#11: Sadat, Begin, and the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Agreement, 1970-1982

Building the Impossible Dream: The History of Zionism

When Anwar Sadat succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser as president of Egypt in 1970, few observers expected him to take bold initiatives. Yet in 1973 he launched the Yom Kippur War and in its initial days, together with Syria, dealt Israel substantial losses before the IDF recovered and won an extraordinary victory. Israel’s initial failures in that war undercut the long-dominant Labor Party and helped Likud’s Menachem Begin get elected prime minister in 1977, marking the first transition of power in the Jewish State. Months after Begin came to power, he hosted Sadat in Jerusalem for a dramatic visit that resulted a year later in the Camp David Accords, Israel’s first peace agreement with an Arab state. This episode covers these dramatic events and considers their implications for Israel in the subsequent four decades.