Carter's Middle East peace legacy survives, but mostly in name

US president Jimmy Carter, who died on Monday, left an enduring legacy when he brokered historic peace between Egypt and Israel — tepid and shaky, but unbroken even by the nearly 15-month-long Gaza war.

"For 45 years we've had no war" with Egypt, said Ruth Wasserman Lande, a former Israeli diplomat in Cairo.

But, she told AFP, "I would not go as far as to say it's a peace."

Egypt and Israel have maintained close trade relations, security collaboration and diplomatic ties for nearly half a century since the agreement that made Cairo the first Arab government to recognise Israel.

The 1979 treaty saw Israel return the vast Sinai peninsula occupied in war years earlier, and Cairo become one of the top recipients of US military aid alongside neighbouring Israel.

But for ordinary Egyptians, Israel generally remains a public enemy.

The devastating Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which borders both countries, has reinvigorated Egyptians' long history of solidarity with Palestinians.

And Israeli holidaymakers, who used to flock to Sinai, stopped in October 2023 when the war erupted with Hamas's attack on Israel.

Some analysts accuse Israel of breaching the peace deal with its actions in Gaza.

Cairo University professor Mustapha Kamel Al Sayyid said the Israeli takeover of the Palestinian side of the Gaza-Egypt border in May was a "flagrant violation of the treaty".

But still, the agreement has survived and analysts agree suspending it is not on the table for either government.