The Peace That Killed Him: How Sadat’s Greatest Triumph Became His Death Sentence

On October 6, 1981, Anwar Sadat paid the ultimate price for choosing diplomacy over dogma, becoming the first Arab leader assassinated for making peace with Israel.

A Revolutionary Act in a Revolutionary Era

When Anwar Sadat stepped off a plane in Jerusalem in November 1977, the Arab world held its collective breath. No Arab leader had set foot in Israel since its founding in 1948. The Egyptian president’s historic visit shattered decades of taboo, setting in motion events that would culminate in the Camp David Accords of 1978 and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty of 1979. For this unprecedented diplomatic breakthrough, Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Yet what the West celebrated as visionary statesmanship, many in the Arab world condemned as treachery. Egypt, long considered the beating heart of Arab nationalism, was expelled from the Arab League. Sadat, once Gamal Abdel Nasser’s trusted lieutenant and heir to the pan-Arab cause, was branded a traitor by former allies from Baghdad to Damascus.

The Gathering Storm

The assassination plot that claimed Sadat’s life was years in the making. Islamic extremist groups, particularly al-Jihad, viewed the president’s peace overtures to Israel as an unforgivable betrayal of both Arab solidarity and Islamic principles. Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, who led the assassination squad, reportedly shouted “I have killed Pharaoh!” as he pumped bullets into Sadat during a military parade commemorating the 1973 October War—a bitter irony, given that the war had been Sadat’s attempt to restore Arab pride before pursuing peace.

The public reaction across the Middle East revealed the deep fractures in Arab society. While Western leaders mourned the loss of a peacemaker, celebrations erupted in parts of Libya, Syria, and Iran. In Egypt itself, Sadat’s funeral drew a modest crowd compared to the millions who had mourned Nasser a decade earlier—a stark reminder of how isolated the president had become from his own people in his final years.

The Policy Paradox That Persists

Sadat’s assassination crystallized a dilemma that continues to haunt Middle Eastern politics: the tension between popular legitimacy and international statesmanship. His separate peace with Israel brought tangible benefits to Egypt—the return of the Sinai Peninsula, billions in American aid, and an end to costly wars. Yet it also severed Egypt from its traditional leadership role in the Arab world and fueled the very extremism that would eventually consume him.

The killing also marked a turning point in the rise of political Islam as a force in the region. The same extremist ideology that motivated Sadat’s assassins would later evolve into movements like al-Qaeda and ISIS. In this sense, October 6, 1981, was not just the end of one man’s life but the beginning of a new chapter in Middle Eastern politics—one where religious extremism would increasingly challenge secular authoritarianism.

Legacy of a Complicated Peace

More than four decades later, the Camp David Accords remain the most durable peace agreement between Israel and an Arab state. Egypt has never returned to war with Israel, and the treaty has survived multiple regional upheavals, including the Arab Spring. Yet the “cold peace” that exists between the two nations—correct but distant, formal but not warm—reflects the ongoing ambivalence about Sadat’s choice.

Today, as new Arab states normalize relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, they face similar questions about legitimacy and popular support. Will these leaders meet Sadat’s fate, or has the Middle East finally moved beyond the all-or-nothing politics that claimed his life? The answer may determine whether the region’s future is shaped by the bullets of extremists or the pens of peacemakers.