- Today we're going to talk about Egyptian-Israeli relations
and more specifically,
the 1979 Peace Treaty between the two countries.
Wait, peace treaties,
that doesn't sound very interesting, does it?
Well, let's start off with an assassination, shall we?
That always spices things up a bit.
(upbeat music)
On October 6th 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
was gunned down at a military parade by his own soldiers.
What was the reason for Sadat's assassination?
Well, in 1979 he signed a peace treaty
with his formidable foe,
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
on the White House lawn under the proud gaze
of then US President Jimmy Carter.
Sadat and Begin were an unlikely pair
to sign a peace agreement.
Sadat once gushed about Hitler saying,
"My dear Hitler, I admire you from the bottom of my heart."
And Begin on the other hand,
his family was murdered by the Nazis
and he had been called terrorist number one by the British
for his attacks on pre-state Palestine.
Talk about an odd couple.
It's hard to overstate the enmity between the two countries.
Egypt had led the other Arab countries
in war against Israel, five times within just 30 years.
"Death to the Jews" and "Drive the Jews into the sea,"
we're practically Egypt's mantras at this point.
Egypt refused to negotiate with Israel
or make peace with Israel.
So, with a relationship like this,
how did the two sides come to peace?
Well, the road to peace is full of surprises
and to get there, let's first get to know
Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin a little better.
In many ways they were similar, both oozed charisma,
were white collared kind of guys in a Middle Eastern milieu
and both had genuine attachments
to their respective religious faiths.
They both began their careers as underground nationalists
fighting colonial British occupation in their lands.
In the 40s Begin headed the Irgun,
a militant underground organization
that declared a revolt against British rule in Palestine
and that many, including Ben Gurion,
considered to be a terrorist group.
The Irgun's most famous attack was the bombing
of the British headquarters at the King David Hotel,
which killed 91 people.
The Irgun sent a warning for people to evacuate the building
prior to the attack in order to prevent civilian casualties.
During the revolt against the British,
Begin and had a $50,000 bounty on his head,
wanted dead or alive.
Now, during roughly the same period,
Anwar Sadat was conspiring with Nazi spies
to overthrow the British in Cairo,
but his plans were betrayed by a belly dancer.
I'd love to see a movie about that one.
Soon after, Sadat and then president to be
Gamal Abdel Nasser founded
the underground Free Officers Movement
and Sadat urged the group to take on terrorism as a tactic.
He planned to blow up the British Embassy
and everyone in it, but the plan was eventually nixed.
So, how did the two countries eventually reach peace?
Well, ironically through war.
In 1973 on Yom Kippur, Sadat launched
a surprise invasion of the Israeli-controlled Sinai
and Israel was caught totally off guard.
At the time, Israel had an inflated sense of power
and invincibility as a result
of its total victory in the Six-Day War of 1967,
and they couldn't imagine that Egypt
would dare start a new war after it's crushing defeat.
Now, Egypt seemed to disagree.
Although Israel won the ensuing Yom Kippur War
or the Ramadan War as referred to by the Egyptians,
the success of Egypt's initial attack astonished the world
and Israel suffered devastating losses.
Israel's sense of invincibility was shattered
and Egyptian pride was restored.
Former president of Al-Quds University, Sari Nusseibeh
remarked, "The Arabs had shown that the Israelis
"were mortals after all.
"We won by not losing."
Surprisingly, it later became clear
that this had been Sadat's primary objective all along.
He actually hadn't planned to win the war at all
or conquer the Sinai.
His goal was to make a bold move
that would surprise the world,
change the political status-quo,
restore Egyptian pride and jumpstart
new peace negotiations with Israel,
with Egypt now in a stronger position of power.
Now, it took a few years for Sadat's moves to pay off,
but in 1977, Menachem Begin, who for years was marginalized
as a hawkish radical nationalist
shocked the country by being elected
the first right-wing prime minister of Israel.
People were sure that he would lead Israel into another war,
but Begin, who also understood the power of a bold move
surprised many with an immediate offer
of peace and friendship to the surrounding Arab countries.
He wasn't sure what the response would be,
but a few months later Anwar Sadat went off script
while speaking to the Egyptian Parliament
and violating all Arab norms, announced that
he was willing to visit Israel to discuss peace.
His audience was stunned,
especially as comrade Yasser Arafat,
then chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization
or PLO for short.
The next day, Begin officially invited
Sadat to visit Jerusalem.
Sadat's plane landed in Israel eight days later.
Tensions were high on the runway
and the head of the IDF was concerned that this visit
might actually be an elaborate ruse for a new war
or even a terror attack.
After all, the 70s had become the decade
of international terrorism,
only to be then surpassed by the 80s
and then the 90s and then the 2000s, but you get the idea.
