Sadat, Rabin, and Courage
In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menechem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, paving the way to the historic Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in 1979. The two would share the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. Two years later, Al Sadat was assassinated by members of his own military, with the Peace Treaty cited as the primary reason for the killing.
In 1993, PLO President Yassir Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords, which, at the time, was a major step toward establishing a durable relationship and dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians. They too would share the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. And two years later, Rabin was assassinated by an ultra-orthadox Israeli Jew who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords.
We often hear the term “political courage” in speeches, media broadcasts, etc. In the United States, this rarely means anything more than courage in the face of a potential drop in the polls, or, at the very worst, an electoral defeat. But political courage in the Middle East is an entirely different animal. There it carries its more traditional meaning — courage in the face of death.
As Middle East peace talks once again get underway in Washington it pays to keep this in mind. If Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas did not have the extremist elements to reckon with at home, peace would be much more obtainable. I don’t think Netanyahu would baulk at the promise of ceasing the building of new settlements, and maybe even additional concessions regarding Jerusalem, for guaranteed Israeli security and a real recognition of the Jewish state if it weren’t for the radical elements within Israel (i.e., the settlement builders). Of course, Abbas has his own radical elements on the Palestinian side, most significantly in the form of Hammas.
These radical elements are very much in mind when Abbas and Netanyahu negotiate. They are ever present in those conference rooms. And their guns are held directly to the leaders’ heads.
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