Okaz

AS I write this article, the US Administration unveiled its Middle East peace plan and therefore, it’s not possible for me to comment on the proposal before thoroughly reviewing the 181-page document. If I did so, I would be making the same mistake, the Palestinians made, when they rejected the plan even before seeing it.

Irrespective of the details of the initiative, it is now the time to remember an unparalleled leader, the late Egyptian President Muhammad Anwar Sadat, may God have mercy on him. In 1977, Sadat presented a political vision for the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Egyptian-Israeli conflict — a vision that is ahead of all visions of the parties to the conflict.

In 2018, Hezbollah’s Al-Akhbar newspaper published an article detailing what transpired between the late Sadat and the Syrian leader Hafez Al-Assad, before Sadat traveled to Jerusalem and delivered his famous speech.

During their meeting, Sadat urged Assad to proceed with the peace process to regain all lands, just as he did and recovered the lands of his country in accordance with the Camp David Peace Accords of 1979.

In fact the article in the newspaper actually intended to burnish the image of Assad, but it turned out to be a testament to Sadat’s statesmanship.

The article quoted Assad’s words to Sadat: “Brother, allow me to speak to you frankly: People would say it is not only surrender but betrayal, too.” Sadat replied angrily: “Who can accuse me of betrayal! Dwarves who did neither fight nor did know what the cost of a war is? I am responsible for my people. My people are tired of war.”

To this, Assad responded: “The people are not tired of sacrifice in order to achieve their goals. He added: “Our national responsibility is to lead our nation to achieve its goals.” The following reply of Sadat to this was an insightful vision that he had articulated 40 years ago. “We returned to the history of nationalism, internationalism and Baathist rhetoric. Is this not the rhetoric that stalled us and made us lag behind?”

This is what really happened after Sadat, who regained his land and thus saved Egypt.

Some observers point out that Sadat’s apprehensions were vindicated in the light of the incidents that occurred in the Arab world in the post-Saddam era. They see them in the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein; occupation of Lebanon by Assad, Israel and then Hezbollah; coup in Gaza by Hamas and the subsequent fragmentation of Palestinians; and finally Syria becoming under Iranian-Russian-Turkish occupation.

Also, Erdogan is seeking to occupy Libya at the invitation of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Al-Wefaq party and the Iraqi Shiites are revolting against the Iranian occupation. They are doing similar things in Lebanon! And all of this happened falsely, in the name of national responsibility and resistance as Sadat said: Is this not the sloganeering that stalled us and made us lag behind “Is this not the rhetoric that stalled us and made us lag behind?”

May God have mercy on Sadat, who saved his country from being a playground and instead made it a bulwark of stability.