45 years have passed since that historic visit to Israel by the President of Egypt, Anwar al-Sadat, which left many with their mouths open. When Sadat came to power after the death of the icon Gamal Abdel Nasser, the feeling prevailed that because of his gray image and weakness, Sadat would not survive in power beyond a few months. He surprised and shook Israel twice. For the first time in the Yom Kippur War. Contrary to estimates, Sadat was able to move Israel back from the banks of the Suez Canal and earned the title “Hero of the Crossing”. The second shock was when he came to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, contrary to the opinion of all Arab countries.
We still haven’t recovered from the two shocks. Despite the IDF’s resounding military victory in the Yom Kippur War, Sadat was the victor in the political field. He started a complicated process and got everything he wanted, which ended in a peace agreement. Thus a new title was added to him and he is the “Hero of Peace”. In Sadat’s eyes, the peace agreement with Israel did not stand on its own. The agreement was part of a package called the Camp David Accords, which stand on two legs joined as one. One leg is the settlement with Israel, and the other leg is the solution of the Palestinian issue.
Even after 45 years since Sadat came to us, Egypt considers itself solely committed to Camp David. That explains a lot of things. This explains why the peace agreement did not trickle down to the people. This explains why Egypt conditions normalization on progress in the Palestinian issue. This explains why Cairo fully supports the Palestinian position regarding the permanent settlement. Sadat’s words in the Knesset during his courageous visit to us – bind the Egyptian government even today. It follows that if the Palestinian issue is resolved as agreed at Camp David as the capture of Egypt, it is most likely that we will see peace between the nations and not just between the leaders.
Today, in Egypt they celebrate and highlight the victory of October 6, this is our Yom Kippur war. While we are still flapping and analyzing what happened in this terrible war. Regarding Sadat’s arrival in Jerusalem, we are jubilant and happy about the peace agreement, while Egypt, for its part, feels that Israel did not fulfill what was agreed at Camp David.
Today, as we know, Israel has similar agreements with Morocco, Sudan, Jordan, the Emirates and Bahrain. The question being asked is: after almost an anniversary of Sadat’s shocking visit, will we continue in the current situation where we continue to create relations only with the leaders or do we change the equation so that it permeates the people?