Educate. Empower. Choose.
If you came here because today is October 7 and a student, a parent, or a neighbor asked you whether peace between Israel and its neighbors has ever been real, or only a slogan, you are in the right place. The National American Citizen Association educates the next generation about the threat to Western civilization and the importance of Israel, and about the Constitution free people still hold in their hands. Three years ago today, Hamas attacked Israel. The feed will spend this anniversary arguing about whether peace is possible at all. Free people do not have to guess. The answer is written down, signed, dated, and posted where anyone can open it. Here is what Arab heads of state declared at Khartoum on September 1, 1967; what the United Nations Security Council set as the formula on November 22, 1967; what Egypt and Israel agreed at Camp David on September 17, 1978 and signed in Washington on March 26, 1979; what Jordan and Israel signed at the Arava/Araba Crossing Point on October 26, 1994; and what the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel signed in Washington on September 15, 2020. Primary documents, every one, so you can read them yourself.
This place is civic education. The companion already live as Why Israel Matters covers who Israel is in its founding text, what President Truman decided on May 14, 1948, what Hamas wrote in its 1988 Covenant, and what October 7, 2023 did to that paper. The companion draft The Papers Before May 14 covers Balfour (1917), the League of Nations Mandate (1922), and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947). This page does not rewrite either one. It picks up the record where those pages stop and follows it forward: the papers that said no to peace, and the papers that said yes. The Oslo / Israeli-Palestinian agreements of the 1990s deserve their own reading and are left for a later companion rather than squeezed in here. Companion essays already on the record include What We Inherited, Branches of Government, and American History.
Why the papers after 1967 matter
There is a sentence people repeat on anniversaries like this one: “There will never be peace in the Middle East.” It sounds wise. It is not a document. Israel has had a signed treaty of peace with Egypt since 1979 and with Jordan since 1994. It has had signed normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain since 2020. Those are not opinions. They are instruments, with articles, signatures, and witnesses.
There is a second sentence people repeat: “Israel never wanted peace.” That one is not a document either. The record shows Israeli prime ministers signing, Israeli forces withdrawing from the Sinai under a schedule written into an annex, and Israeli governments agreeing to open embassies in Arab capitals. It also shows that the hardest refusals were written down too, by the people who refused.
So the civic habit is the same one the National American Citizen Association teaches everywhere else. Open the paper. Name the date. Read who signed. Keep people distinct from the ideologies written on later papers. Egyptians, Jordanians, Emiratis, Bahrainis, Palestinians, and Israelis are people. A rejectionist program is a text, and it can be quoted.
The paper that said no: Khartoum, September 1, 1967
The State Department’s Office of the Historian summarizes the June 1967 war in one sentence: “Between June 5 and June 10, Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.” (Source: Office of the Historian, The 1967 Arab-Israeli War.) Less than three months later, Arab heads of state met at Khartoum, Sudan. Their published resolutions are the first paper free people should read after that war, because it states plainly what the official Arab position was before any peace process began.
Paragraph 3 of the Khartoum Resolutions:
The Arab Heads of State have agreed to unite their political efforts at the international and diplomatic level to eliminate the effects of the aggression and to ensure the withdrawal of the aggressive Israeli forces from the Arab lands which have been occupied since the aggression of June 5. This will be done within the framework of the main principles by which the Arab States abide, namely, no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it, and insistence on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country.
Source: Yale Avalon, The Khartoum Resolutions, September 1, 1967
Read the middle of that sentence slowly. No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it. Those are often called the “three noes,” and the phrase is not a caricature. It is the paper’s own list.
Three notes before the feed rewrites 1967. First: Khartoum names Israel’s position as “aggression.” Free people can read that word and still notice what the paper does not offer: any path to ending the conflict by agreement. Second: the paper also insists on “the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country.” Quoting it honestly means quoting that clause too. Third: Khartoum was a statement of the states in that room in 1967. It is not the permanent view of every Arab government. The rest of this page is the proof, because two of the states at war with Israel in June 1967 later signed peace with it.
