The Israel-UAE deal is good news for a troubled region

IT WAS NOT only Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinians, who watched with “grief and fury” as Anwar Sadat went to Israel in 1977. Several of the region’s autocrats severed ties with Egypt’s president over what some called a “treasonous” act. When, two years later, Sadat signed a peace deal with the Jewish state, they erupted in outrage again. Egypt was suspended from the Arab League, which imposed a boycott on the country and left Cairo for Tunis. In 1981 Sadat was murdered by jihadists who cited the peace deal as one of their main grievances.