Twenty-five years ago, on November 19, 1977, Egypt's President Anwar
Sadat, took a 28-minute flight to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Ten
days earlier, he had stunned the world when he announced that he was
willing to go to Israel if this would lead to a peace agreement. Israel's
Prime Minister Menachim Begin, deeply distrustful of Arabs, thought
that he was calling Sadat's bluff when he officially invited him to
Tel Aviv. Sadat, the statesman and the showman, promptly accepted--to
the chagrin of many Arabs and the surprise of everybody else.
His reception at the airport was an unforgettable scene. There was Begin,
the Zionist guerilla fighter, greeting the leader of Egypt's armed forces
that Israel's air force and armor had stopped in the Yom Kippur War.
An Israeli military band played "By God of old who is my weapon,"
Egypt's national anthem, and Israel's Hatikvah. In the receiving line,
Sadat met old enemies face to face for the first time: former Prime
Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan,
and General Ariel Sharon. Before he would appear before the Knesset,
Sadat went to pray in the Al Aqsa mosque in the old city of Jerusalem.
"We used to reject you, true." Sadat told the Knesset."
We refused to meet you anywhere, true. We referred to you as the 'so-called
Israel,' true. At international conferences, our representatives refused
to exchange greetings with you, true. At the 1973 Geneva Peace Conference,
our delegates did not exchange a single direct word with you, true.
Yet, today we agree to live with you in permanent peace and justice.
Israel has become an accomplished fact recognized by the whole world
and the superpowers. We welcome you to live among us in peace and security."
The Israelis realized of course that, in exchange for his offer of peace,
Sadat expected the return of the occupied Sinai peninsula. Still, he
hoped for more. He had become convinced that international problems
can be solved by peaceful means. Sixteen months of difficult negotiations
passed before President Carter's sustained mediation efforts coaxed
the determined Sadat and the ever suspicious Begin into signing the
Camp David agreement on March 26, 1979. While Sadat and Begin received
the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize, President Carter, the man who deserved it
at least as much, had to wait fourteen years before the Nobel Prize
Committee recognized his untiring commitment to conciliation and human
rights.
The Camp David agreements gave Israel peace with Egypt in exchange for
the occupied Egyptian territories. In addition, Israel committed itself
to the establishment of a Palestinian state and an end to settlements
on occupied land--one of the numerous promises Israel's governments
have failed to fulfill, regrettably always with American acquiescence.
The hostile reaction of most Arab leaders to Sadat's courageous initiative
was deeply disappointing. Islamist radicals branded Sadat a traitor
to the Arab cause. Syria, Libya, Algeria, and Iraq froze their relations
with Egypt. Sadat called them "dwarfs." Palestinian Chairman
Arafat also failed to recognize the opportunities of the moment and
refused to join Sadat's initiative.
When, in September 1981, militant Islamists rioted against Sadat's government,
he ordered 1,600 of them arrested. On October 6, his enemies struck
back. At a military parade in Cairo, three Islamist soldiers assassinated
him as they passed by his viewing stand.
Fourteen years later, an equally courageous Israeli military leader
and peacemaker, Yitzhak Rabin, would share Sadat's fate when a radicalized
countryman assassinated him after a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Tragically, Sadat did not live to see the most far-reaching fruits of
his diplomacy: the 1991 Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid, the
1993 Oslo Agreements leading to the creation of the Palestinian Authority,
Jordan's peace treaty with Israel, and the Saudi-sponsored peace proposal
of 2001 that Sharon's government and the Bush administration chose to
ignore.
Now the world wonders if we will ever again see the likes of Sadat or
Rabin, or an American president like Carter, men who combine a vision
of Mideast peace with the will to deliver it.