The formula: Security Council Resolution 242, November 22, 1967
Eleven weeks after Khartoum, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242. It is short. It is also the text that almost every later peace document names as its basis, so a citizen who has never read it cannot follow the rest of the story.
The key paragraph:
Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
Source: Yale Avalon, United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, November 22, 1967
The resolution then affirms the necessity “for guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area” and “for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem,” and asks the Secretary-General to send a Special Representative “to promote agreement.”
Look at what the paper actually asks for. It is not a one-sided demand. It pairs two principles with the word both: Israeli withdrawal from territories, and an end to belligerency with recognition that every State in the area has a “right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.” That is the exchange people later called “land for peace.” It is the opposite of Khartoum’s three noes, because it assumes recognition and agreement.
One more thing worth reading carefully. The English text says withdrawal “from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” It does not say “the territories” or “all the territories.” Diplomats and lawyers have argued for decades over what that wording was meant to require. This page does not settle the argument. It asks the reader to notice that the argument is about words on a page, and that anyone can open the page and read them.
On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. On October 22, 1973, the Security Council adopted Resolution 338 (dates from the Office of the Historian, The 1973 Arab-Israeli War). It called on the parties to begin carrying out Resolution 242 “in all of its parts” and decided that “negotiations start between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.” Source: Yale Avalon, United Nations Security Council Resolution 338. From then on, the peace papers name “242 and 338” together.
The first yes: Camp David, September 17, 1978
Eleven years after Khartoum, the President of Egypt and the Prime Minister of Israel spent thirteen days together at Camp David, the American presidential retreat in Maryland (Office of the Historian, Camp David Accords). The first sentence of the Framework they signed says who was there:
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, met with Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, at Camp David from September 5 to September 17, 1978, and have agreed on the following framework for peace in the Middle East. They invite other parties to the Arab-Israel conflict to adhere to it.
The Preamble then names its foundation:
The agreed basis for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors is United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, in all its parts.
And it credits the human act that made the paper possible:
The historic initiative of President Sadat in visiting Jerusalem and the reception accorded to him by the parliament, government and people of Israel, and the reciprocal visit of Prime Minister Begin to Ismailia, the peace proposals made by both leaders, as well as the warm reception of these missions by the peoples of both countries, have created an unprecedented opportunity for peace which must not be lost if this generation and future generations are to be spared the tragedies of war.
Source: Yale Avalon, Camp David Accords, September 17, 1978
Read that last sentence as a parent. If this generation and future generations are to be spared the tragedies of war. The same Preamble counts “four wars during 30 years.” Men who had lived through those wars put the next generation into a peace document on purpose.
Camp David also wrote down a path for the West Bank and Gaza. The Framework says that “Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the representatives of the Palestinian people should participate in negotiations on the resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects,” proposes a transitional period “not exceeding five years” with a “self-governing authority” “freely elected by the inhabitants,” and says “The solution from the negotiations must also recognize the legitimate right of the Palestinian peoples and their just requirements.” That track did not reach its goal on the schedule written there. Quoting Camp David honestly means saying both things: the Egypt track worked, and the Palestinian track was offered on paper and did not get there.
Peace in articles: the Egypt-Israel Treaty, March 26, 1979
Six months later the Framework became a treaty, signed in Washington on March 26, 1979 and “Witnessed by: Jimmy Carter President of the United States of America.” The Preamble says the parties were “desiring to bring to an end the state of war between them and to establish a peace in which every state in the area can live in security.”
Article I does the thing Resolution 242 asked for, on both sides of the exchange:
The state of war between the Parties will be terminated and peace will be established between them upon the exchange of instruments of ratification of this Treaty. Israel will withdraw all its armed forces and civilians from the Sinai behind the international boundary between Egypt and mandated Palestine, as provided in the annexed protocol (Annex I ), and Egypt will resume the exercise of its full sovereignty over the Sinai.
Article III spells out what “peace” means, in words a student can check:
They recognize and will respect each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence; They recognize and will respect each other’s right to live in peace within their secure and recognized boundaries; They will refrain from the threat or use of force, directly or indirectly, against each other and will settle all disputes between them by peaceful means.
