Aside #1: We’re a little more than half way through the month of Elul - and I hope you have been practicing spiritual introspection and how best to account for yourself. Admittedly, it’s no easy task - but it’s not time to worry just yet. You have another two weeks to get it right.

Aside #2: We’re also three weeks into the secular school year, and for teens in semester programs, though it seems that it was just last week when the year started, the semester is off and running - and there’s been a lot of learning and a lot more to go before midterms - which are soon upon us. (It’s not time to worry just yet about that either… there’s still time.)

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46 years ago yesterday, Israel and Egypt signed a comprehensive peace treaty at Camp David, near Washington D.C. This treaty has weathered so many challenges and conflicts, it is a wonder it is still intact… And yet, Camp David set the stage for regional stability that has kept the Middle East (relatively) peaceful for more than four decades.

And here’s a hot take…  We have Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to thank for this.

There has always been a rhetoric of peace-seeking on the Israeli side, and though one might regard it as either axiomatic or disingenuous, Arab states (especially Egypt) also engaged in rhetoric of their own vis-a-vis the Jewish state. President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Sadat’s predecessor) had a lot to say about Israel during his tenure, and Sadat was no different. Egypt and Israel fought five wars over three decades. However, starting in February, 1971, there was a noticeable shift. Sadat began to speak about the possibility of peace with Israel.

But didn’t Sadat order an attack Israel in October, 1973? Yes, but we know now from declassified documents and historical research that, for months preceding the attack, Sadat made repeated overtures for peace in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. Prime Minister Golda Meir rejected these overtures out of hand. She was unwilling to return to pre-1967 borders. And so, Sadat sought to change the status quo between Egypt and Israel through violence, setting the stage for the Yom Kippur War. Though the attack caught Israel by surprise, rehabilitated Egypt’s stature in the eyes of the Arab World and earned Sadat the title “Hero of the [Suez] Crossing,” it resulted in resounding defeat. The status quo remained.

Which is why it was even more surprising that Sadat, a little over four years later, shocked the world in a speech before the Egyptian People’s Assembly by announcing his intention to go to Jerusalem and speak before the Knesset to discuss peace. He received a standing ovation, but no one in the room, including PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, took Sadat seriously. The Israelis, however, did. The Begin government sent an official invitation to the Egyptian president through the American ambassador in Cairo. Within 11 days, Sadat arrived in Israel, spoke before the Knesset and changed history.

The negotiations between Egypt and Israel culminated in the signing of the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978.  This document established the framework for the historic peace treaty concluded between Israel and Egypt in March, 1979.

Sadat went on to win the Nobel Prize for Peace alongside US President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. He continued to serve as President of Egypt until October 6, 1981, when he was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Egypt’s crossing of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War. The assassins, members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, wanted “a complete overthrow of the existing order" in Egypt, but also cited Sadat’s treaty with Israel as one of the primary reasons for the assassination.

Despite the temporary upheaval, eventual stabilization of the Egyptian regime under Sadat’s successors, and the many bloody outbursts of violence in the region, peace with Israel remains a cornerstone of Egyptian policy.  Thankfully!