1979 CAMP DAVID ISRAEL-EGYPT PEACE

Feb. 25, 1974 U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger begins shuttle diplomacy.

May 17, 1977 Menachem Begin, leader of Likud, is elected prime minister in Israel.

Nov. 19-21, 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem.

Sept. 5-17, 1978 Sadat and Begin negotiate at Camp David, mediated by President Jimmy Carter.

March 26, 1979 Begin and Sadat sign Egypt-Israel peace treaty at White House.

Camp David accords1979 Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty March 26 that formally ended the state of war that had existed between them for 30 years. In return for Egypt's recognition of Israel's right to exist, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula. The two nations also formally established diplomatic relations.

War in Lebanon1982 Just a few weeks after withdrawing from the Sinai, Israeli jets in early June bombed PLO strongholds in Beirut and southern Lebanon in retaliatory raids. Shortly thereafter the Israeli army invaded Lebanon and surrounded Beirut, halting negotiations with the PLO. After 10 weeks of intense shelling, the PLO agreed to leave Beirut under the protection of a multinational force and to relocate to other Arab countries. The episode precipitated an intense leadership struggle among PLO factions. Israel had withdrawn from most of Lebanon by 1985, but it continued to hold a buffer strip along its border that it seized in 1978. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000.