And, later in the same Article:
The Parties agree that the normal relationship established between them will include full recognition, diplomatic, economic and cultural relations, termination of economic boycotts and discriminatory barriers to the free movement of people and goods, and will guarantee the mutual enjoyment by citizens of the due process of law.
Article V opens the Suez Canal to Israeli ships and calls the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba “international waterways open to all nations for unimpeded and non-suspendable freedom of navigation and overflight.” Annex III, Article 1 says the parties “agree to establish diplomatic and consular relations and to exchange ambassadors upon completion of the interim withdrawal.” Annex I sets the schedule for the Sinai: Israel’s final withdrawal “not later than three years from the date of exchange of instruments of ratification of this Treaty.”
Put Khartoum and the treaty side by side. In 1967, the paper said no peace, no recognition, no negotiations. In 1979, Egypt signed peace, recognition, and an exchange of ambassadors, and Israel signed a timetable to hand back the entire Sinai. Same region, same two countries, twelve years apart. The difference is not the map. It is the paper the leaders chose to sign.
The paper that answered Camp David: the Hamas Covenant, August 18, 1988
Not everyone welcomed the treaty. Nine years after it was signed, Hamas published its founding Covenant. The companion essay Why Israel Matters quotes the Covenant’s core articles and does not need to be repeated here. One sentence from Article Thirty-Two belongs on this page, because it names Camp David directly:
Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of the struggle, through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. They are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements and to bring them outside the circle of struggle.
And Article Thirteen states the movement’s view of every peace paper on this page in one line:
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.
Source: Yale Avalon, The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), August 18, 1988
Read what the Covenant calls “treacherous.” Not a war. A peace treaty. And read what it fears: that “other Arab countries” will sign “similar agreements.” That is the clearest way to see the difference between a people and an ideology. Egyptians did not become less Egyptian, or less Arab, or less Muslim by living at peace with Israel. A program that treats peace itself as betrayal is a text, and it can be read and judged on its own words. October 7, 2023 was led by the movement that wrote those words.
The second yes: the Jordan-Israel Treaty, October 26, 1994
Jordan was the other state in the 1967 war that later signed. On July 25, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed the Washington Declaration, ending the state of belligerency. Three months later they signed a full treaty in the desert between them. The closing line says where and when:
Done at the Arava/Araba Crossing Point this day … which corresponds to 26th October, 1994 in the Hebrew, English and Arabic languages, all texts being equally authentic.
It was signed by Yitzhak Rabin for Israel and Abdul Salam Majali for Jordan, with President William J. Clinton’s name on the page.
The Preamble ties it to the same formula as Camp David: “a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based an Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 in all their aspects” (the word “an” for “on” appears that way in the Avalon text). It also says something Western readers should recognize as their own grammar:
Bearing in mind the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace based on freedom, equality, justice and respect for fundamental human rights, thereby overcoming psychological barriers and promoting human dignity;
Article 1 is a single sentence:
Peace is hereby established between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (the “Parties”) effective from the exchange of the instruments of ratification of this Treaty.
Article 9 speaks to holy places and to faith:
Each party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.
In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.
And Article 11 does something every parent and teacher should notice. It goes after propaganda:
- The Parties will seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance based on shared historic values, and accordingly undertake:
a. to abstain from hostile or discriminatory propaganda against each other, and to take all possible legal and administrative measures to prevent the dissemination of such propaganda by any organisation or individual present in the territory of either Party;
b. as soon as possible, and not later than 3 months from the exchange of the instruments of ratification of this Treaty, to repeal all adverse or discriminatory references and expressions of hostility in their respective legislation;
c. to refrain in all government publications from any such references or expressions;
Paragraph 2 adds that paragraph 1(a) “is without prejudice to the right to freedom of expression as contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
Two governments wrote into a treaty that hostile propaganda is an obstacle to peace, and that they would take it out of their own laws and publications. That is a lesson the National American Citizen Association teaches in its press-literacy work: what a population is taught to believe about its neighbor shapes whether peace can last. The same treaty protects free expression in the next paragraph. Free people should read both halves together.
