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US President Ronald Reagan and Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat at a press briefing, August 1981. Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library.NEW YORK, Mar 26 (IPS) - On March 26, Israel and Egypt will celebrate the 46th anniversary of their peace treaty, which has upended the very nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Egypt remains pivotal in the search for Israeli-Palestinian peace, especially now in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
US President Ronald Reagan and Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat at a press briefing, August 1981. Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library.It is hard to exaggerate the late Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat’s courage when he journeyed to Israel with an olive branch in November 1977. Only a decade before, Egypt’s first President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, fervently and categorically rejected Israel's very existence, stating, “We will not accept any… coexistence with Israel.” Ending the 1973 Yom Kippur War with the return of the Sinai to Egypt without making a significant concession to Israel, made it possible for Sadat ‘to claim victory,’ which strengthened his standing in the eyes of the public and allowed him to later travel to Israel as a ‘victor.’ He was received in Israel as a great statesman with an honor guard, creating an indelible mark in the minds of Israelis and Egyptians alike.
Sadat’s visionary leadership, matched by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and President Carter’s determination to seize the hour and mediate between them, paved the way for the historic Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, signed on March 26, 1979. The treaty has endured for the past 46 years because, from its inception, it has served the long- and short-term geostrategic interests and mutual economic and security benefits of both countries.
Although Egyptian and Israeli governments have changed hands several times over the past 46 years, both sides continue to fully adhere to the treaty's terms, recognizing its crucial geostrategic importance for their respective countries. Thus, the treaty withstood the test of time despite regional instability and the continuing violent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The treaty has transcended its monumental implications and benefits for Israel and Egypt. It has fundamentally changed the psychological and political dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict as it began to resonate among the Arab states after nearly a decade of chastising and sanctioning Egypt for breaking the Arab world's bloc of enmity against Israel.
Preventing an Arab-Israeli war
With the signing of the treaty, it became clear that Israeli-Egyptian peace would prevent any possibility of an all-out Arab-Israeli war. Egypt has been and continues to be the strongest Arab country militarily, and without it, the Arab states would not start a war against Israel that would surely end in utter defeat.
Without the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, it would have been inconceivable that any of these peace agreements would be established. In 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) established a framework for peace and mutual recognition. In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty.
In 2002, Saudi Arabia introduced the Arab Peace Initiative (API), adopted by the Council of Arab States, which de facto recognized Israel’s right to exist, albeit conditional upon the establishment of a Palestinian state. And in late 2020 and early 2021, the Abraham Accords were signed between Israel and, individually, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
That is, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty changed the trajectory of the Arab-Israeli conflict in that it psychologically adjusted the Arab States’ mindset toward Israel’s irrevocable existence and opened the door for a political solution, albeit slowly given the continuing conflict with the Palestinians.
Although Saudi Arabia has gained greater prominence in Arab affairs than Egypt over the past decade, Egypt remains central in the search for Israeli-Palestinian peace regardless of its ultimate contour, especially now in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Without Egypt's direct involvement and consent about Gaza’s future in the context of Israeli-Palestinian peace, no solution can be achieved.
Egypt has traditionally been involved directly and indirectly in Gaza. It was in control of Gaza until Israel conquered the enclave during the 1967 Six-Day War and has been engaged time and again in mediating the repeating conflagrations between Israel and Hamas.
At no time, however, has Egypt been more directly involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict than it has since Hamas’ October 2023 attack and Israel’s war of retaliation. Regardless of the eventual outcome of this conflict, Egypt will be affected directly, and hence, it has every right to play a direct role in shaping the ultimate solution.
Today, the question is whether Egypt’s President Sisi will show the same courage as Sadat to take the lead and use the 46th anniversary as a turning point, starting by insisting on a framework for the future of Gaza in the context of ending the Israel-Hamas war and ultimately the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Arab Summit in Cairo, held on March 4, which included Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, endorsed Egypt's comprehensive plan for Gaza's reconstruction, which aims to rebuild the territory over five years at a cost of $53 billion without displacing its residents. The plan excludes Hamas from future governance, proposing instead a technocratic Palestinian committee under the Palestinian Authority's oversight.
It emphasizes the need for security, training Palestinian forces, and international support, including potential UN peacekeeping forces. The plan also categorically rejected Trump's outlandish idea to relocate Palestinians and transform Gaza into a "Riviera of the Middle East."
Given that Israel will be affected by any plans regarding the future of Gaza, President Sisi should begin to conduct bilateral discussions with Israel to establish exit plans for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in several stages. Egypt is in a position to disabuse Israel from ever entertaining the idea of exiling the Palestinians from Gaza, threatening that this would jeopardize the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Following the Arab Summit, President Sisi said, “The time has come to adopt a serious and effective political pathway that leads to a fair and lasting solution for the Palestinian cause, in accordance to the resolutions of international legitimacy. I have faith that President Trump is capable of doing this.”
Although both Israel and Egypt would like to see Hamas eliminated, they also know that it would be out of their reach as Hamas will remain a relevant player that cannot be discarded. The summit has not ruled out some role for Hamas in implementing the Egyptian initiative.
Indeed, given how battered Hamas is following 17 months of war that devasted much of its armed forces and laid two-thirds of Gaza in ruin, Hamas began in recent weeks to send mixed signals about its future in Gaza. It has shown a willingness to discuss demilitarization as an end goal of a peace process.
Hamas official Husam Badran said that the group was willing to step aside from governing, stating that “Our only condition is for this to be an internal Palestinian matter... As long as there is a national consensus, Hamas will not be involved in the governance.”
The historic Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty remains the bedrock of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace. The main obstacle to achieving this still is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No one is in a better place than President Sisi, who can use Egypt’s indispensable role to advance the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, starting with the establishment of an end-game to the war in Gaza.
There is no time better than now to move aggressively toward that end as Egypt and Israel celebrate the 46th anniversary of their peace agreement. Can Sisi rise to the occasion and match Sadat’s vision and courage?
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.
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