It seemed like a good idea at the time

Submitted by Kenneth S. Besig (Israel), Nov 21, 2006 at 15:24

Like so many moments in Israeli Arab peacemaking, the Israeli peace treaty with Egypt seemed like a good idea at the time. Not only was Anwar Sadat really interested in peace, and recovering the Sinai Peninsula, he was also aware of the personal danger the treaty placed him in, but he was still willing to make peace. The pressure by the Carter administration on Menachem Begin was enormous and not to be ignored by any serious Israeli leader. There was also the widely held belief in Israel that the peace treaty with Egypt would open doors to peace with the larger Arab Islamic world.

Sadly, this did not happen, and even the peace between Egypt and Israel is a very cold and hostile one.

If, and this is a big if, Anwar Sadat had not been assassinated, there is a chance that the truly frigid peace bordering on war that now exists between Israel and Egypt might well have become an example of real peace for the whole region. Unlike his duplicitous successor, Hosni Mubarak, Sadat seems to have really meant to keep his word.

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