WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 You know, when we pick up a biography, especially 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:06.440 of a major political figure, there's this subconscious 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:09.179 thing we do. We look for the straight line. The 00:00:09.179 --> 00:00:11.460 coherence, right. The narrative. Exactly. We 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:14.080 want to see that seed that was planted in childhood, 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:17.280 you know, watered by education, and then it grows 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:21.769 into this... mighty oak tree of leadership. We 00:00:21.769 --> 00:00:24.210 want it all to make sense. We love that destiny 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:26.350 story. It's comforting to think that great leaders 00:00:26.350 --> 00:00:28.370 were just, well, always meant to be great. It 00:00:28.370 --> 00:00:31.149 is. But looking at the source material for today, 00:00:31.309 --> 00:00:34.310 the map of this man's life is not a straight 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:36.570 line. It's not even a curve. It's like looking 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:40.530 at a seismograph during a massive earthquake. 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:42.710 It really is. We are looking at a figure who 00:00:42.710 --> 00:00:45.490 is arguably the ultimate walking contradiction 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:48.060 of the 20th century Middle East. It's a study 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:49.659 in whiplash. I mean, we're talking about a man 00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:51.659 who started as a conspirator in the shadows. 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:54.640 Literally. Literally plotting assassinations, 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:57.259 wearing disguises. And then he ends up as a global 00:00:57.259 --> 00:00:59.659 spatesman accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 00:00:59.659 --> 00:01:02.259 a tuxedo. A man accused of collaborating with 00:01:02.259 --> 00:01:04.980 the Nazis in the 1940s, who then becomes the 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:08.219 hero of the crossing in the 1970s and is ultimately 00:01:08.219 --> 00:01:10.659 assassinated by the very forces he unleashed 00:01:10.659 --> 00:01:13.219 to keep himself in power. And somewhere in the 00:01:13.219 --> 00:01:16.319 middle of all that. He just completely reshapes 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:19.069 the geopolitical map of the region. He changed 00:01:19.069 --> 00:01:21.510 the rules of the game so thoroughly that, in 00:01:21.510 --> 00:01:23.650 many ways, everyone is still playing by them 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:26.030 today. Today we are doing a deep dive into the 00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:28.530 Wikipedia article for Anwar Sadat, Egypt's third 00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:30.689 president. And the mission here is pretty specific. 00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:33.290 We want to move past the headline, you know, 00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:35.510 the man who signed the peace treaty. Which is 00:01:35.510 --> 00:01:37.030 what everyone knows. Right, and really unpack 00:01:37.030 --> 00:01:39.230 the mechanics of his survival, his improbable 00:01:39.230 --> 00:01:42.989 rise, and his tragic, almost Shakespearean fall. 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:44.969 Because you really can't understand the modern 00:01:44.969 --> 00:01:47.510 Middle East. The security architecture, the role 00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:50.109 of the military, that persistent tension with 00:01:50.109 --> 00:01:53.810 Islamist movements. Without understanding Sadat, 00:01:53.930 --> 00:01:56.269 he is the architect of the system that still 00:01:56.269 --> 00:01:58.870 exists. So let's go back to the source. It starts 00:01:58.870 --> 00:02:02.290 us off in a village, Mit Abu El Qom, in the Manufia 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:05.430 Governorate. And the date is Christmas Day, 1918. 00:02:05.909 --> 00:02:08.830 A Christmas baby, born into a peasant family. 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:12.210 And the source really emphasizes the poverty 00:02:12.210 --> 00:02:15.759 here, but also... Just the sheer scale of his 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:18.699 family environment. Yeah. He was one of 14 siblings. 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:22.319 14. I mean, just pause on that for a second. 00:02:22.460 --> 00:02:25.680 Imagine the dinner table dynamics in a household 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.439 like that. You have to fight to be heard. You 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:30.439 have to fight to eat. You learn very quickly 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:33.259 how to negotiate or how to be louder than everyone 00:02:33.259 --> 00:02:35.719 else. It certainly creates a drive to distinguish 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:37.860 yourself. You can't just be one of the kids. 00:02:38.990 --> 00:02:41.689 But there is a specific detail in his parentage 00:02:41.689 --> 00:02:44.590 that the article flags, which becomes incredibly 00:02:44.590 --> 00:02:47.310 relevant much, much later in his life. In how 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:49.689 he was perceived? Exactly. In how he was perceived 00:02:49.689 --> 00:02:52.270 by the world and, crucially, by his own people. 00:02:52.430 --> 00:02:55.229 You're talking about his mother? Yes. His father 00:02:55.229 --> 00:02:57.949 was Upper Egyptian, but his mother, Sit al -Burain, 00:02:58.169 --> 00:03:00.490 was born to an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:03.569 father. So Sadat had this distinct Sudanese heritage. 