. Besides economic aid, political backing was also offered for its governments. Hence, from the peace accords of Camp David until 2000, the armed forces of Egypt were subsidized by the US with more than 38 billion dollars of aid. On an annual basis, 1.3 billion dollars are received by Egypt. Other than receiving support from the United States of America, Israel has also supported Israel in terms of military and economy. For instance, it has been reported by Egyptian media that Israelis have been supporting the military of Egypt in fighting Jihadists. This has served to strengthen the economy and military capability of the Egypt. However, it doesn’t mean that Israel is absolutely sure about its peace with Israel.

As explained above, this peace is still referred to as cold peace with numerous people in Egypt skeptical about the effectiveness of this treaty. The conflict between Israel and Arab has served to keep relations cool and the army of Egypt performed simulated exercises against the enemy in 2008. In 2011, revolution occurred in Egypt which led Israelis to fear about the treaty’s feature, even though it was exclaimed by the prime minister of Israel that he expected the future governments of Egypt to keep the peace treaty. After the army of Egypt took power in 2011, it was announced by the nation that all of its treaties will continue to exist with it. However, an opposition figure in Egypt called for the peace treat of Egypt with Israel to be reassessed. This made Israelis worry about the current circumstances with Egypt because any issue would result in further problems. Although Egypt has suffered more losses in comparison with Israel but the risk of another war or battle means significant cost and numerous casualties. Therefore, this reassessment posed a significant threat at the cold peace within the two parties. However, the official of Egypt explained that the nation intended to maintain the stability with Israel while maintaining these peace treaties (Benziman, 2019).

Present Situation of Peace between Arab and Israel

When it comes to Egypt and Israel, regardless of the peace treaty between the two nations, there exists cold peace between the two nations. Generally, a cold peace is a period of comparative peace between two countries and it is marked by the emphasis on the peace treaty which ends the war. Meanwhile, the population or government of one of the countries is consistent in treating the other with a contempt. In comparison with cold war, it is quite different. In cold war, there are states which are not pursuing a war state against each other but they support the conflicts covertly. However, in spite of the different, cold peace results in several conflicts, formal incursions, and proxy wars. When it comes to cold pace, the aftermath of relations between Egypt and Israel, Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt, and the Accords of Camp David are considered prime examples. After being engaged in five wars, both of the nations had become wary of life losses and the negotiation of Treaty and Accords were recognized as a high point of processes concerned with Middle East Peace. But the support of Egyptian population for the treaty was eliminated after Anwar Sadat’s assassination. Ever since that, their ideas about the treaty haven’t recovered.

This decrement in the treaty support was not reflected in the government policy of Egypt as until the removal of successor of Sadat, Hosni was consistent in retaining the terms of treaty while playing the sentiment of public against Jews and Israelis through the media of state. The reason why public was opposed to the treaty with Israel was because of the number of people killed by Israel during the war. In most of the reports launched by European and Israeli media, only the number of casualties suffered by Israel are highlighted. There is no focus on how many people were lost by Egypt. By showing only one side of the story, public is influenced to oppose Arab countries. Following the removal of Mubarak and the implementation of military junta until inauguration of the next government official, strong opposition was voiced by protesters against the treaty of 1979 with Israel and the response of Israeli to the attacks of Palestine on military personnel actually resulted in the Egyptian ambassador’s withdrawal over the death of security personnel of Egypt in Sinai. Why protesters were against the treaty can be attributed to the fact that Israel was involved in the killing of numerous Egyptians. In other Arab countries as well, Israel was one way or another involved due to which casualties had been suffered by the nations. This is one of the most reasons for why there were protests against the peace treaty that was to be established between Egypt and Israel. In addition to it, Israel was still not at peaceful terms with other Arab countries such as Palestine and Iran while it attempted to sign a treaty with Egypt. This also played a role in raising protests.

In addition to it, the lack of support from the Egyptian side for the treaty is also because of religious and pan-ethnic sympathies existing in Egypt for Muslim issues and struggles against Israel. These issues have generally combined to make large obstacles for peace to exist between different nations of Arab and Israel. For instance, Egypt, Palestine, and Iran are Muslim nations and they share the same religion and beliefs. At the time of peace treaty, Israel was not at peaceful terms with both Iran and Palestine and in fact, both of the countries had been attacked by Israel which influenced the views of Egyptians about the peace treaty. This served as an obstacle to the peace treaty and also met with opposition from Islamic nations (Inbar, 2013).

Future Implications and External Factors

            The war and conflicts between Arab nations and Israel have only resulted in adverse effects and significant casualties. Due to it, Iran, Palestine, Egypt, and Israel are affected and the most affected are civilians themselves. They are unable to live openly with sufficient freedom to do what they want as there is always a threat of war. If peace is established among these nations, other countries can also benefit from the situation. For instance, the US would be able to continue its previous relationship with Egypt and other Arab nations. It can serve to improve the economy of both of the nations. Meanwhile, Arab countries would also be benefitted from this development. For instance, the current issue being faced by the people of these countries is that they are unable to live with freedom because of the risk of war. With the establishment of peace, people would be able to live in prosperity and their relations with other European nations would be improved. It would also benefit their economy and development.

            At present, the situation can be referred to as cold peace among Egypt, Palestine, Iran, and Israel. Although there haven’t been significant and major events in the recent times, there is always a risk of issues emerging among these countries. If issues do emerge then the whole world will be forced to make a decision about choosing sides. This is a decision that not many countries want to make because the war will be between nuclear powers and the effects of such a war would be across the whole world (Rynhold, 2015).

Conclusion of Peace between Arab and Israel

            Overall it can be said that the peace between different countries of Arab and Israel is not stable because of several issues. The most important issues include religious differences, agendas, and past grievances. Arab countries are religious and they live for the sake of their values. Actually, if they determine that threats are being posed to their religion, they will act and there have been several cases similar to it in the past. In addition to it, both of the sides have suffered due to war and fights. These grievances are difficult to be let go as countless people have been killed in battles between Arab nations and Israel.

References of The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty

Beinin, J., & Hajjar, L. (2014). Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Midle East: The Middle East Research and Information Project.

Benziman, U. (2019). Israel-Egypt Treaty, 40 Years Later: When Israel Made Peace a Priority. Retrieved from Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-40-years-to-israel-egypt-treaty-when-israel-made-peace-a-priority-1.7065088

Bickerton, I. J., & Klausner, C. L. (2018). A history of the Arab–Israeli conflict. Routledge.

Cohen, H. (2015). Year zero of the Arab-Israeli conflict 1929. Brandeis University Press.

Inbar, E. (2013). The Arab Spring, democracy and security: domestic and international ramifications. Routledge.

Quandt, W. B. (2010). Peace process: American diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1967. Brookings Institution Press.

Rynhold, J. (2015). The Arab-Israeli conflict in American political culture. Cambridge University Press.

USIP. (2019). The Current Situation: Israel, The Palestinian Territories, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Retrieved from USIP: https://www.usip.org/publications/2019/08/current-situation-israel-palestinian-territories-and-arab-israeli-conflict