55 Louise Fischer Turning Point on the Road to Peace: he Government of Yitzhak Rabin and the Interim Agreement with Egypt (Sinai II) ABSTRACT he article discusses changes in Israeli foreign policy after the Yom Kippur War and the “step-by-step” diplomacy of Henry Kissinger. he government of Golda Meir reached disengagement agreements with Egypt and Syria, but it was Yitzhak Rabin’s government that made the irst real changes in Israel’s stand. he team of ministers who led the negotiations insisted on commitments from Egypt that would efectively take it out of the war, in return for giving up the strategic passes in Sinai. However, the key element—a United States presence in Sinai—was added only after the breakdown of talks in March 1975 and a crisis in relations with the Administration. Many elements of the interim agreement, including the renunciation of the use of force by the parties, served as a precedent for the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. INTRODUCTION On 12 March 1975 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin wrote to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt of his conviction that Egypt would play a leading role in bringing about peace in the Middle East. Rabin declared that “I on my part am determined to make all eforts to promote peace between us.” Sadat’s reply, passed on by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, evokes the famous declaration made with Menachem Begin in November