00:03:03.990 --> 00:03:05.830 He was darker skinned. Well, darker skinned than 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:08.330 much the Egyptian elite, the Pasha class at the 00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:11.639 time. And in a class conscious and frankly, a 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:14.539 color conscious society like early 20th century 00:03:14.539 --> 00:03:18.500 Egypt, that is not a small detail to just gloss 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:20.759 over. It's not. It marked him as an outsider. 00:03:21.159 --> 00:03:23.719 It likely fueled that chip on his shoulder, that 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:26.659 intense need to prove he belonged and that he 00:03:26.659 --> 00:03:28.840 was capable of leading, which we see driving 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:31.419 him all the way to the presidency. So like so 00:03:31.419 --> 00:03:33.759 many young men from modest backgrounds in that 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:35.900 era who wanted to escape the village and make 00:03:35.900 --> 00:03:38.639 a name for themselves, he sees one clear path 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.560 up the ladder. The military? The military. The 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.039 great equalizer. He graduates from the Royal 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:47.280 Military Academy in 1938. He joins the Signal 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.180 Corps. And this is where history starts to pivot 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:52.240 because of where he gets posted. I get sent to 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.080 Sudan. To Sudan. And there he meets a fellow 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:58.240 officer. a guy named Gamal Abdel Nasser. The 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:00.900 man who would become the sun around which Sadat 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:03.180 would orbit for decades. At that time, though, 00:04:03.259 --> 00:04:05.960 they were just young, angry officers. But together, 00:04:06.060 --> 00:04:08.300 they formed the Free Officers. Which sounds like 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:10.659 a social club or maybe a debate team, but let's 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:12.460 be crystal clear for you listening, this was 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:15.620 a revolutionary cell. It was a conspiracy, pure 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:19.439 and simple. Their goal was explicit. Kick the 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:21.939 British out of Egypt and purge the corruption 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.120 of the monarchy. And you have to remember the 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:26.500 context. At this time, the British are pulling 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:29.819 the strings of King Farouk. Egypt is technically 00:04:29.819 --> 00:04:32.519 independent but not really. The British ambassador 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:35.639 is the one calling all the shots. And this anti 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:39.019 -British fire, this nationalism, it drives Sadat. 00:04:39.500 --> 00:04:42.199 to do some things that reading the source today 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:44.300 honestly made me do a double take. Oh, yeah. 00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:46.399 We have to talk about the World War II years 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.259 because this is where that contradiction theme 00:04:48.259 --> 00:04:51.639 really just explodes. This is the wait, really? 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:54.579 Moment for most people who only know him as the 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:56.800 peacemaker. The source explicitly states that 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:59.220 Sadat was a member of the Young Egypt Party. 00:04:59.689 --> 00:05:02.149 and doesn't mince words describing them. It calls 00:05:02.149 --> 00:05:05.230 the party fascist and ultra -nationalist. It's 00:05:05.230 --> 00:05:07.750 a jarring association for sure. We usually associate 00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:10.410 that era's fascism with Europe, but it had its 00:05:10.410 --> 00:05:12.029 tendrils elsewhere. And it goes even further. 00:05:12.110 --> 00:05:14.709 It talks about Operation Salam. It says Sadat 00:05:14.709 --> 00:05:17.370 collaborated with Nazi Germany. He was actively 00:05:17.370 --> 00:05:19.850 meeting with German agents in Cairo during the 00:05:19.850 --> 00:05:22.730 war. And context is everything here. And we had 00:05:22.730 --> 00:05:25.889 to be careful to understand the why. We can't 00:05:25.889 --> 00:05:29.850 view 1940s Cairo through a 2026 lens. Of course 00:05:29.850 --> 00:05:33.029 not. For Sadat and his cohort, the British were 00:05:33.029 --> 00:05:35.550 the oppressor. They were the occupiers. The Germans, 00:05:35.810 --> 00:05:37.930 well, they were the enemy of his oppressor. The 00:05:37.930 --> 00:05:40.649 classic enemy of my enemy is my friend logic. 00:05:41.069 --> 00:05:43.709 Precisely. Sadat wasn't necessarily buying into 00:05:43.709 --> 00:05:46.170 the racial theories of Nazis and more the Holocaust. 00:05:46.509 --> 00:05:49.250 He was buying into the idea that if Rommel breaks 00:05:49.250 --> 00:05:51.870 through to Cairo, the British are gone. He's 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:53.610 even quoted in the source saying he wanted to 00:05:53.610 --> 00:05:56.810 make Egypt a second Iraq. A second Iraq. What 00:05:56.810 --> 00:05:58.509 does he mean by that? He was referring to the 00:05:58.509 --> 00:06:01.149 Rashid Ali al -Gilani coup in Iraq, which was 00:06:01.149 --> 00:06:04.850 a big anti -British pro -Axis uprising. He wanted 00:06:04.850 --> 00:06:07.050 to replicate that chaos in Egypt to shake off 00:06:07.050 --> 00:06:08.810 the colonial yoke. So he was willing to make 00:06:08.810 --> 00:06:11.069 a deal with the devil to get national liberation. 