Sadat’s Open Door Policy (1971–81)
President Sadat’s era brought great political and economic changes to the
country. He initiated an orientation towards the West which stood in sharp
contrast to Nasser’s socialism. Moreover, after Egypt’s partial victory in 1973,
Sadat acted as the leading force in the peace process with Israel, which culmi-
nated in the signing of the Camp David Agreement in 1979. The latter brought
about the termination of a thirty-year-long war with Israel – though it also
sparked the animosity of some Arab states towards Egypt, which resulted in
their withdrawal of economic support. Sinai was returned after Egypt had
paid considerable sums to Israel as compensation for the infrastructure it had
established on the peninsula during its occupation since the war of 1967.
Sadat’s peace policy was accompanied by two seemingly contradictory
strategies: a policy of economic liberalization, following the example of the
Western capitalist countries, and a policy of strengthening the Islamic char-
acter of the country and of allowing the return of members of the Muslim
Brotherhood, which had been forced into exile under his predecessor, and of
tolerance if not outright support for right-wing Islamist groups like Al-Jama’at
al-Islamiya