Getting to Yes

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

A scene that changed negotiation forever

September 1978. Camp David. President Jimmy Carter sits between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Two men who hate each other. Two countries that have fought four wars in thirty years. The point of conflict is the Sinai Peninsula. Israel occupied it in 1967. Egypt wants every inch back.

For thirteen days the talks stall. Each side digs into a position. Israel says it must keep part of Sinai for security. Egypt says every grain of sand belongs to Egypt. Compromise looks impossible. A line drawn anywhere on the map insults somebody. The drafts pile up. Begin and Sadat refuse to be in the same room. Carter shuttles between cabins carrying paper.

Then the negotiators try something different. They stop arguing about the line. They start asking why. Why does Israel want to keep Sinai? Not because Israelis love the desert. They want security. They do not want Egyptian tanks parked on their border like in 1967. Why does Egypt want all of Sinai? Sovereignty. National pride. Sinai has belonged to Egypt since the time of the pharaohs. Sadat cannot return home with anything less than the full peninsula and survive politically.

Once you ask why, the deal becomes obvious. Egypt gets full sovereignty over Sinai. Israel gets a demilitarized zone wide enough to spot any tank movement weeks before it could reach the border. Egyptian flag flies over the desert. No Egyptian armor within striking distance of Tel Aviv. Both sides win on what actually mattered to them. They lost only on what never mattered in the first place. The Camp David Accords were signed on September 17, 1978. Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize. The peace has held for almost five decades, through wars, intifadas, the Arab Spring, and three Egyptian governments.