00:06:11.649 --> 00:06:13.329 And he paid for it. The British intelligence 00:06:13.329 --> 00:06:15.509 services, they weren't sleeving. He was arrested. 00:06:15.629 --> 00:06:17.990 He spent a significant chunk of the war in British 00:06:17.990 --> 00:06:20.910 prisons. And prison seems to have been his university. 00:06:21.069 --> 00:06:23.250 It's where he learns English. He learns German. 00:06:23.269 --> 00:06:26.089 He strategizes. But even after the war, he doesn't 00:06:26.089 --> 00:06:28.370 stop. The source mentions he was involved in 00:06:28.370 --> 00:06:31.850 the assassination of Amin Osman in 1946. Amin 00:06:31.850 --> 00:06:35.029 Osman was a very pro -British minister. Sadat 00:06:35.029 --> 00:06:37.750 was part of a secret society. Again, conspiracy 00:06:37.750 --> 00:06:41.829 is his trade. decided Osman had to be removed 00:06:41.829 --> 00:06:43.990 because he was seen as too cozy with the colonizers. 00:06:44.189 --> 00:06:47.290 So again, we see Sadat not as a statesman, not 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:49.910 as a politician, but as a hardline revolutionary. 00:06:49.910 --> 00:06:52.129 He is comfortable with violence. He is comfortable 00:06:52.129 --> 00:06:54.250 operating in the dark. Which eventually pays 00:06:54.250 --> 00:06:57.730 off for him. 1952, the free officers make their 00:06:57.730 --> 00:07:00.230 move. They overthrow King Farouk. And here's 00:07:00.230 --> 00:07:02.850 a piece of trivia I absolutely love. who announces 00:07:02.850 --> 00:07:05.089 the revolution to the world. It was Sadat. It 00:07:05.089 --> 00:07:07.269 was Sadat. Nasser chose him to read the first 00:07:07.269 --> 00:07:09.129 communique over the radio. He was literally the 00:07:09.129 --> 00:07:11.129 voice of the revolution. So the king is gone. 00:07:11.389 --> 00:07:13.350 Nasser eventually becomes the president, this 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:15.569 titan of pan -Arabism. I mean, Nasser was like 00:07:15.569 --> 00:07:18.129 Elvis in the Arab world, just a colossal figure. 00:07:18.310 --> 00:07:20.589 Where does that leave Sadat? Yeah, in the shadows 00:07:20.589 --> 00:07:24.250 again. He becomes the loyal number two. He holds 00:07:24.250 --> 00:07:26.629 a lot of titles. Minister of State, editor of 00:07:26.629 --> 00:07:29.009 the state newspaper Al -Gumhuriyah, Speaker of 00:07:29.009 --> 00:07:30.910 the National Assembly, Vice President. A whole 00:07:30.910 --> 00:07:34.170 resume. A whole resume. But he's always, always 00:07:34.170 --> 00:07:36.490 careful never to outshine the master. And the 00:07:36.490 --> 00:07:39.529 source suggests that this loyalty or maybe this 00:07:39.529 --> 00:07:42.750 apparent subservience led people to underestimate 00:07:42.750 --> 00:07:46.189 him in a big way. Drastically. When Nasser dies 00:07:46.189 --> 00:07:49.170 suddenly of a heart attack in 1970, Sadat succeeds 00:07:49.170 --> 00:07:52.560 him constitutionally. But the power brokers in 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.459 Cairo, the intelligence cheese, the party leaders, 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:58.800 the deep state of that time, they viewed Sadat 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:02.439 as a poodle, a total puppet. They thought, great, 00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:04.060 we've got this weak guy in the chair. We can 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:05.639 run the country from behind the curtain and he'll 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:07.500 just sign the papers. And that was the fatal 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:11.019 miscalculation of the entire Nazarist elite because 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:13.540 the puppet was about to cut all the strings in 00:08:13.540 --> 00:08:15.879 the most dramatic way possible. Absolutely. This 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:18.610 leads us to 1971. The Corrective Revolution. 00:08:19.050 --> 00:08:20.569 I've always found that name fascinating. It sounds 00:08:20.569 --> 00:08:22.850 so bureaucratic, like a tax adjustment. It does. 00:08:22.949 --> 00:08:26.050 We're just correcting a ledger. But it was coup, 00:08:26.189 --> 00:08:28.310 wasn't it? It was a counter coup, a preemptive 00:08:28.310 --> 00:08:30.850 strike. Sadat knew these guys. Vice President 00:08:30.850 --> 00:08:33.470 Alyssa Brie, Interior Minister Shirawi Goma were 00:08:33.470 --> 00:08:35.429 plotting to get rid of him. They were bugging 00:08:35.429 --> 00:08:37.649 his phones. They controlled the police. So he 00:08:37.649 --> 00:08:41.129 had to move first. So on May 15th, 1971, he moved 00:08:41.129 --> 00:08:44.950 first. But how does a supposedly weak president 00:08:44.950 --> 00:08:47.889 take down the guys who control the secret police 00:08:47.889 --> 00:08:50.769 and the army? Well, he went directly to the people. 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:52.799 And he used the presidential guard, which was 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:55.519 loyal to him. He announced a correction of the 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.419 revolution's path. He arrested the jailers. He 00:08:58.419 --> 00:09:00.580 purged the government of these centers of power. 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:02.659 It was a master class in political survival. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:05.259 He basically decapitated the entire political 00:09:05.259 --> 00:09:07.519 leadership of the country in one afternoon. He 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:10.200 did. But here is the twist that the source highlights. 00:09:10.419 --> 00:09:12.279 And this is the thing that haunts Egypt to this 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:15.879 day. To defeat these Nazarists. who were generally 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:18.559 secular socialists and left -wing. Sadat needed 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:20.779 a counterweight on the street. He needed an ally. 