March 26 1979 – The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty is Signed in Washington, DC
*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Five-and-half years after the Yom Kippur War, Egypt and Israel agreed to an historic peace treaty in Washington, DC on March 26, 1979. After more than three decades of combat, leaders from the two nations were finally able to bring hostilities to an official end following sixteen months of intense negotiations. The day after the creation of Israel on May 14, 1948 via a United Nations partition plan, Arab armies invaded the narrow strip of land on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Called a “War of Independence” by the Israelis, the nine-month conflict would be the first in a succession of vicious engagements between the two sides. At the bargaining table the following March, Arabic representatives were forced to acknowledge the expansion of the Jewish State — some 50 percent larger than when combat started. Over the next quarter-century, a variety of military actions occurred — battles over the Sinai Peninsula in 1956 and 1967, with the latter resulting in a comprehensive Israeli victory in the Six-Day War. Infuriated by further loss of territory to their sworn enemy, Arab leadership agreed to avoid any appearances of settling for the situation as presented. Israel was to be destroyed without a second thought, giving voice to an already-constant state of war between the parties.