Turning Point on the Road to Peace: The Government of Yitzhak Rabin and the Interim Agreement with Egypt (Sinai II)

The article discusses changes in Israeli foreign policy after the Yom Kippur War and the “step-by-step” diplomacy of Henry Kissinger. The government of Golda Meir reached disengagement agreements with Egypt and Syria, but it was Yitzhak Rabin’s government that made the first real changes in Israel’s stand. The team of ministers who led the negotiations insisted on commitments from Egypt that would effectively take it out of the war, in return for giving up the strategic passes in Sinai. However, the key element—a United States presence in Sinai—was added only after the breakdown of talks in March 1975 and a crisis in relations with the Administration. Many elements of the interim agreement, including the renunciation of the use of force by the parties, served as a precedent for the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.