As President of the Republic of Egypt, Muḥammad Anwar al-Sādāt distinguished himself for various domestic and foreign policy reforms having a long-lasting impact on the history of Egypt, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the whole region. Most notably, his 36-hour visit to Jerusalem and his speech at the Knesset represented a major pivotal event for the Egyptian-Israeli relations as well as for the diplomatic approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In order to investigate the extent of al-Sādāt’s revolutionary diplomacy, this paper will involve a two-folded analysis.

We will examine, on the one hand, the shift from the conduct of war to the pursue of peace in the Egyptian-Israeli relations under al-Sādāt’s presidency and, on the other hand, the impact of Sadat’s revolutionary move in the broader context of the Arab-Israeli relations. The essay will therefore reveal the double-faced revolutionary nature of al-Sādāt’s diplomatic strategy which justifies the prominent role of al-Sādāt’s personality in the history of the Arab-Israeli negotiations.