The third yes: the Abraham Accords, September 15, 2020
Twenty-six years after the Jordan treaty, on September 15, 2020, in Washington, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed a “Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization,” and Bahrain and Israel signed a “Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations.” Both stand beside a short shared text called the Abraham Accords Declaration.
The Declaration opens:
We, the undersigned, recognize the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East and around the world based on mutual understanding and coexistence, as well as respect for human dignity and freedom, including religious freedom.
It continues:
We seek tolerance and respect for every person in order to make this world a place where all can enjoy a life of dignity and hope, no matter their race, faith or ethnicity.
We seek to end radicalization and conflict to provide all children a better future.
Source: U.S. Department of State archive, The Abraham Accords (signed Declaration posted as a PDF on that page)
The UAE treaty’s own Preamble roots the agreement in a shared ancestor:
Recognizing that the Arab and Jewish peoples are descendants of a common ancestor, Abraham, and inspired, in that spirit, to foster in the Middle East a reality in which Muslims, Jews, Christians and peoples of all faiths, denominations, beliefs and nationalities live in, and are committed to, a spirit of coexistence, mutual understanding and mutual respect;
It also recalls the earlier peace papers by name: “the Treaties of Peace between the State of Israel and the Arab Republic of Egypt and between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.” Article 1 establishes “peace, diplomatic relations and full normalization of bilateral ties.” Article 6, titled “Mutual Understanding and Co-existence,” says:
The Parties shall work together to counter extremism, which promotes hatred and division, and terrorism and its justifications, including by preventing radicalization and recruitment and by combating incitement and discrimination.
Later papers followed. A Joint Declaration of the United States, Morocco, and Israel was “Done at Rabat, 22 December 2020.” The State Department archive also posts the Abraham Accords Declaration with a signature line “For the Republic of Sudan.” Sources: Joint Declaration, Rabat, December 22, 2020 (PDF); Abraham Accords Declaration, Sudan signature page (PDF); Israel-Bahrain Declaration, September 15, 2020 (PDF).
Now put the Hamas Covenant beside the Accords. In 1988, the Covenant warned that “other Arab countries” would be drawn into “similar agreements.” In 2020, other Arab countries signed them, and wrote in their own words that they would “counter extremism, which promotes hatred and division.” The ideology predicted the peace and called it treachery. The people who signed it called it a better future for “all children.” The reader can see which paper was written for the next generation.
Where the Constitution comes in
Every treaty of peace on this page was made between Israel and a neighbor. The United States hosted, witnessed, or joined declarations along the way, but it was not a party to those treaties. But the same question each of those governments had to answer is answered for Americans in the Constitution, and a citizen should know it.
Article II, Section 2:
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;
Article VI, Clause 2:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;
Source: National Archives, The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription
Read why that matters. In the American system, a promise to a foreign nation is not one man’s mood. The President negotiates, two thirds of the Senators present must concur, and once made, a treaty sits beside the Constitution and federal law as “the supreme Law of the Land.” That is Western civilization’s old habit of putting power under written law, applied to war and peace. The Egypt and Jordan treaties also required each side’s own ratification before they took effect, which is why both say peace begins “upon the exchange of instruments of ratification.” Peace that lasts is peace that has been agreed through lawful process, written down, and made binding.
