November 17, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 11, 1423

CAIRO: Egypt’s late President Anwar Sadat had a tantalizing way of surprising supporters as well as opponents, and 25 years ago on November 19, he dropped a bombshell that altered the course of Middle East politics.

The unpredictable Sadat boarded his jet and flew to Israel, becoming the first Arab leader ever to visit the Jewish state, which was still technically at war with its Arab neighbours, and declare its right to exist.

The world watched in astonishment as he did what, a couple of days earlier, he said he would do after expressing readiness to travel to the Jewish state to discuss peace and the return of Arab lands captured by Israel.

“Israel would be astonished when they hear me say this. But I say it. I am ready to go even to their home...to the Knesset and discuss peace with them if need be,” Sadat told the Egyptian parliament on 9 November 1977.

Then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, still not believing what he had heard, put Sadat’s words to the test on November 11, extending him an invitation. Much to the surprise of the world, including the Israelis, the Egyptian leader accepted — and made the trip to Israel and into history.

Three important factors encouraged Sadat to go down that road, according to Egyptian diplomat Mohammed Bassi-ouny, Egypt’s former ambassador in Tel Aviv and an old hand in Egyptian-Israeli relations.

Sadat had come to realize and appreciate “the possibility of solving international and regional problems by peaceful means,” Bassiouny told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. More importantly, Sadat had come to the conclusion that “Israeli is a fact, and we should deal with this fact”.

By then, the Arabs and Israelis had fought four wars, including that in October 1973 masterminded and directed by Sadat himself.

By opting to pursue the road of peace, Sadat had shown that he was a “brave man” — in the same way as when he made the decision to go to war, according to Bassiouny.

Sadat’s visit to Israel and momentous address before the Knesset earned him the praise of the West, particularly the United States, and harsh criticism and condemnation at home and in the Arab world, which immediately moved to isolate Egypt.

“I come to you today on solid ground to shape a new life and to establish peace,” the Egyptian leader was quoted as telling the Israeli legislature from the rostrum of the Knesset.

“I have come to you so that together we should build a durable peace based on justice, to avoid the shedding of one single drop of blood by both sides. It is for this reason that I have proclaimed my readiness to go to the farthest corner of the earth,” he said.

Opponents saw the trip — which was followed by intense diplomatic activity between Cairo, Tel Aviv and Washington that eventually led to the signing in 1979 Camp David accords between Egypt and the Jewish state — as a betrayal of the Arab cause.

Supporters disagreed, and emphasized that the Camp David accords laid out the basis for a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict in its entirety. It was not just an attempt to resolve Egypt’s territorial dispute with Israel, they argued.

Bassiouny says the 1991 Middle East conference held in Madrid, and the 1993 Oslo agreements that heralded the birth of the Palestinian National Authority and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian territories, were direct fruits of the Camp David accords.

The treaty’s other indirect fruits included the 1994 signing of an agreement between Israel and Jordan, and the development of low-key ties between Israel and Arab countries such as Qatar, Oman, Morocco and Tunisia, Bassiouny points out.

Jordan was the second Arab country to establish full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, followed in 1999 by Mauritania.

Arab countries are at last beginning to see what Sadat saw some 25 years ago — the possibility of establishing peace with the enemy and the need to bring the conflict to an end in favor of peace and stability, according to the Egyptian diplomat.

He specifically mentions the adoption by Arab leaders during their summit earlier this year in Lebanon of a Saudi-sponsored initiative on Middle East peace.

The initiative recognized peace as a “strategic option” and expressed the Arab world’s readiness to recognize and establish relations with Israel if it withdrew from Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 war.

For his peace overtures to the Jewish state, Sadat was named Man of The Year by Time Magazine and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He also received, in 1981, a hail of bullets that ended his life.—dpa