ABSTRACT
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat put war behind Israel and Egypt, and in so doing, ended the Israeli-Arab conflict. The idea that the similarities between Begin and Sadat made peace possible has been scanted in that interpretation of the negotiations that casts Jimmy Carter as hero. Sadat was an authoritarian dictator who sent his opponents to prison. Begin was a classic liberal with a firm commitment to democracy and the rule of law. Sadat and Begin thus spent decades in the shadow of men who effectively issued the declarations of independence of their countries. Begin and Sadat shared a strongly pro-Western, anti-Soviet orientation. The Jews were destined to dwell alone, and Begin accepted the fact with equanimity. Both men were driven by an almost isolationist nationalism. The two men also had a shared concept of the territorial limits of peoplehood. Both men finished their lives tragically.
