Sadat Walks to Israel: A New Middle East Begins

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat landed at Ben Gurion Airport on November 19, 1977, becoming the first Arab head of state to officially visit Israel and shattering three decades of diplomatic isolation between the two nations. The visit stunned the world: Egypt and Israel had fought four wars since 1948, and the Arab League had maintained a collective policy of refusing to recognize Israel's existence. Sadat addressed the Knesset the following day, speaking in Arabic to an Israeli parliament that included former military commanders who had fought against Egyptian forces in the Sinai, the Suez Canal zone, and the Yom Kippur War just four years earlier. He called for a comprehensive peace based on Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and Palestinian self-determination, while simultaneously acknowledging Israel's right to exist within secure borders. The speech was broadcast live across the Arab world, producing reactions that ranged from cautious hope to furious condemnation. Syria, Iraq, Libya, and the Palestine Liberation Organization denounced Sadat as a traitor. Sadat's visit led directly to the Camp David Accords of September 1978, mediated by President Jimmy Carter, and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty signed in March 1979, which ended the state of war between the two countries and returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian sovereignty. Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. The peace cost Sadat his life: he was assassinated by Islamic extremists within his own military during a parade on October 6, 1981.