One of the most controversial events which analysts and critics have argued about is Camp David Accords, a US- sponsored peace treaty which Egypt concluded with the Zionist entity on March 26th, 1979 to stop war and establish peace between the two states.

The treaty was met with pros and cons on part of all the Arab and Muslim peoples  in general and observers in the region  in particular, with each camp presenting its view and the outcome which would be expected thereof.

At first, the matter was a believe –it – or –not one, but with the passage of time, the bitter outcome of the treaty has grown clear, and now that thirty years have passed since the conclusion of Camp David, we have become able to evaluate the experiment and put our hands on the negative and positive outcomes, avoiding sentimental talk and opening our eyes wide on the figures, data and information. 

The Treaty and Ensuing Events:

 First: The Arab – Zionist conflict has dramatically exacerbated since Egypt officially recognized the state of Israel, a step which has been and still is more disastrous than we imagine, since it is an express recognition of the legitimate authority of the Jews on the Palestinian land. In that treaty, Egypt said that it sought to restore its land against the Egyptians forgetting about 78% of the total area of Palestine, something which has become a fait accompli after endorsing the treaty. That notorious move- i.e. recognition of the Zionist entity's legitimacy-  didn’t stop at Egypt, but years later, many Arab states followed suit,   including Jordan, Morocco, Tunis, Djibouti, Qatar and Mauritania, and, for our surprise, the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This latter in particular drained all hopes and aspirations of the Palestinians in Diaspora. Before Camp David, we used to speak of the problem of the Zionist usurpation of Palestine, but after it we have come to speak of borders and settlements: Two worlds apart!

Secondly: Camp David Peace Treaty provided cutting down on the number of the Egyptian troops in Sinai, with Sinai being divided into three areas: Area A in west of Sinai, where the Egyptians are not allowed to station combatant forces of no more than 22000 troops. Second is Area B in Central Sinai where only four thousand troops are allowed to be stationed with, however, light weapons only. The third is Area C in eastern of Sinai which is adjacent to the state of Palestine which is occupied by Israel, and these are also police forces. While the Egyptian armed forces are allowed to be stationed only in Western Sinai, the Jewish armed forces are five kilometers away from the Egyptian eastern borders, which means that any attack on Sinai makes it subject to swift and surprising occupation. We must take a lesson from the 1956 war   when the Jews occupied Sinai in three days and they occupied it in 1967 in six hours. Now, and after concluding this treaty, how much time will it take the Jews to occupy it, given that the balance of power between the two armies is tilting in favor of the Jews as will be shown later!!

When one contemplates the current situation fairly, one realizes that – while it is now void of the Zionist soldiers – Sinai is at a great risk, and the notion that Sinai is immune against any attack is just a slogan which will not work in favor of the Arab and Islamic peoples, and the wise take lessons from history with an in- depth studying of the reality!

Thirdly: Egypt has been cut off from Arabs and Muslims on the day it concluded that treaty, and even five months before concluding the treaty. This shows clearly when Egypt was not invited to the Arab summit which was held in Baghdad on November 2nd , 1978 where the Arab states then announced their rejection of Camp David treaty and suspending Egypt's membership in the League of Arab State. Other reactions to that notorious treaty was that it prompted the Arab states to completely boycott Egypt and transfer the HQ of the League of Arab States from Cairo to Tunis. The boycott lasted for full nine years and the relations were not restored until November 8th, 1987 when an Arab summit was held in Amman, and even this return was not complete, since eight states only attended the summit and the relations were not strong enough but they were lukewarm. We realize that lukewarm in relations even today and we see its outcomes in the successive Arab summit conferences. Another saddening outcome is that Egypt, with this treaty, has lost its leading role in the Arab world and drained the positive outcomes of the Arab unity after the 1973 war. Finding itself alone, Egypt started to seek meaningless alternatives that a cultural movement emerged in Egypt at the time of the Arab boycott calling for forsaking Pan Arabism and Islamism  and turning to pharaonic characteristics and nationalism . This campaign was spearheaded by Tawfeek el Hakim Louis Awad ,Anees Mansour and others, a call which undoubtedly would- if implemented- break up the nation and, thus working in favor of the Jews.

Fourthly:

To cash in on the so called peace, the Zionist entity started to beef up its military capability, seeing that treaty as a breath taking time for training and developing of its forces and military outfits, with the Jewish military technology reaching such a high military capability which everyone knows, bringing the Zionist entity up to be the world's fourth arms exporting state. In the eight recent years, it has become  one of the world's top states in the area of exporting arms, surpassing  even leading states in that area like Britain and Canada and China.

In spite of that high military capability of the Zionists, observers in and outside  the region have realized that the military development in the Arab countries in general and in Egypt in particular pales in comparison of that of the Zionists' and that all the Arab states are still arms importing countries. More, the figures released by the World Bank shows Egypt slashing the rate of spending on arms from  16, 3% in 1995 to 9, 9% in 2006, which shows a major fall in the military budget and the serious outcomes of that retreat.