Many Israelis watched with euphoric hope,
and in a surreal moment, Sadat descended the stairs
and met all of his former arch enemies.
On the red carpet he shook hands and schmoozed with them
and then, he and Begin embraced.
The following day Sadat spoke about
peace to the Israeli Parliament.
Now, this is the part where Sadat and Begin
shake hands and sign a peace agreement, right?
Well, not so fast because, first comes the haggling.
Sadat had been warned that Begin was a tough negotiator,
but that his word was his bond.
But, Sadat wasn't quite aware how tough he would be.
Begin, the lawyer, was extremely detail-oriented,
examining all the fine print, while Sadat was more impulsive
and wanted to sweep away the technicalities.
Sadat saw Begin as dragging his feet,
while Begin thought Sadat and Carter
didn't understand that handing over the Sinai to Egypt
and the West Bank to the PLO
would be a threat to Israel's very existence.
After all, Egypt had attacked from the Sinai
in war after war, and the PLO,
which had carried out the worst terror attack
in Israel's history just a few months earlier,
still held the ultimate goal of destroying Israel.
After almost a year of negotiations,
they finally came to an agreement.
Begin, who had previously said that he would lose an eye
before removing a single Jewish settlement
agreed to do just that
and he handed over the Sinai to Egypt.
This shocked many of his most ardent supporters,
but in exchange, Sadat agreed not to push Begin
on giving the West Bank to the PLO.
As a result, Sadat achieved peace with Israel,
but at the expense of the Palestinians,
showing that the national goals of Egypt
were more important to him
than the larger goals of pan-Arab nationalism.
This was the moment the Arab-Israeli conflict
became what is now known as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
and Sadat would soon pay for this decision.
So, what enabled Begin and Sadat to go against
so many of their supporters and reach a compromise?
Well, it had a lot to do with their personalities.
They both spent most of their careers
on the political fringe
and when the two unlikely leaders came to power,
they both wanted to leave a lasting impact.
They were men of action, when they saw opportunities
they seized the moment.
They were willing to take bold leaps that surprised,
and even alienated, their own supporters.
At the same time they both kept their eyes on the prize,
never losing sight of their political aims.
They said what they meant and they meant what they said,
and if this meant transforming
from hardcore militant enemies to political peacemakers,
then that's what they would do.
True to his word, Begin passionately defended
his new position and the need for peace
to the Israeli public.
He paid the painful price
of evicting Israelis from their homes,
witnessing the confrontation between the Israeli Army
and its own citizens
and losing much of the support of his own political base.
In his skillful way with words, he argued,
"We are fighting for peace today.
"We are blessed to have reached this point.
"Yes, there are difficulties in peace,
"there is pain in peace, there are victims for peace,
"they are all preferable to the victims of war."
In December 1978, Begin and Sadat
were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
and later, in March 1979, the former enemies
signed the official peace agreement at the White House
before a worldwide audience.
Begin praised Sadat for his courage
and even called him his friend,
although in actuality they were still more like frenemies.
A little while later, Israelis and Egyptians met at El Arish
for the ceremonial transfer of control
of the Sinai back to Egypt.
Four buses rolled up to the event,
two from Egypt and two from Israel,
the doors open and wounded veterans
who had fought each other in five wars emerged.
Now, there's a famous story about one blind Israeli veteran
who asked his little boy
to lead him to the Egyptian soldiers.
The boy replied that he was scared,
but the father reassured his son
that these Egyptians were good.
This blind veteran had the ability
to see beyond the abstraction
and recognize the humanity of his enemy.
Soon, the group of sworn enemies were embracing,
showing us that human beings
who have been trained to hate each other,
really can relinquish that hatred for peace.
The peace agreement made Sadat
the most reviled leader in the Arab world
and Egypt was eventually expelled
from the Arab League which it had founded.
After Sadat's assassination in 1981
by an Egyptian political opponent
who disagreed with Sadat's peaceful overtures,
Begin, in a show of solidarity,
flew to Cairo to attend the funeral.
Now, this saga leaves us with a lot of questions
that don't necessarily have answers.
Why is it that it's often the militants
who eventually become the peacemakers?
Is there some sort of pragmatism
in men like Sadat and Begin
that allows them to determine what techniques to use
and when to use them?
Is it because they have street cred
that allows them to make bold moves
that others simply couldn't get away with
or, is it the drama and gesture
of renouncing your extremism, which let's be honest,
you can't do if you never were an extremist,
that bridges the gap with your opponent,
opening the path for peace?
I think one clear lesson here is that painful sacrifice
is sometimes necessary for change.
Big decisions come with an expensive price,
facts on the ground change and people can change.
And when viewing the other as a person
rather than a political abstraction,
we learned that we really can un-ring the bell
and move forward, and at that moment,
we see peace becomes possible.
(upbeat music)