Quick reference
| Document | Date | What the paper says |
|---|---|---|
| Khartoum Resolutions | Sept. 1, 1967 | Arab heads of state: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it,” and insistence on Palestinian rights. |
| UN Security Council Res. 242 | Nov. 22, 1967 | Both withdrawal “from territories occupied in the recent conflict” and an end to belligerency, with every State’s right to “secure and recognized boundaries.” |
| UN Security Council Res. 338 | Oct. 22, 1973 | Carry out 242 “in all of its parts”; negotiations to start between the parties. |
| Camp David Framework | Sept. 17, 1978 | Sadat, Begin, Carter; 242 as “the agreed basis”; a track for Egypt-Israel peace and a proposed track for the West Bank and Gaza. |
| Egypt-Israel Treaty | Mar. 26, 1979 | End of the state of war; full Sinai withdrawal; full recognition; ambassadors; Suez and Tiran open. |
| Hamas Covenant | Aug. 18, 1988 | Calls Camp David “treacherous”; “no solution … except through Jihad.” |
| Jordan-Israel Treaty | Oct. 26, 1994 | “Peace is hereby established”; holy-site access; interfaith tolerance; no hostile propaganda. |
| Abraham Accords (UAE, Bahrain) | Sept. 15, 2020 | Peace and normalization; common ancestor Abraham; “counter extremism”; “a better future” for “all children.” |
| U.S. Constitution, Arts. II and VI | 1787 | Treaties need two thirds of Senators present; treaties are “the supreme Law of the Land.” |
What to do with this
Educate. Read Khartoum’s paragraph 3. Read Resolution 242’s two principles and notice the word both. Read the first paragraph of the Camp David Framework and the Preamble’s sentence about future generations. Read Articles I, III, and V of the Egypt-Israel Treaty. Read Articles 1, 9, and 11 of the Jordan-Israel Treaty. Read the Abraham Accords Declaration and Article 6 of the UAE treaty. Then open Why Israel Matters for the Covenant and for October 7. Original documents, not a feed.
Empower. A citizen who can quote “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it,” “secure and recognized boundaries,” “the state of war between the Parties will be terminated,” “Peace is hereby established,” and “descendants of a common ancestor, Abraham” cannot be bullied by a chant that peace is impossible, or by a chant that Israel never wanted it. Teach a student to ask: Who signed this? On what date? What did each side give? What did each side promise to stop teaching? What is the primary text?
Choose. Choose documents before takes. Choose to tell a people from an ideology: Egyptians, Jordanians, Emiratis, Bahrainis, Palestinians, and Israelis are people, and a covenant that calls peace treachery is a text. Choose to remember on this anniversary that the answer to October 7 is not despair about peace. It is clarity about who signed for it and who wrote against it.
Your children will inherit feeds that compress fifty years of diplomacy into a single sentence of despair. They will inherit the treaties only if this generation puts those treaties in their hands. The National American Citizen Association’s work in this lane is to put Khartoum, Resolution 242, Camp David, the Egypt and Jordan treaties, and the Abraham Accords on the table beside the papers already taught in Why Israel Matters, so a slogan never becomes the only teacher left.
Sources
- The Khartoum Resolutions, September 1, 1967. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/khartoum.asp
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, November 22, 1967. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/un242.asp
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 338, October 22, 1973. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/un338.asp
- Camp David Accords: The Framework for Peace in the Middle East, September 17, 1978. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/campdav.asp
- Treaty of Peace Between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel, March 26, 1979. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/isregypt.asp
- The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), August 18, 1988. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
- Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, October 26, 1994. Yale Avalon. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/jordan_treaty.asp
- The Abraham Accords (Declaration and signed agreements). U.S. Department of State archive. https://2017-2021.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/
- Abraham Accords Peace Agreement: Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization Between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel, September 15, 2020. U.S. Department of State archive (PDF). https://2017-2021.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/UAE_Israel-treaty-signed-FINAL-15-Sept-2020-508.pdf
- Abraham Accords: Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations (Bahrain and Israel), September 15, 2020. U.S. Department of State archive (PDF). https://2017-2021.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Bahrain_Israel-Agreement-signed-FINAL-15-Sept-2020-508.pdf
- Joint Declaration of the United States, the Kingdom of Morocco, and the State of Israel, Rabat, December 22, 2020. U.S. Department of State archive (PDF). https://2017-2021.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Joint-Declaration-US-Morrocco-Israel.pdf
- Abraham Accords Declaration, Republic of Sudan signature page. U.S. Department of State archive (PDF). https://2017-2021.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Sudan-AA.pdf
- Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State: The 1967 Arab-Israeli War (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/arab-israeli-war-1967); The 1973 Arab-Israeli War (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/arab-israeli-war-1973); Camp David Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david).
- The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription (Article II, Section 2; Article VI). U.S. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript
- National American Citizen Association companion civic pages: Why Israel Matters, What We Inherited, Branches of Government, American History.
Civic education and political commentary. Quotations are from the public documents linked above.
