Most people are spectators to history, others are active participants. A select few end up having a cameo role.
Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler has been a prominent player on the international scene for decades, defending prisoners of conscience and freedom fighters such as Nelson Mandela and Natan Sharansky, among many.
But in one of the 20th century’s most momentous events – the peace talks that led to the treaty between Israel and Egypt – Cotler had a smaller, albeit important, role.
It was, he said, something of a cameo appearance.
The year was 1977, and Cotler was a young law professor who’d studied at Harvard and was teaching at McGill University. After the school year ended, Cotler took a path less travelled, spending his summers in Egypt, Syria and Jordan, lecturing at local universities and studying the domestic political culture, foreign policy and attitudes of the people. He’d end his summers with a trip to Israel.
By 1977, he’d already visited the region a couple of times, the first in 1975 as part of a delegation of professors for peace in the Middle East.
During that trip, he made the acquaintance of a number of personalities who would go on to enjoy prominence on the international stage. One was Tahseen Bashir, a confidant of Egyptian presidents, including Anwar Sadat, who had been a liaison with the visiting professors.
In 1976, Cotler addressed the Institute of Political and Strategic Studies at al-Ahram Institute, where he met Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a professor at Cairo University who would go on to serve as Egypt’s foreign minister and later as secretary general of the United Nations.
Those personal connections led the law professor, who himself would later achieve some prominence as Canada’s minister of justice and attorney general, to an important crossroads of history.
Bashir and Boutros-Ghali knew Cotler, knew he was a supporter of the State of Israel, and knew he ended his summer trips with a visit to the Jewish state. With the election in 1977 of Menachem Begin as prime minister of Israel, they wanted to know what Cotler thought about the new right-wing Israeli leader.
Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler
Here’s how Cotler remembers it: “There were two questions they were interested in: did I believe Egypt could make peace with the newly elected Likud government of Israel?” Cotler recalled. “My answer was yes, I believed that Likud, if they would agree to a peace process, would be able to carry the country.
“Then came the major question… Did I believe that Sadat could make peace with Menachem Begin? I said, look, I don’t know Menachem Begin personally. I said he’s known to me as a great parliamentarian, a believer in democracy, somebody I believed would want to make peace with the largest and most important of the Arab countries, with Egypt, and yes I believe he would be open to an Egyptian-Israeli peace process.”
It was, apparently, what the Egyptians wanted to hear. Cotler was called back for subsequent meetings, during which he met Sadat, the Egyptian president.
“I was then asked to bring a message from Sadat to Begin exploring the possibility of a peace process. And Sadat was very clear what the conditions for an Israel-Egyptian peace were,” Cotler said.
“One was complete withdrawal by Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. Number 2 was recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
Then came the big question: would Cotler be willing to convey to the prime minister a letter from the Egyptian president outlining his terms for negotiations and to bring back his response?
Cotler wasn’t sure if Begin would agree to the conditions expressed by the Egyptian president, but he agreed to transmit the letter directly to the Israeli leader.
From Egypt, he continued to his previously scheduled meeting in Syria, but cut it short and cancelled a visit to Jordan. Back in Israel, he was not yet sure how he could gain entrée into Begin’s circle. It came about somewhat fortuitously, though by then Cotler had established numerous connections among movers and shakers in the Israeli establishment.
After addressing a lunch event for young parliamentarians, a young woman present, who happened to be the parliamentary secretary for Likud, wanted to know more.
Her name was Ariela Zeevi, and she was someone “I did not know at the time,” Cotler said.
Zeevi had heard Cotler speak about the Jews of Syria, including the high regard they had for the newly installed prime minister. Intrigued by his information from Damascus, she told him he must tell his story to Begin directly.
She arranged the meeting, and a day or two later, Cotler found himself with Zeevi, sitting in Begin’s office, meeting the prime minister for the second time – he had crossed paths with Begin in 1967 when the Likud leader visited Montreal, but he was sure Begin would not remember him. Cotler updated him about the situation in Syria and then added, perhaps ominously, that there was something he had to discuss in the strictest of confidence, with no one else present in the room.
“Begin looked at me and said, ‘She [Zeevi] is my confidante for all things.’ In other words, she’s in the meeting,”
“Then I shared with Begin the contents of the note… I gave it to him,” Cotler said.
“He read the note and said these conditions are unacceptable,” he recalled. “I said, ‘I didn’t say the conditions were acceptable to you. I’m just conveying to you the fact that these are the conditions [Sadat] conveyed but that he would want to explore. Peace negotiations would ensue, and I believe they’re worth exploring.’
“He asked if Sadat was sincere,” Cotler continued,
“‘Yes, I have no doubt about his sincerity. I have no doubt about his commitment to peace,’” he replied.
And while Begin again repeated that Sadat’s conditions were unacceptable, Cotler suggested the overture was still worth exploring.
“That’s exactly what happened.”
There were other back channels being explored at the time – one involved famed Israeli military and political leader Moshe Dayan.
After delivering his letter, Cotler’s role was limited, “other than to report back.”
No doubt peace talks would have resulted even without his contribution.
But don’t underestimate the importance of personal relationships, he said.
Begin and Sadat met and developed a personal rapport that helped them overcome political and diplomatic obstacles and, in the end, make peace.
“I believe it would not have happened had they not developed this personal relationship between them,” he suggests.
“The initial trust that developed between them presaged the agreement. Without that personal relationship, there would not have been that agreement,” Cotler said.
There have been reports that there was friction between the two leaders, but Cotler believes they did get along.
Bottom line: they each trusted that the other was truly committed to peace.
Cotler has said little to date about his role in launching the peace talks. They were reported briefly in 1977 and again four years ago in a report in Israel by journalist David Horovitz.
But this year, on the 36th anniversary of the Israel Egypt peace treaty, Cotler believes it’s time to complete the record.
And there’s another aspect of the story that bears mentioning.
Not only did Begin and Sadat develop a personal relationship, so, too, did Cotler and Zeevi. At the time, Cotler was aligned with the Meretz Party, which was on the left wing of the Israeli political spectrum. Zeevi, of course, was a prominent Likudnik.
“We had our differences then, we have our differences now,” Cotler said.
It took about two years before Egypt and Israel’s rapprochement – the same length of time as Cotler’s courtship.
On March 26, 1979, the day the peace treaty was signed in Washington, Cotler and Zeevi were married.
And while Cotler’s cameo appearance in one historical event ended, he went on to play a more prominent role in the other.