Keeping the Peace Between Egypt and Israel, 1973–1980

Abstract

Third party involvement in keeping the peace in the Middle East has been a constant phenomenon accompanying the vicissitudes of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the war of 1948 up to the present day. The dominant pattern has been the employment of United Nations forces and observers, charged with supervising either the implementation of Security Council resolutions calling for the cessation of hostilities, or the implementation of agreements reached between the parties concerned. The uninterrupted presence of UN personnel in the Middle East has shown that the international community as a whole and the parties in conflict have considered UN peacekeeping essential for reducing tensions and instrumental in bringing to an end local flare-ups. It was only natural that immediately after the Yom Kippur War of October 1973 the states actively involved in the pursuit of peace should rely on the establishment of effective UN supervisory machinery to monitor the execution by the parties of the various security arrangements agreed upon. A United Nations Emergency Force was accordingly dispatched to the Egyptian-Israeli sector and undertook the task of supervision, with the cooperation of observers belonging to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. However, foreseen and unforeseen problems arose in the process leading from one disengagement agreement to another and to the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel of March 1979.