Friday, December 23, 2005

Anwar el-Sadat (1918-81)


This December the 25th , Christmas day, marks the birthday of our late president Anwar el-Sadat who would have turned 87 this Sunday, had he still been living with us today.

We have come a long way since his death, 24 years this last October to be exact, and yet so little has been done to take advantage of the peace he paid for with his life to achieve. Let's take a quick look at what has since become of those players who posed themselves as his valiant revolutionary enemies during his lifetime, and who played a prominent role in expediting his death:

Yasser Arafat: Spent his last years sacrificing Palestinian children in exchange for television air time, while he hid himself in a bunker. Billions of dollars worth of money he had extorted for the Palestinian cause is still lost between secret Swiss bank accounts and his wife.

Hafez al Assad: Proceeded to massacre tens of thousands of Syrian civilians in Hama. Coweringly entered secret negotiations with Israel for a deal on the Golan, but failed. Died with his seat still in power, but impotently, with his country still occupied. His successor, Assad Jr.!, seems to be engaged in an incestuous campaign against younger sister Lebanon's dating of other men.

Saddam Hussein: The tyrannical sponsor of the illustrious guerrilla Arafat, took on the United States twice with a bluff...he was eventually found hiding in a spider hole under the ground like a rat. Is now under trial for many crimes against humanity.

Moammar Qaddafi: After watching these developments on television, took the easy way out and happily donated his program of WMD to the United States. Ok, I will not say anything bad about Qaddafi because he does genuinely make me laugh. But his role in sponsoring our president's assassins is unforgivable nonetheless.

The Soviet Union: Soviet who?

The Islamic Republic of Iran: Well, AJ is doing a great job speaking for himself! LOL. He is the last nail in the regime's coffin, as BP said.

The common saying in the media that Sadat negotiated a separate peace deal with Israel and left out the Palestinians is the biggest nurtured lie, which seems to have taken a life of its own. Take a good look at this document from the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty which Sadat got Begin to concede...(Begin!). And keep in mind that he untiringly negotiated for this settlement under the most difficult circumstances while Arafat and the afore-mentioned gang of organized criminals were on the airwaves inciting for his death day and night.

So it is a cleaner, more peaceful version of what Arafat secretly went on to accept, years after Sadat's death. Except without all the bloodshed, the settlements, and the lost - still lost - years of hope. And yet neither Arafat nor the "architects of Oslo", ever apologized for what they had done.

I would finally like to use this occasion to address the Egyptian Left:

Don't you think it is finally time for you to drop your grudge against Sadat? His vision held sway among the Egyptian masses during his lifetime, while yours did not. His actions have, by the test of time, proven to be the most correct ones, while yours have proven wrong. Don't you think it is now finally time for you to concede that he was right, and you were - and obviously still are - wrong?

The Egyptian Left are ridiculed by some liberal Egyptian writers as suffering from sadism or the kidnappers' syndrome. Their members, followers and leaders were subjected to the most brutal campaign of imprisonment and torture by Nasser during the 1950's and 60's, an episode which many of its survivors had compared to Nazi concentration camps, minus the gas chambers...yet they somehow until now have managed to preserve a sense of deep respect for Nasser...while reserving all their hatred and vitriol, accumulating with all the years, against Sadat!

The only arrests that Sadat carried out were in September 1981, which was the last resort he took to put an end to the incitement of civil strife which he feared would give Israel an excuse to delay its scheduled handover of the rest of Sinai. Unlike Nasser, Sadat ordered for them to be treated with respect, and planned to release them in April 1982 when the liberation of Sinai would be complete...which is exactly what happened afterwards, except with Sadat already gone from the scene.

Yet I am confident that there is a dividing line that separates the good people of the Left from the radical Nasserists that have honestly tarnished their lot. And I will make it my Christmas wish that these brave people will come to their senses and finally divorce themselves from their fascist partners, and put their respected selves in the lot of liberal patriots who, like themselves, genuinely care about the future of our country. We are all socialists in heart - as in seeking for the benefit of society - although we may disagree on how this can best be achieved.

Don't you think it's high time that we build a statue of Sadat in Sinai, one worthy of this most brave and heroic man?

God bless you Sadat, happy birthday and merry Christmas.

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