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:23.840 Right. He didn't have his own base yet. The Nasserites 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:27.440 controlled the unions and the party. So who hates 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:30.399 the secular socialists? The Islamists. The Islamists. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.460 The Muslim Brotherhood. Nasser had spent years 00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:36.860 crushing the Brotherhood. Crushing them, filling 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:39.320 the jails with them, hanging their leaders like 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:44.100 Sayyid Qatbi. Sadat did a complete 180. He opened 00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:46.820 the prison doors. He gave them oxygen. He encouraged 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:50.659 Islamist student groups on university campuses 00:09:50.659 --> 00:09:53.759 to literally beat back the leftists. He thought 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:56.580 he could use them as a tool. A classic divide 00:09:56.580 --> 00:09:58.779 and rule tactic. He thought he could turn the 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:01.279 tap on and off. He gave them cultural autonomy, 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:03.720 allowed them to publish magazines, let them organize. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.220 He viewed them as this sort of conservative bulwark 00:10:07.220 --> 00:10:09.580 that would support his presidency against the 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:12.100 communists and Nazarists. And it's the law of 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:14.440 unintended consequences in action. He's planting 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:16.419 the seeds that will eventually grow into the 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:18.700 very movement that kills him. Exactly. It seemed 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:22.500 brilliant in 1971. It was fatal by 1981. But 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:24.909 in the moment, it worked. He consolidated power 00:10:24.909 --> 00:10:27.330 domestically. And once he had the house in order, 00:10:27.389 --> 00:10:29.870 he looked outward. Because he had a massive, 00:10:29.929 --> 00:10:33.429 massive problem. The Sinai. Right. We have to 00:10:33.429 --> 00:10:35.169 set the stage here to understand the pressure 00:10:35.169 --> 00:10:38.450 he was under. In 1967, you had the Six -Day War. 00:10:38.730 --> 00:10:41.690 Israel devastates the Arab armies and occupies 00:10:41.690 --> 00:10:44.750 the entire Sinai Peninsula. And for Egypt, this 00:10:44.750 --> 00:10:47.370 wasn't just a loss of territory. The source describes 00:10:47.370 --> 00:10:50.759 it as a total humiliation. A psychic wound. The 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:52.940 Egyptian military, which had been hyped up as 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:55.220 the strongest in the region, just collapsed in 00:10:55.220 --> 00:10:58.340 days. Sadat knew he could not govern, could not 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:00.860 be a real president, as long as Israeli troops 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:02.799 were sitting on the east bank of the Suez Canal 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:05.840 looking at him with binoculars. But the conventional 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:07.960 wisdom at the time was that Egypt couldn't fight. 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:10.600 The Soviets, who were supplying Egypt with weapons, 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:13.320 didn't think they were ready. The Americans didn't 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:15.860 think they'd dare. And Sadat does something really 00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:18.200 interesting here. He kicks out the Soviet military 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:21.850 advisors in 1972. There were thousands of them 00:11:21.850 --> 00:11:24.769 in Egypt. Which seems so counterintuitive. If 00:11:24.769 --> 00:11:26.769 you're planning a war, why on earth would you 00:11:26.769 --> 00:11:29.429 kick out your superpower patron? It was a signal. 00:11:29.570 --> 00:11:33.049 He was telling the world, I am my own man. And 00:11:33.049 --> 00:11:35.470 practically, he wanted the freedom to act without 00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:38.110 Moscow holding him back or, you know, vetoing 00:11:38.110 --> 00:11:40.169 his plans. He was clearing the decks for war. 00:11:40.509 --> 00:11:45.049 October 6th, 1973, Yom Kippur. The holiest day 00:11:45.049 --> 00:11:47.580 in the Jewish calendar. Israel is completely 00:11:47.580 --> 00:11:50.299 shut down. The radio is off. Reservists are in 00:11:50.299 --> 00:11:53.080 synagogues. It was the ultimate element of surprise. 00:11:53.460 --> 00:11:56.059 And Sadat launches Operation Badir. It was a 00:11:56.059 --> 00:11:59.019 logistical marvel. We often gloss over the military 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:01.519 details, but crossing the Suez Canal was considered 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:03.960 nearly impossible. Israel had built the Bar Lev 00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:06.600 line, these massive sand ramparts, fortified 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:08.960 bunkers, napalm pipes. It was supposed to be 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:11.419 impenetrable. The source mentions the water cannons. 