Anwar Sadat: The Egyptian president who made peace with Israel and paid with his life

Sadat's killing was part of a larger plan by Islamists to take over power in Egypt.

Barry Falls

Sadat is admired by many in Egypt for sparing the country from future wars with Israel but his miscalculation in empowering Islamists led to his own assassination. Al Majalla explains.

Anwar Sadat: The Egyptian president who made peace with Israel and paid with his life

Amr Emam

last update on 05 Oct 2023

In March 2011, Aboud al-Zomor sat in the comfort of his large family home in Nahia — a village on the western outskirts of Greater Cairo — and laid out his justifications for taking part in the assassination of Egypt's late leader Anwar Sadat in October 1981 in a media interview.

Al-Zomor, a former Egyptian intelligence officer, supplied Sadat's assassins with the bullets they used in killing the Egyptian president who had made peace with Israel two years earlier.

At 64, al-Zomor, frail, much older, with a shaggy brown-greyish beard and eyeglasses, had just been released after spending 30 years in prison, against the background of his indictment, together with 24 other people, in the case.

The case goes back to 1981 when Sadat was shot by officers participating in a military parade held in eastern Cairo to commemorate the 6 October war victory of 1973 — a triumph that opened the door for the liberation of Sinai and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Getty — Egyptian soldiers fire on Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in honour of the October 1973 War, on 6 October 1981 in Cairo. The assassination is attributed to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Covered in his own blood, Sadat was whisked away to a Nile-side military hospital in southern Cairo, where he died, almost two hours later.

In the interview, an unrepentant al-Zomor said Sadat got what he deserved for suppressing his country's Islamists and making peace with Israel. He considered the assassination as one of his greatest achievements.

An unrepentant al-Zomor said Sadat got what he deserved for suppressing his country's Islamists and making peace with Israel. He considered the assassination as one of his greatest achievements.

Defining accomplishment

Regardless of al-Zomor's views on the matter, Egypt's peace treaty with Israel was by far the most defining accomplishment of Sadat's political career.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (L), Israeli Premier Menachem Begin (R) and US President Jimmy Carter (C) shake hands after a press conference in the East Room of the White House, on September 17, 1978.

The peace treaty also illustrated Sadat's unpredictable nature.

Four years before he made his peace offer to Israel, Sadat had presided over Egypt's military victory over the Israeli army, liberating the Sinai — Egypt's north-easternmost territory which abuts the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The October 1973 war victory was and continues to be Egypt's greatest military achievement. This event brought about a dramatic shift in regional politics, economic conditions and military balances of power.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Sadat addressed the Egyptian parliament on 9 November 1977 and said he was ready to go anywhere, including to the Israeli parliament, to discuss peace.

Ten days later, tens of millions of Egyptians and Arabs were in shock as they watched his plane touch down at Ben Gurion Airport — an event that triggered thunderous reactions both at home and abroad and set in motion painful peace-making between the Egyptians and the Israelis.

Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Hegazi, watched as Sadat got off his plane and descended the stairs to shake hands with the Israeli officials who gathered at the airport to gleefully greet him.

Hegazi likened the moment to Neil Armstrong's moon landing.

"The visit was Sadat's most daring decision that left lasting effects on political conditions, not only in the region but also in the world," Hegazi, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, told Al Majalla.

"The visit surprised Egyptians, the Arabs and the whole world," he added.

Three days before visiting Israel, Sadat told a group of US Congressmen in Cairo that he intended to go to the Israelis' den to tell them the truth.

"I consider this trip a sacred duty, and this vicious circle we are turning around … has to be broken," Sadat said.

The October 1973 war victory was and continues to be Egypt's greatest military achievement. This event brought about a dramatic shift in regional politics, economic conditions and military balances of power.

Letting the genie out of the bottle

When al-Zomor and other extremist Islamists conspired to kill Sadat, the Egyptian leader was at the height of his career and widely admired by Egyptian society.

