Egypt, Israel, and the sudden return of Land for Peace

[azurnoir]

When the revolution began in Egypt, many in Israel expected it to fail. What is more telling, though, is that so many in Israel quietly wanted it to.

<snip>

What was most shocking, and therefore the hardest to fathom, was that many of the same people on the Israeli and world Jewish right who for 30 years had derided, dismissed, and did their best to deny the peace with Egypt, suddenly voiced fears that this same peace was in danger, that it might be lost in the course of the Tahrir revolution.

Abruptly, and as a direct result of revolution in Egypt, Land for Peace has returned. Some of the very rightists who for years have pointed to hasty, unilateral Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza as proof that no withdrawal can ever work, that pullouts lead only to war, have changed their tune overnight.

The reason is clear. For the first three decades of Israel's existence, Egypt was Iran and then some. Egypt was the worst, the fiercest, the deadliest, the most existential enemy Israel ever faced. Its threats to annihilate Israel, threats both verbal and military, went far beyond anything Ahmadinejad has let fly.

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/egypt-israel-and-the-sudden-return-of-land-for-peace-1.343319

[oberliner]

1. It was quite a moment when Egypt and Israel signed the peace agreement

It was a shock to many people in both countries and probably led to the assassination.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Though histroically, most Egyptians supported Peace with Israel...

the Arab world did not. Egypt was thrown out of the Arab League for making a separte peace, and a fundamentalist Egptian solider assassinated Sadat for making that peace.

[oberliner]

3. What is your source for that claim?

I thought the leadership supported making peace but the general populace did not.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. This is one source, from his Obituary...but there are many sources in histories of the period.

Anwar el-Sadat, the Daring Arab Pioneer of Peace with Israel

I lived through the period and also studied in a contemporay history class in college.

[oberliner]

5. Thanks for the info

Interesting article.

[CJvR]

6. Well...

...the average Egyptian actually seem to think they won the war. That might tilt their perspective of the treaty a bit.