00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:13.159 That's the detail that always sticks with me. 00:12:13.220 --> 00:12:15.080 High -pressure water pumps. They used them to 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:17.470 just... blast away the sand berms because explosives 00:12:17.470 --> 00:12:19.309 wouldn't work fast enough. It was an engineering 00:12:19.309 --> 00:12:21.590 solution to a military problem. So they breached 00:12:21.590 --> 00:12:24.809 the line. Egyptian troops pour into the Sinai. 00:12:24.830 --> 00:12:27.669 They advance about 15 kilometers. The psychological 00:12:27.669 --> 00:12:30.750 impact of this cannot be overstated. The invincible 00:12:30.750 --> 00:12:33.710 Israeli army had been caught sleeping. The Arab 00:12:33.710 --> 00:12:36.549 world just exploded with joy. Sadat instantly 00:12:36.549 --> 00:12:38.889 became the hero of the crossing. He restored 00:12:38.889 --> 00:12:42.710 the dignity that was lost in 67. He did, but... 00:12:43.219 --> 00:12:46.639 The war didn't end on day one, and the map didn't 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:48.779 stay that way. No, and this is where the narrative 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:51.080 gets really complicated. The Israelis mobilize. 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:53.700 They are, at this point, fighting for their survival. 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:57.500 General Ariel Sharon leads a counterattack. And 00:12:57.500 --> 00:13:00.580 they find a gap, a gap between the Egyptian Second 00:13:00.580 --> 00:13:02.559 and Third Armies. And they do their own crossing. 00:13:02.620 --> 00:13:04.340 They cross back over to the west bank of the 00:13:04.340 --> 00:13:06.679 canal. The African side. So suddenly you have 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:08.879 the Egyptian Third Army completely encircled. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.919 Israeli tanks are 101 kilometers from Cairo. 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:14.980 It goes from this massive triumph to a near -death 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:16.820 experience for the regime. It was on a knife 00:13:16.820 --> 00:13:19.240 edge. The superpowers had to step in. Nuclear 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:21.480 tensions were spiking between the U .S. and USSR. 00:13:21.820 --> 00:13:24.860 We get U .N. Resolution 338, and finally the 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:27.860 fighting stops. Militarily, by the end, it's 00:13:27.860 --> 00:13:29.860 a stalemate. Or you could even argue a tactical 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.679 advantage for Israel. But Sadat spins it. He 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:35.019 was a master of that. He understood that war 00:13:35.019 --> 00:13:37.279 is just politics by other means. He didn't need 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:39.759 to conquer Tel Aviv. He just needed to prove 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:42.580 that the status quo was unsustainable. He needed 00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:44.519 to shake the table enough to get the Americans' 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:46.980 attention. And that he did. This is the pivot. 00:13:47.059 --> 00:13:48.879 This is the moment where the script just completely 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:52.100 flips. The man who was cozy with German agents 00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:55.179 in the 40s, the man who launched a surprise war, 00:13:55.419 --> 00:13:58.559 now decides that peace is the only way forward. 00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:01.399 He realizes that the Soviets can give him weapons, 00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:03.879 but only the Americans can give him back his 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:06.840 land because only the Americans have real leverage 00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:09.340 over Israel. So he starts courting Washington. 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:12.159 And the source points out he was incredibly savvy 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:13.860 about this. He didn't just talk to the White 00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:16.000 House and the diplomats. No, he went to the American 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.740 people. He executed this brilliant PR campaign. 00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:21.840 He courted the evangelical Christians. He invited 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.259 Billy Graham to Egypt. Just wild to think about 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:26.580 an Egyptian Muslim president hosting the most 00:14:26.580 --> 00:14:29.299 famous American evangelist for an official state 00:14:29.299 --> 00:14:32.200 visit. He understood the power of religious imagery 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:35.649 in America. He went to the Vatican. He was building 00:14:35.649 --> 00:14:38.590 this moral coalition in the West to portray himself 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:41.690 not as a warmonger, but as a man of faith seeking 00:14:41.690 --> 00:14:44.629 peace. And then the move that just shocked the 00:14:44.629 --> 00:14:48.409 entire world, November 1977, he announces he 00:14:48.409 --> 00:14:50.610 is willing to go to the Nesset. To the Israeli 00:14:50.610 --> 00:14:53.850 parliament in Jerusalem. We have to understand 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:57.289 how taboo this was. No Arab leader had ever recognized 00:14:57.289 --> 00:15:00.230 Israel publicly, let alone visited. It was considered 00:15:00.230 --> 00:15:03.110 absolute political suicide in the Arab world. 00:15:03.330 --> 00:15:05.529 But he goes, I've seen the archival footage, 00:15:05.649 --> 00:15:07.389 him walking down the stairs of the plane, shaking 00:15:07.389 --> 00:15:10.129 hands with Golda Meir and Menachem Begin, the 00:15:10.129 --> 00:15:12.370 people he was at war with just four years prior. 