Anwar Sadat (1918–1981)

I just finished reading [b:In Search of Identity|16052272|In Search of Identity|Anwar Sadat|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|727211] by Anwar Sadat. The book sat on my shelf for at least four years, after I bought it at a library's used book sale (before the coronavirus killed those events). It was well worth the wait.

I slammed into the book right after finishing Story of My Life by Moshe Dayan rel="nofollow" target="_top">my Goodreads review. These books, when read together, gave a balanced set of insights into a group of historical events, key to the history of the turbulent Middle East after WW II:

1) The 1948 War of Independence;
2) The 1856 Suez Crisis and British-French-Israeli war with Egypt;
3) The Six Day War of 1967; and
4) The Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Anwar Sadat comes across as a pragmatic hero, if I can coin an oxymoron. Sadat takes pains to argue that he was not a dictator, he quite definitely was, albeit more benevolent than Nasser and less corrupt than Mubarak. Either he or Egypt, entities very hard to separate in a quasi-dictatorship felt the need to avenge Egypt's humiliating defeat, which he argues occurred in one day, June 5, 1967. Sadat sets forth that the duplicitous Soviet Union consistently promised to arm Egypt and repeatedly failed to honor their promises. As far as his failure to democratize Egypt, he receives posthumous vindication by the results of Egypt's one attempt at democratic elections, which yielded the late, unlamented Mohamed Morsi. See The tragedy of Egypt's Mohamed Morsi - Brookings Institution.

After achieving a stalemate in the 1973 War, he edged towards the triumphant move for peace with his bold and history-changing visit to Jerusalem in November 1977. My one regret about this book is that he devotes a page or two to this visit, and a reproduction of his speech to the Israeli Knesset. Not enough to take the book down from five to four stars, but still regrettable. If Sadat were alive today he would realize that this visit underlay the historic Abrahamic Accords, perhaps one of the few good things to come out of 2020. These are quibbles.

Frankly, In Search of Identity by Anwar Sadat and Story of My Life by Moshe Dayan should be read together by any serious student of Middle East history. Abba Eban's and Golda Meir's autobiographies will remained shelved for now, while I turn my attention to this hemisphere and James K. Polk by John Seigenthaler, as well as writing two briefs for the office.… (mehr)