The Arab World at the Crossroads: An Analysis of the Arab opposition to the Sadat Initiative

Abstract

The visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem between November 19 and 21, 1977, marked a turning point in the history of the ArabIsraeli conflict. For half a century since the meeting between the Emir Faisal, son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca, and the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann in June, 1918, no Arab leader had publicly met with any Zionist or Israeli official. Here, now, was the president of the largest Arab country visiting Israel without any preconditions, meeting with Israeli officials, delivering a speech to the Knesset and debating with its members. It would be true to say that this was a gesture that the Israelis had never envisaged in their wildest dreams. Irrespective of the consequences that have so far resulted from Sadat's visit to Israel or that may result in the future, it is clear that the Middle East in particular and the Arab world in general have entered a new era when developments cannot be easily foreseen. Sadat's visit to Israel stirred many angry reactions in the Arab world as a whole and these found expression in noisy demonstrations that took place in various Arab countries and cities, especially Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Aden, Tripoli and Algiers. Popular anger reached its climax in Damascus, Baghdad and Tripoli. The day Sadat arrived in Israel was declared a Day of National Mourning in Syria, where flags were flown at half-mast, citizens stopped working at noon for 5 minutes, church bells were rung and muezzins sounded the call to prayer throughout the mosques of Syria. In Iraq, celebrations of the Al-Adha feast, which coincided with the day of Sadat's