00:15:12.710 --> 00:15:14.549 And he stood at the podium in the Nesset and 00:15:14.549 --> 00:15:17.269 he spoke directly to the Israeli people. He offered 00:15:17.269 --> 00:15:20.080 full peace, full recognition. In exchange for 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:21.919 the land, he broke that psychological barrier. 00:15:22.179 --> 00:15:24.720 And this leads directly to Camp David. 1978, 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.480 Jimmy Carter basically locks Sadat and Begin 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:30.360 in a cabin in the woods. For 13 grueling days, 00:15:30.620 --> 00:15:32.440 there were bags packed and unpacked multiple 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:34.539 times. But they come out with the Camp David 00:15:34.539 --> 00:15:37.600 Accords. And in 1979, the official Egypt -Israel 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:39.500 Peace Treaty. Let's just look at the balance 00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:42.399 sheet of that treaty. What did Sadat actually 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:45.740 get out of it? He got the Sinai back. Every single 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:48.659 inch of it. the oil fields, the resorts, the 00:15:48.659 --> 00:15:52.279 strategic depth. He got the land. And crucially, 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:55.659 he got massive American economic and military 00:15:55.659 --> 00:15:58.340 aid, which continues to this day. And what did 00:15:58.340 --> 00:16:01.299 he give up? He gave Israel legitimacy. He broke 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:04.379 the Arab Unified Front. Egypt, the largest and 00:16:04.379 --> 00:16:06.740 most powerful Arab nation, effectively resigned 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:09.679 from the war against Israel. Without Egypt, there 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:13.830 is no major Arab war option. It's over. And for 00:16:13.830 --> 00:16:15.929 this, he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. He gets 00:16:15.929 --> 00:16:18.009 the Prince of Peace Award from Pat Robertson. 00:16:18.269 --> 00:16:21.389 The West absolutely loves him. He is the darling 00:16:21.389 --> 00:16:23.990 of Western media. But at home and in the neighborhood, 00:16:24.190 --> 00:16:26.470 it's a catastrophe. The source says Egypt was 00:16:26.470 --> 00:16:28.809 suspended from the Arab League. Kicked out. The 00:16:28.809 --> 00:16:30.629 Arab League actually moved its headquarters from 00:16:30.629 --> 00:16:33.570 Cairo to Tunis. Imagine the U .N. moving out 00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:35.330 of New York because they hate the U .S. president. 00:16:35.470 --> 00:16:37.309 That's the level of isolation. He was called 00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:40.129 a traitor, a sellout, a complete break from the 00:16:40.129 --> 00:16:42.980 Nasserist dream of pan -Arab unity. A total betrayal 00:16:42.980 --> 00:16:45.960 in their eyes. And domestically, things weren't 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:48.379 much better. We had to talk about the bread riots. 00:16:48.620 --> 00:16:51.679 This was in 1977, right before the peace push 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.519 really culminated. But it sets the context for 00:16:54.519 --> 00:16:57.700 his domestic weakness. Sadat was trying to liberalize 00:16:57.700 --> 00:17:01.389 the economy. a policy he called infita, or opening 00:17:01.389 --> 00:17:04.369 up. He wanted to move away from master's socialism 00:17:04.369 --> 00:17:06.809 toward a more Western -style market economy. 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:10.029 Which sounds good on paper to the IMF and foreign 00:17:10.029 --> 00:17:12.269 investors. But the reality on the ground was 00:17:12.269 --> 00:17:15.430 high inflation and a new class of flashy, wealthy 00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:18.609 cronies appearing, the fat cats, while the poor 00:17:18.609 --> 00:17:21.069 got poorer. And when he tried to list subsidies 00:17:21.069 --> 00:17:23.410 on bread to balance the budget, the country just 00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:25.829 exploded. Hundreds of thousands of people in 00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:27.289 the streets, they were chanting, hero of the 00:17:27.289 --> 00:17:28.950 crossing, where's... our breakfast. It was a 00:17:28.950 --> 00:17:31.609 direct attack on his legitimacy. The army had 00:17:31.609 --> 00:17:33.930 to be deployed to save the regime. Sadat had 00:17:33.930 --> 00:17:36.450 to back down and reinstate the subsidies. But 00:17:36.450 --> 00:17:38.730 it showed that his popularity was brittle. He 00:17:38.730 --> 00:17:41.430 was being squeezed, economic desperation at home, 00:17:41.490 --> 00:17:43.930 political isolation abroad. And in the middle 00:17:43.930 --> 00:17:46.190 of all this, he makes a personal decision that 00:17:46.190 --> 00:17:48.410 seems almost designed to antagonize his enemies 00:17:48.410 --> 00:17:51.930 even further. He takes in the Shah. The Shah 00:17:51.930 --> 00:17:55.700 of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. This is such 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:58.880 a fascinating subplot in the source. Nasser hated 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:02.000 the Shah. They were bitter enemies. But Sadat 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:04.599 and the Shah became genuine friends. Dear brother, 00:18:04.900 --> 00:18:07.539 the Shah called him. Sadat admired the Shah's 00:18:07.539 --> 00:18:09.720 modernizing vision. And when the Iranian revolution 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:13.039 happens in 1979, the Shah is overthrown. He's 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.299 flying around the world, dying of cancer, and 00:18:15.299 --> 00:18:17.200 nobody wants him. The U .S. doesn't want him. 