Nasser's death in 1970

At the time of Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat was Vice President of Egypt, and under the constitution he succeeded to the presidency. As Vice President, he had been a mere functionary, and he was not expected to be more than an interim president, until a new political arrangement sorted itself out. "Dwarfed by Nasser, characterized by his obsequiousness, Sadat was the buffoon of Egyptian politics. Few thought he would survive more than a few weeks" (Mackey, 1992, p. 247).

Nevertheless, Sadat soon placed himself in firm command of the Egyptian governmental apparatus. Along with economic and other initiatives, he then turned to the problem of Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, which the Israelis had captured during the 1967 war. The military measures taken by Sadat prepared Egypt successfully to challenge Israel on the battlefield in 1973. Anwar Sadat's road to peace thus began, paradoxically, with war. Yet it was precisely success in war that laid the groundwork for pursuing initiatives for peace.

From Sadat's point of view, and Egypt's, the 1973 war brought very mixed results. On the symbolic level -- always important in power politics -- it was an enormous and crucial victory. The Egyptian Army had successfully crossed the Suez Canal: the equivalent of a major river crossing in the face of the enemy, one of the most difficult of military operations. It had achieved tactical surprise against the vaunted Israeli Defense Force and rolled

Related Essays

Egypt and Saudi Arabia This .... Arab world; however, after the Prophet's death, the main .... Anwar Sadat (r. 1969-1981), Nasser's successor as President .... a partial recovery to the mid-$20s range in .... (2681 11 )

SAUDI ARABIA AND EGYPT This .... Arab world; however, after the Prophet's death, the main .... Anwar Sadat (r. 1969-1981), Nasser's successor as President .... a partial recovery to the mid-$20s range in .... (2681 11 )

US Foreign Policy with Israel .... did we the Israelis with airplanes and Nasser with hints of .... was a poll [taken after Higgins's death] finding that .... Weekly Edition, p. 3. Auerbach, S. (1991, 18 .... (6367 25 )

US and Arab Media Coverage of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict .... In 1973, Nasser's successor Anwar Sadat started the Yom Kippur War .... How image of death became must-see TV. .... com/about/companies/timeinc.html Iyengar, S. (1991). .... (9803 39 )

The United States and Israel .... we - the Israelis with airplanes and Nasser with hints .... a poll [taken after Higgins's death] finding that .... National Weekly Edition, 3. Auerbach, S. (1991, March .... (6326 25 )

Islam and Ethnicity .... threat against another group with which s/he identifies .... the Arab world ever since the death of the .... violent clashes" with the secularist President Nasser and was .... (4607 18 )

were neighbors rather than subjects. Many Israelis, perhaps often a majority, have long been perfectly well aware of these facts. However, a substantial -- and fanatically determined -- minority of the Israeli public remains dead set against any withdrawal, for reasons bound up in Zionist ideology. The Sinai did not figure in that ideology; the West Bank is central to it (Stein 1999: 230). Among hardline Zionists, withdrawal from the West Bank is considered unacceptable on any terms. For this reason, hardliners have pushed forward with the settlement policy, at enormous expense, with the intent of creating "facts on the ground" -- in effect, a creeping annexation of the West Bank. The more the settlement program proceeds, the more difficult it becomes to dismantle. As Stein states: Begin did not consider Israel to be occupying Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza district; instead, Israel had liberated them from Arab control. Though a substantial Arab population was living there, Israel could not give them independence in that area because it "belonged" to Israel. At the same time, Israel could not give them citizenship, since that would alter the demography of the Jewish state. Moreover, the Palestinian Arab population did

Category: Foreign - N