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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 October 2000 Issue No. 502 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 October 2000 Issue No. 502
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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VISIONS OF WAR AND PEACE: The above photo -- one of the last to be taken of the late President Anwar El-Sadat -- was shot moments before he was assassinated by hard-line Islamists during a military parade on 6 October 1981. 
Becoming president after Gamal Abdel-Nasser's death in 1970, Sadat's first years in office were dominated by a "no-peace, no-war" situation with Israel, with the army, university students and one million refugees from the Suez Canal Zone becoming more and more disgruntled by the lack of action.
Three years after coming to power Sadat masterfully used the element of surprise to the benefit of the Egyptian armed forces, ordering troops to storm across the Suez Canal on 6 October 1973.
The Egyptian forces smashed through the allegedly invincible Bar Lev line, constructed by the Israelis along the Suez Canal, and succeeded in dislodging Israeli forces from parts of the Sinai Desert, forcing a reappraisal of US policy in the region. The war opened the way for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. But, first, Sadat had to pay a visit to Jerusalem in November 1977, after which the Camp David peace agreements were signed in September 1978. The peace treaty was concluded in March 1979, leading to the complete liberation of Sinai.
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