Photos: When Egypt’s president visited Israel in 1977, he became the first Arab leader to do so.
A look at Anwar Sadat’s high-stakes diplomacy and friendly hobnobbing during the make-or-break trip that shocked the world
All eyes were on the plane sitting at Ben Gurion Airport. Reporters from around the world had assembled and television cameras were prepared to broadcast live a spectacle unimaginable just two weeks earlier: an Arab leader had come to visit Israel for the first time.
No one knew what to expect. It was November 20, 1977. Night had fallen, Shabbat had ended, and a red carpet was rolled out for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. An honor guard stood at the ready. Four years earlier, Egypt had launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, an event that was still fresh in the minds of the officials and dignitaries waiting on the tarmac. Emerging from his plane and descending the stairs, Sadat and was approached the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. And that’s when the unthinkable happened. There were handshakes. There were smiles. There was laughter.
Thus began a rogue act of diplomacy which would alter the course of Middle East politics. For the next day and a half, the world watched as Sadat played out various roles: formal statesman; charismatic dinner guest; engaged tourist. More than anything else, he was a gambler whose visit to Israel risked domestic turmoil and alienation from the Arab League, with no guarantee that he and Begin could come to terms on disputed territory or Palestinian autonomy, let alone a successful, long-term peace agreement.
Given the fraughtness of Sadat’s visit, it’s still remarkable that nothing derailed his trip. There were no riots or major disturbances reported by the press, even on the morning of November 20th, when Sadat addressed the Knesset, an act that enraged Israeli hardliners who viewed Egypt as an eternal foe. Nor were there were any known assassination attempts made by Zionist or PLO extremists while Sadat toured the streets of Jerusalem, the city that Palestinians hoped would one day be the capitol of their own free nation.
Sadat and his entourage paid their respects at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. He prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque while security worried over his vulnerability. At the suggestion of his hosts, Sadat laid a wreath at a monument to fallen Israeli soldiers, nearly three thousand of whom were killed during the tiny nation’s war with Syria and Egypt in 1973.
The key players even managed to relax during down time. Sadat entertained members of the Israeli government in his suite at the King David Hotel and never seemed short of jokes to crack or hands to shake. He and his wife Jehan were invited to ogle treasured antiquities at Beit Hanassi, the presidential residence. Sadat’s natural charisma seemed to be laying more groundwork towards goodwill than words or gestures, and judging by the throngs lining police cordons along motorcade routes and public places, his charm offensive was trickling down to the street level.
Reporters and television crews were back at Ben Gurion Airport on November 21st, watching as Sadat reached his arms out to the crowds that had assembled to see him off. He paused once more at the top of the stairs, turned back to wave one last time, then disappeared into his plane. It was the end of a historic, contentious, nerve-wracking and world-changing trip, but just the beginning of a process which would lead to the Camp David Accords and, ultimately, the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel which remains in place today.
But Sadat’s recognition of Israel and his subsequent pursuit of peace didn’t solve the problems afflicting the Middle East. Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula, but the West Bank, Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip remain contested territories. The Palestinians are still a stateless people and their status continues to trouble the region. Israel has not gone to war with another country since, but bad blood and bloodshed are too common, often in the streets of Jerusalem itself.
The world will never know whether Sadat honestly believed that the intractable stalemate between Israel and the Arab world could only be broken by a grand gesture or whether he knew that he would have to break with other Arab states to secure what was best for his own country. Anwar Sadat was assassinated by an Egyptian soldier on October 6th, 1981. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin attended his funeral in Cairo, walking to the grave site so as not to violate Shabbat.
