The surprising interview that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot gave to the Saudi news site Elaph was published on Nov. 16, just a few days before the 40th anniversary of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem. While it is hard to compare these two events, some people in Israel see a kind of connection between them.
Sadat shocked the Middle East and the entire world when he announced in 1977, without any prior warning, that he was prepared to board a plane to Jerusalem and address the Knesset, if that would lead to a historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. The current interview, which was the first of its kind between an Israeli chief of staff and a Saudi news site, might indicate that the romance between Israel and Saudi Arabia may finally go public, after taking place behind the scenes for a long time. There will be no historic peace agreement here (for the moment), but there may be a kind of normalization on a low burner. Maybe.
What happened with Sadat was much more dramatic. After declaring that he received an official invitation to visit the Israeli capital, the Egyptian president got on a plane and was received by an honor guard at Ben Gurion Airport. He addressed the Knesset the very next day, and two years later, signed a historic peace treaty with the leader of the Israeli right, Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
It was hard at first. Not everyone in Israel believed the Egyptian president's remarkable statement. The chief of staff at the time, Mordechai Gur, warned that it was all a ruse and that Sadat would not be stepping out of the plane when it landed in Ben Gurion Airport. He thought PLO leader Yasser Arafat would step out instead, even though Israel had been boycotting him at the time. Others suspected that Egyptian commandos would burst from the plane and open fire on all the dignitaries who were waiting for Sadat on the runway. The people who thought this were set in their ways. They did not understand the new mood pulsating around the brave Egyptian president. Sadat was serious, and luckily, he found a partner who was no less serious in the person of Menachem Begin. Peace between the two countries may still be tense and cold. It may not include the peoples themselves. Nevertheless, it has withstood the test of time for close to 40 years.
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