History of Egypt under Anwar Sadat

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The history of Egypt under Anwar Sadat covers the eleven year period of Egyptian history from Anwar Sadat's election as President of Egypt on 15 October 1970, following the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, to Sadat's assassination by Islamist fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. Though presenting himself as a Nasserist during his predecessor's lifetime, upon becoming President, Sadat broke with many of the core tenets of the domestic and foreign policy ideology that had defined Egyptian politics since the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. In addition to abandoning many of Nasser's economic and political principles via the Infitah policy, Sadat ended Egypt's strategic partnership with the Soviet Union in favor of a new strategic relationship with the United States, initiated the peace process with the State of Israel in exchange for the evacuation of all Israeli military forces and settlers from Egyptian territory, and instituted a form of politics in Egypt that, whilst far removed from Egypt's pre-revolution democratic system, allowed for some multi-party representation in Egyptian politics. Sadat's tenure also witnessed a rise in governmental corruption, and a widening of the gulf between rich and poor, both of which would become hallmarks of the presidency of his successor, Hosni Mubarak.^[1]

On 6 October 1973, Egypt under Sadat, and Syria under Hafez al-Assad, initiated the October War to liberate Egyptian and Syrian territory that had been under Israeli occupation since the Six Day War of 1967. The war was fought entirely within the borders of Egypt and Syria, and was launched via a coordinated surprise assault at 2pm on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, which coincided with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Egyptian and Syrian forces separately crossed ceasefire lines into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and Syria's Golan Heights respectively, enjoying major successes in the first half of the war. The second half of the war saw a successful Israeli counterstrike, with Egypt and Syria sustaining heavy casualties. The ceasefire which ended the war left Egypt holding newly-liberated land in Sinai on the east bank of Suez Canal, but also with Israeli forces holding newly-captured land on the west bank of the Canal. Notwithstanding the military reversals suffered in the closing stages of the war, Sadat was seen as having restored Egyptian pride following the devastating defeat of 1967, and convinced the Israeli leadership that the status quo was no longer tenable. Via negotiations brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Egypt–Israel peace treaty by which Egypt formally recognised the State of Israel in exchange for a complete end to the Israeli occupation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and autonomy for the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank. Hafez al-Assad, and other Arab leaders, refused to participate in the negotiations, condemned the agreement, and suspended Egypt from the Arab League, beginning a period of near complete regional isolation for Egypt.^[2][3][4][5] Domestic opposition to the treaty was immense across all sectors of Egyptian society, however, the most vociferous denunciation was from Islamists, a group of whom from within Egypt's own armed forces plotted and executed Sadat's assassination several years later on the anniversary of the beginning of the October War.