When the guns fell silent following the two countries’ 1973 war, Egypt stopped viewing Israel as a threat. In the cease-fire talks that followed, the two sides made so much progress that US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, fearing that he would have nothing to negotiate when he arrived in the region weeks later, asked the Israelis to halt them.
埃及对西奈问题的漠视源于它对以色列的态度。埃以两国1973年战争的枪声停止后，埃及就不再把以色列视为对自身的威胁。埃以两国之后的停火谈判进展得如此迅速，以致于当时的美国国务卿亨利·基辛格害怕自己过几周赶到后所有问题都已达成协议，因此要求以色列暂时停止谈判。自那以后，埃及与利比亚打了一仗，偶尔也与苏丹爆发冲突，但在西奈半岛却再也没开过一枪。