The Retreat from Camp David • 387posing Unbelief and Fleeing Evil"). Many of the terrorists, including the
surviving assassin, were put on trial. Various Arab leaders, notably Libya's
Qadhafi, rejoiced at Sadat's death; only a few Egyptians mourned him.
There were several reasons that some Egyptians would seek to assassinate
Sadat: Egypt's deteriorating economic and social conditions, the revival of
militant Islam, but also, no doubt, his willingness to make a separate peace
with Israel.
Vice President Husni Mubarak, who had commanded Egypt's air force
during the 1973 war, was chosen by the People's Assembly (followed by a
popular referendum) to succeed Sadat. He declared a state of emergency,
clamped tight controls on the universities and the press, and arrested
more revolutionaries. But he also freed some of the political and religious
leaders Sadat had jailed. He restored some public trust in the government
by promising economic and social reforms and by linking himself with
Nasir's legacy at the expense of Sadat's. Talks with Israel about Palestinian
autonomy dragged on, and in April 1982 Egypt regained the rest of the
Sinai. Israel's invasion of Lebanon six weeks later caused Mubarak to recall
Egypt's ambassador in Tel Aviv, and relations between the two states
turned into a "cold peace." Israel suspected Egypt of backing away from
the treaty to regain its leadership of the Arab world; the Egyptian govern¬
ment was embarrassed by Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon and its
increasingly repressive policies in the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt did re¬
sume diplomatic ties with Jordan, aid Iraq in its war against Iran, and wel¬
come Yasir Arafat to Cairo in 1983. But at the same time it accepted
billions of dollars in US aid and continued its war of nerves with Qadhafi.
In 1984 Egypt had its freest parliamentary elections since 1952. Mu¬
barak's National Democratic Party won a majority of People's Assembly
seats, but opposition parties, notably the New Wafd, gained ground.
Egypt's economy worsened as oil prices fell and the security police riots of
1986 frightened away foreign tourists. Relations with the US and Israel
became frayed at times, but peace prevailed, and Mubarak remained in
power. The other Arab governments restored diplomatic ties with Cairo,
Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League, and Mubarak led in promoting
the peace process.
Israel's Rising Militancy
Peace with Egypt did not make Israel feel secure about its position as a
Jewish island in an Arab sea. Increasingly, it felt that its only real ally was
the US. The Reagan administration came to power with the notion that it
could develop a "strategic consensus" of governments opposed to Soviet