For the first time since Sadat assumed power in 1970 after the death of his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser — a towering political figure who left a permanent mark on Egypt's political and economic landscape — Egypt was not at war.

Sadat emerged from the war and the peace with Israel as a political hero, despite Egypt being kicked out of the Arab League in response to its peace treaty with Israel.

The Egyptian leader cultivated excellent relations with Washington, having developed a personal friendship with then-US president, Jimmy Carter, and had good relations with almost all other Western capitals.

AFP — US President Jimmy Carter (C) and his wife Rosalynn Carter arrive in Cairo with the US delegation on October 10, 1981, to attend the funeral of late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

A few years earlier, however, he started courting his country's Islamists, in his bid to play them against the leftists and the remnants of the Abdel Nasser era, who favoured good relations with the Soviet Union, with which Sadat broke ranks in 1972 because it refused to provide Egypt with offensive weapons.

Sadat released most of the members and the leaders of the communism-hating Muslim Brotherhood from jail, bringing the curtains down on Abdel Nasser's era of Islamist repression.

The Islamists' influence had already been growing a few years earlier, especially after the 1967 defeat and the occupation of Sinai.

They used the defeat as a springboard to campaign against Abdel Nasser's nationalism and promote their own ideology, carrying the landmark slogan 'Islam is the solution'.

Sadat empowered the Islamists even more by giving them freedom of movement and action. As a result, Islamists expanded their presence in universities, trade unions, schools, mosques and sports clubs, ushering in an era of what some called an 'Islamist revival'.

Little did he know that this 'revival' would lead to his own assassination in 1981.

Sadat released most Muslim Brotherhood members from jail, in his bid to play them against the leftists and the remnants of the Abdel Nasser era. Little did he know that this would lead to his own assassination in 1981.

Lack of foresight

The assassination demonstrated how the Egyptian leader did not calculate the consequences of his actions. In 2015, the late Jehan Sadat said her husband "never cared for his safety".

AFP — The coffin of late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is transported on a gun carriage during his funeral on 10 October 1981 in Cairo.

Sadat's killing was part of a larger plan by Islamists to take over power in Egypt. The clashes that ensued between Egyptian police and Islamist militants in different parts of the country — especially in Egypt's southern provinces— after the president's assassination were a stark indication of this plan.

The assassination emboldened Islamists, convincing them violence could succeed in affecting change.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was one of the dozens of people arrested in connection with Sadat's killing along with al-Zomor but he was released for lack of evidence against him.

This man then left Egypt for Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and became a close associate of al-Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden.

Both men sent shockwaves across the world in 2001 when they masterminded apocalyptic attacks in New York and Washington.

The assassination demonstrated how the Egyptian leader did not calculate the consequences of his actions. Sadat's killing was part of a larger plan by Islamists to take over power in Egypt.

Mixed legacy

Sadat's success in leading the Egyptian army's defeat of Israel demonstrated that Israel was not as invincible as it liked to portray. However, his peace treaty with Israel opened the door for fundamental changes in the region, which ended up disappointing the Arabs and the Palestinians.

AFP — This picture taken on January 6, 2021 shows the Unknown Soldier and the Mausoleum of Egypt's late President Anwar Sadat, buried close to the site of his 1981 assassination, in the Nasr City district of the capital Cairo.

"Egypt ended the state of war with Israel, but this has negatively affected the equation of the Arab-Israeli conflict," Gamal Salama, a professor of political science at Suez University, told Al Majalla.

"The peace treaty obliged Egypt to take measures that were all favourable to Israel," he added.

By ensuring Egypt's military neutrality in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace treaty opened doors for dramatic developments in the region, including the expansion of Israeli occupation of Arab land and Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon in June 1982.

This is probably why Sadat is still reviled in some Arab countries and detested among his country's Islamists like al-Zomor, although he is admired in the West.

Nevertheless, many Egyptians continue to view him as a visionary who laid himself on the line to save his country from the pains of additional wars with Israel.

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