Fifthly:

As a result of the  Arab decline in the military area in comparison with the Jewish military supremacy- given the disunity among Arab states and the peace treaty which has crippled Egypt and prevented it from even rejecting the Zionist aggression- we have come to see unstopping Zionist violations in the skies of the Arab world!

Right after the Jews concluded the peace treaty and once they made sure that Egypt was dismembered from the Arab body, they, about two years later, bombed the Iraq nuclear reactor in June 1981. They didn’t stop at that, but they perpetrated a more gruesome act when they occupied about half of the Lebanese territories, they besieged Beirut,  and Egypt intervened as a peace mediator! It mediated to allow Yasser Arafat and the PLO to move to Tunis, and the Jews pursued their violations, bombing Tunis in the heart of its territories in the year 1985, let alone Qana massacre in South Lebanon in 1996- a crime which they replicated in they year 2006 which covered all the south Lebanese areas and infrastructures. The Zionists also outreached areas south of Damascus, Syria, in the year 2007, Their fighters even outreached the Sudan in January 2009 and launched an array of raids as we heard recently. However, all these heinous crimes  pale in comparison with their unstopping bombing of the Palestinian people, particularly the massacres in Jenin refugee camp in the year 2002, assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassen and Dr. Abdul Aziz el Ranteesy in the year 2004, as well as the siege they imposed on Bait Hanoon and then Gaza late in year 2006.

The Zionists perpetrated all these crimes only after they neutralized the Egyptian side- the major power in the region- which tempted the
Zionists to pound the region without fearing any deterrence and with impunity.

Sixth: This treaty has torpedoed what the Palestinians built for years and paralyzed the resistance arm and sent the PLO in a vicious circle after Egypt has been forced to fall out of the Arab- Zionist conflict. Then the PLO itself succumbed to the status quo and three years later, mainly on April 24th,1993, it concluded Oslo agreement with the Zionist entity under the US sponsor. In that agreement,  the PLO omitted from its constitution all the items which depict  the Jews as enemies and so did all the items which did not recognize Israel as a state.

In doing so, the PLO's resistance has come to fade away and it even engaged in infighting with those who have held fast to the right of liberating the country from the Zionist usurpation and the right of the refugees to return. Splits have come to emerge publicly, obstructing all strides made for unity between the factions, with some of them advocating peace as a strategic option and others holding fast to jihad until liberating the land. As known to all, the conflict still continues and has not abated yet!!

Seventh: As a direct outcome of the peace process, Egypt, followed by nearly all the Arab world, has scrambled to the US. The latter strongly sponsored the peace talks, not for the sake of the Egyptians, of course, but it seeks in the first place- and it may be its sole objective- to work in favor of the Jews, for the sake of whom the US offered its aid to Egypt against the latter concluding the peace accord. Once the Egyptians concluded the peace treaty, the aid followed, with an initial, annual sum of $ 300 million, which started to grow with the passage of time until it has reached $ 1 billion annually. Then the US slashed part of the aid so that the Egyptians' loyalty would be purely American, rather than Russian or Chinese. In other words, as long as the aid is American, the weapons also must be American and so are the advisors and mediators and even the peace keeping forces stationed in Sinai. The latter are also under the  American leadership where the Americans represent 40 % of these forces. In spite of all that loyalty to the US, it would not make any step which might do harm to the Jews, and it would not export arms to the Arabs until it has exported more sophisticated arms to the Jews. All know that the US does not mediate except in favor of the Jews. It even accepted to turn into a unipolar power which each state vies to be one of its satellite states, something which has never been heard of until Camp David Peace Treaty was concluded.

Eighth: After the peace treaty, there came the catastrophic step of normalization and the commercial deals with the Zionist entity which included opening commercial representation offices with the Jews in more than one Arab state. The most threatening commercial deals has been with Egypt and Jordan. One of them, Egypt - regrettably- has exported the Egyptian gas to the Zionist entity. That step was started in the year 2005 and the deal was hammered out secretly and surprisingly. The agreement provided for exporting annual amount of 1,7 billion cubic meters of natural gas for full twenty years and at a price ranging between 70 cents and 1,5 dollars per one million thermal  units, although the ordinary price of the Egyptian gas hits five dollars and the cost price hits 2, 65 dollars! Supplying the Jews with gas is an act which is difficult to imagine even it brings in profits, what if that gas is sold at dirt cheap and lead to Egypt sustaining hefty losses!! In spite of the many protests and in spite of the ruling upheld by the Egyptian Administrative Court rejecting the government's decision of exporting gas to the Jews, the pumping of gas still continues!

Concerning Jordan, it has established a host of Jewish factories on its territories and has intensified its commercial representation with the Zionist entity, with commercial deals with it hitting $ 306, 9 million in the year 2007. More, in the notorious QIZ agreement in the year 2004,  the US stipulated that the Egyptian exports to the US contain one of the Israeli ingredients as a condition to be exempted from customs, an economic trap which pushes in the direction of more economic relations with the Jews.