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:19.119 Europe doesn't want him. They're all afraid of 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:21.579 angering the new regime in Tehran. But Sadat 00:18:21.579 --> 00:18:24.000 says, come to Egypt. He viewed it as a matter 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:26.400 of honor and loyalty to a friend. He gave him 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:28.880 asylum. And when the Shah died, Sadat gave him 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.759 a full state funeral in Cairo and buried him 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:33.759 in a prestigious mosque. Now you have to put 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:35.640 yourself in the shoes of the Islamists in Egypt, 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.740 the guys Sadat let out of jail back in 71. They 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:40.900 were watching the Iranian revolution with awe. 00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:44.019 They see an Islamic leader overthrow a secular 00:18:44.019 --> 00:18:46.420 tyrant. And what does their own president do? 00:18:46.660 --> 00:18:49.220 He honors the tyrant. He honors the tyrant. It 00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:51.180 was like waving a red cape in front of a bull. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:55.079 To the Islamists, Sadat was now a triple traitor. 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:58.279 He made peace with the Zionist entity. He failed 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:00.900 to implement Sharia law. And he honored the enemy 00:19:00.900 --> 00:19:03.180 of the Islamic revolution. The boiler is about 00:19:03.180 --> 00:19:06.980 to burst. And Sadat senses it. In September 1981, 00:19:07.339 --> 00:19:09.460 he tries to put the genie back in the bottle. 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:12.519 The September arrests. It was a desperate, flailing 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:15.180 crackdown. He didn't just arrest Islamists. He 00:19:15.180 --> 00:19:17.660 arrested everyone. Liberals, communists, the 00:19:17.660 --> 00:19:20.700 Coptic pope, feminists, student leaders, journalists. 00:19:21.220 --> 00:19:23.460 1 ,500 people dragged off to jail in just a few 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:25.680 days. He was trying to silence the entire country. 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:28.500 He revoked the licenses of independent publications. 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:30.880 He was trying to force stability. But he missed 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:33.859 a cell, a small cell within the military itself. 00:19:34.259 --> 00:19:35.980 And that is the terrifying part of the security 00:19:35.980 --> 00:19:38.279 failure. The danger wasn't just in the mosques 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:40.079 or the universities. It was in the barracks. 00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:43.779 October 6, 1981. The anniversary of his greatest 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:46.640 triumph. The victory parade. Sadat is sitting 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:48.799 in the reviewing stand. He's wearing his field 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:51.220 marshal uniform. He's surrounded by dignitaries. 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.819 Jets are flying overhead performing acrobatics. 00:19:53.940 --> 00:19:56.599 It's a celebration of him and his achievement. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:19:59.759 And a truck towing an artillery piece stops right 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.759 in front of the stand. Lieutenant Khalid al -Islambouli. 00:20:03.180 --> 00:20:05.059 He's in the truck. He's a member of Egyptian 00:20:05.059 --> 00:20:08.660 Islamic Jihad, a radical offshoot that had infiltrated 00:20:08.660 --> 00:20:10.799 the army. The source says when the soldiers jumped 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:13.559 out, Sadat actually stood up. He thought they 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:15.279 were coming to salute him. He actually said, 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:18.220 what are these boys doing? He stood up to receive 00:20:18.220 --> 00:20:20.039 their greeting. It just shows how disconnected 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:22.640 he was from the threat. And they opened fire. 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:25.339 It wasn't just an assassination. It was a massacre 00:20:25.339 --> 00:20:28.480 in the stands. Automatic weapons, grenades. Sadat 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:31.500 was hit multiple times. Eleven others died, including 00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:34.500 a Cuban ambassador and an Omani general. Vice 00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:36.680 President Hosni Mubarak was sitting right next 00:20:36.680 --> 00:20:39.420 to him and somehow survived with only minor injuries. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:42.859 Sadat dies later that afternoon. The man who 00:20:42.859 --> 00:20:45.720 survived British prisons, who plotted coups, 00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:48.660 who gambled on war and peace, taken out by his 00:20:48.660 --> 00:20:51.359 own lieutenant. And the funeral. The funeral 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:53.700 tells the entire story of his legacy. The source 00:20:53.700 --> 00:20:56.339 highlights this contrast, and it's really the 00:20:56.339 --> 00:20:58.900 defining image of his life. Who showed up? The 00:20:58.900 --> 00:21:01.460 West showed up. Three former U .S. presidents, 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:04.119 Nixon, Ford, Carter. Prime Minister Begin of 00:21:04.119 --> 00:21:06.079 Israel was there. He famously walked part of 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:08.019 the way because it was the Sabbath. Yeah. European 00:21:08.019 --> 00:21:10.589 royalty. The world mourned him as a visionary. 00:21:10.869 --> 00:21:13.529 But the Arab world. Silence. Yeah. Just silence. 