Editing Camp David Accords (section)

===Carter Initiative===
Carter's and Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]]'s exploratory meetings gave a basic plan for reinvigorating the peace process based on a [[Geneva Conference (1973)|Geneva Peace Conference]] and had presented three main objectives for Arab–Israeli peace: Arab recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace, Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories gained in the [[Six-Day War]] through negotiating efforts with neighboring Arab nations to ensure that Israel's security would not be threatened, and securing an undivided Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc1482.html|title=Camp David Accords: Jimmy Carter Reflects 25 Years Later|website=cartercenter.org}}</ref>

The Camp David Accords were the result of 14 months of diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Israel, and the United States that began after Jimmy Carter became president.<ref name="Stein, Kenneth 1989, pp. 229-228">Stein, Kenneth. ''Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab–Israeli Peace''. Taylor & Francis, 1999, pp. 228–229</ref> The efforts initially focused on a comprehensive resolution of disputes between Israel and the Arab countries, gradually evolving into a search for a bilateral agreement between Israel and Egypt.<ref>"Stein, Kenneth 2000, pp. 229–228"</ref>

Upon assuming office on 20 January 1977, President Carter moved to rejuvenate the [[Middle East]] peace process that had stalled throughout the 1976 presidential [[Political campaign|campaign]] in the [[United States]]. Following the advice of a [[Brookings Institution]] report, Carter opted to replace the incremental, bilateral peace talks which had characterized [[Henry Kissinger]]'s [[shuttle diplomacy]] following the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]] with a comprehensive, multilateral approach. The Yom Kippur War further complicated efforts to achieve the objectives written in [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 242]].

Israel's prime minister [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and his successor, [[Menachem Begin]], were both skeptical of an international conference.<ref name="Stein, Kenneth 1989, pp. 229-228" /> While Begin, who took office in May 1977, officially favored the reconvening of the conference, perhaps even more vocally than Rabin, and even accepted the Palestinian presence, in actuality the Israelis and the Egyptians were secretly formulating a framework for bilateral talks. Even earlier, Begin had not been opposed to returning the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]], but a major future obstacle was his firm refusal to consider relinquishing control over the [[West Bank]].<ref>[[George Lenczowski]], ''American Presidents and the Middle East'', Duke University Press, 1990 p. 164. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-0972-7}}. From [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], ''Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Advisor 1977–1981'', (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983), p. 88.<blockquote>[Carter] outlined to Begin his program, which consisted of five points: (1) achieve a comprehensive peace affecting all of Israel's neighbors: (2) peace to be based on UN Resolution 242: (3) peace would involve open borders and free trade; (4) peace would call for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories to secure borders; (5) a Palestinian entity (but not an independent nation) should be created.  Begin responded that he could accept all of these points except the Palestinian entity.</blockquote></ref>