Everyone knows that the products of the Jewish factories need a market to be sold therein, and the Arab world is a big market which will remarkably work in favor of the Jewish investors. However, the profits which the Arab world would make are that meager, given that the Zionist entity is one of tens of states in the world to which we can export our raw materials. What makes the matter worse is that striking deals with the Zionist entity did not stop at the government but it regrettably extended to include leading businessmen who, in turn, have come to strike deals with the Zionist entity either via import or export deals. And now the people have known that commercial deals were concluded with the Zionist entity so that the latter buy the Egyptian cement to build the separation wall in Occupied Palestine.!!

Ninth: According to the peace treaty, the Jewish tourists are allowed access into Sinai without visa, a step which has led to huge numbers of the tourists flowing to Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab, Nouiba and Taba and al Tour, and these numbers, for instance, hit about 171 000 tourists in the year 2006, and the least to say about the Jewish tourism is that it is only acts of  indecency and immorality, which has led to these areas becoming a home for nudism and the Egyptian youth have lost their religious principles while running after these areas either for business or pleasure! What makes the matter worse is that this place is a poor tourist one which has failed to pump funds in favor of the Egyptian trade, besides it needs special security guard which costs the state big economic and security and political burdens.

Tenth: Besides all that aforementioned, there remains one of the biggest problems in the peace treaty, mainly omitting from the education curricula and from the media outlets  any sentences or phrases which show hostility to the Zionist entity. This is the most serious threat in Camp David treaty, since this will lead to bringing up weak generations who do not distinguish their friends from their enemies. Those coming generations will not find it a problem to see the Palestinians homeless on earth while we are interested in securing the Jews' right to life. It is a grand disaster in fact, since what we have stated before may cause a problem to a generation, while the ruining of the coming generations will be an unmatched crime .

These are ten outcomes of Camp David Accords.

Misconceptions:

Some say that Egypt have enjoyed peace and directed its resources to development and reform instead of wars.  To refute this claim we say that regrettably in the light of the administrative, financial and political corruption, the acuteness of deficit in the trade balance has exacerbated and so has the local debt. What adds fuel to fire is that the external debts have continued and the rate of general investments have nosedived, and the deficit in the general budget has worsened, with all this having its repercussions on the Egyptian people. If anyone doubts these catastrophic outcomes, they can look at the rate of unemployment and disguised unemployment, queues of bread, price rises, skyrocketing prices of iron and cement and real estate, delay of the age of marriage, growing rates of immigration and the boats which from to time sink with youth escaping the humiliating life inside to the same life abroad.

Some others says we have become immune against any aggression and bombing which takes people 's lives. In reply to this I say that all this lasts for some time not forever, and the Jews will one day betray the treaty and then it will be the major disaster which will be earth shaking one. Besides, I strongly believe that to live in honor and dignity for one hour is better than to live forever in humiliation. Suffice it to read that verse by Antara which says.

"To eat cactus in pride is better than to drink water in humiliation.

Life in humiliation is like a Hell, while the Hell with pride is the best home".

The hell which the poet means is not that of the Hereafter, since he did not believe in it anymore. Rather, I mean that however hard life is, it is not as painful as  the genocide which our brothers, sons and women come under while we cannot support them under the pretext that we have to comply with the peace treaty which we have concluded with their enemies. !

One might say" what is the alterative then??!!!"

          In reply to them I say" Brothers, Sisters, did not you read what Allah, SWT, said in the Qur'an"

"Is Allah not sufficient for His servant? They frighten you with the idols they set up besides Him. Whomever Allah sends astray, nothing can guide him:, al Zumar, ayah 36.

I do not fear the Jews or their power.

How does a person fear the Jews or America if he/she seeks refuge to Allah!!??

And why on earth do we give our loyalty to a Zionist usurping entity and shun the Arab and Muslim believers ??!!

And why on earth do you believe the promises and pledges of the Jews while we do not believe what our Lord said in His Book while depicting the Jews" 100. And is it, (that) whenever they have made (Literally: covenanted a covenant) a covenant, a group of them flung it (off)? No indeed, most of them do not believe. Al Baqarah , ayah 100,

Why must we pay the price of mistakes made by past generations, given that the entire world reviews its agreements and treaties and withdraw from them if they see them harmful to their interests.

Thirty years of surrender is enough and it is time for the nation to come to reason. Believe me, Muslims" If the Jews are able to invade and occupy us, they will not hesitate, so why fear and panic? And how do they fail to invade Gaza while succeed in sweeping several states however little their arms are and however weak their capabilities are!!

I know for sure that the decision is a brave one and that preparation takes long time, but a long journey starts with a strong will and deep thought, and , bottom line, relentless certainty in Allah's support and help,

"And indeed Allah will definitely give victory to whoever vindicates Him. Surely Allah is indeed Ever-Powerful, Ever-Mighty,", al Hajj , ayah 40

May Allah maintain Islam's glory and restore pride to the Muslim Nation.

By Dr. Ragheb Elsergany

https://islamstory.com/en/artical/3407484