00:21:14.109 --> 00:21:16.789 Only three out of 24 Arab League states sent 00:21:16.789 --> 00:21:19.210 representatives. Sudan was the only Arab head 00:21:19.210 --> 00:21:21.069 of state to attend. And the streets of Cairo. 00:21:21.289 --> 00:21:23.710 The streets of Cairo, which had been packed with 00:21:23.710 --> 00:21:25.849 millions of weeping people when Nasser died. 00:21:26.250 --> 00:21:28.630 People climbing lampposts just to see the coffin. 00:21:29.170 --> 00:21:31.859 Were eerie. They were largely quiet. That is 00:21:31.859 --> 00:21:34.359 a chilling image. A state funeral attended by 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:36.759 the world but ignored by the neighbors. He died 00:21:36.759 --> 00:21:39.579 isolated. He had moved too fast, too far for 00:21:39.579 --> 00:21:41.660 his own region to catch up. He was a prophet 00:21:41.660 --> 00:21:43.779 without honor in his own land in a very, very 00:21:43.779 --> 00:21:46.220 literal sense. Before we wrap up, I want to touch 00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:48.720 briefly on how his image has been processed in 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:51.440 pop culture. Because there's a controversy there 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:53.599 that the source flags, which brings us all the 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:56.940 way back to his origins. Right. The 1983 miniseries 00:21:56.940 --> 00:22:00.079 Sadat, starring Louis Gossett Jr. A phenomenal 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.640 actor. Oh, he is. But the Egyptian government 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:05.819 banned the film. They cited historical inaccuracies, 00:22:05.819 --> 00:22:08.000 but the source notes that the Western perception 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:11.359 was that race played a role. Gossett Jr. is African 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:13.400 American. And we're back to his mother. Yeah. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.400 And his Sudanese heritage. Exactly. Sadat was 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:19.500 dark -skinned, but identity in Egypt is complex. 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:23.539 He identified as Egyptian, as Arab. For some 00:22:23.539 --> 00:22:25.640 in the Egyptian establishment, having a black 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:28.400 American actor portray him was seen as problematic, 00:22:28.619 --> 00:22:31.180 as recasting him outside of his specific Arab 00:22:31.180 --> 00:22:33.519 identity. It just adds another layer to his complexity. 00:22:33.740 --> 00:22:35.779 He's a man who never quite fit into a single 00:22:35.779 --> 00:22:38.569 box. Not racially, not politically. And then 00:22:38.569 --> 00:22:41.609 you have The Days of Sadat in 2001, the Egyptian 00:22:41.609 --> 00:22:43.930 film with Ahmad Zaki, which was a massive hit. 00:22:44.089 --> 00:22:46.309 He was finally reclaimed by his own culture, 00:22:46.410 --> 00:22:48.829 but on their terms. And we can't forget Garrett 00:22:48.829 --> 00:22:51.029 Morris on Saturday Night Live. Which is funny. 00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:54.490 But it also shows he had reached that level of 00:22:54.490 --> 00:22:57.710 global icon status where you become a sketch 00:22:57.710 --> 00:22:59.930 comedy character in New York. So bringing it 00:22:59.930 --> 00:23:02.500 all home. We started by calling him a contradiction. 00:23:02.740 --> 00:23:05.039 And I think the evidence, well, it supports that. 00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:07.480 He was a poor boy from the Delta who became the 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:10.480 president. A fascist sympathizer who became a 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:13.400 Nobel Peace Prize winner. A dictator who brought 00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:16.279 peace. And a master tactician who eventually 00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:18.660 ran out of moves. Why does this story matter 00:23:18.660 --> 00:23:21.319 today? If you're listening to this in 2026, why 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:24.200 care about Anwar Sadat? Because the Middle East 00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:26.579 you see on the news every single night. The alliance 00:23:26.579 --> 00:23:29.559 between Egypt and the U .S., the cold peace between 00:23:29.559 --> 00:23:32.019 Egypt and Israel, the struggle between military 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:34.880 regimes and Islamist movements, it all starts 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:37.500 with him. He wrote the code for the modern operating 00:23:37.500 --> 00:23:40.680 system of the region. And that tension, the idea 00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:43.220 of using radicals to fight your political enemies. 00:23:43.460 --> 00:23:46.279 That is the cautionary tale. Sadat thought he 00:23:46.279 --> 00:23:49.000 was smart enough to ride the tiger. He thought 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:51.380 he could let the Islamists out of the cage, use 00:23:51.380 --> 00:23:53.339 them to scare the leftists, and then just put 00:23:53.339 --> 00:23:54.980 them back when he was done. But the tiger got 00:23:54.980 --> 00:23:57.740 hungry. It raises the question that every leader 00:23:57.740 --> 00:24:01.200 should ask themselves. Is it ever really possible 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:04.039 to control a radical movement once you've given 00:24:04.039 --> 00:24:07.359 it oxygen? Sadat bet his life that he could, 00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:10.519 and he lost. That is a heavy thought to end on. 00:24:10.579 --> 00:24:13.000 From the village of Mit Abu El -Kham to the history 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.539 books, Anwar Sadat. Thanks for diving deep with 00:24:15.539 --> 00:24:17.359 us. Always a pleasure. We'll catch you on the 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:17.660 next one.