Egyptian Citizen Visiting Israel

An Egyptian citizen opposed to President Anwar Sadat’s peace initiative, who heads the Association of Arab Students in the U.S., is presently on a visit to Israel, it was reported today. He is Sareg Kadir, 27, son of a former editor of the Cairo journal “Roz El Yusuf.” He commanded one of the first Egyptian infantry units to cross the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War. Presently enrolled for his doctorate at the University of Seattle, Kadir, a Palestinian sympathizer, applied for a visa through the Israeli consulate in the U.S. The visa was granted an his Egyptian passport.

“I am very happy that the opportunity to visit Israel and meet with its residents came up, but realize that if war breaks out tomorrow, I will not hesitate to be the first to shoot you on the battlefield,” Kadir told reporters. Because of his sympathies with opposition circles in Egypt, Kadir twice served time in Egyptian jails, once under the regime of the late President Nasser and once under Sadat’s. He fervently opposes Sadat’s peace initiative and identifies with the stand put forward by Palestinian circles in Europe and the U.S.

In Kadir’s view, “Sadat is telling the Israelis what they want to hear” and is ignoring the priorities of the Arab world. He consequently predicts the failure of the Camp David summit conference. This, however, has not prevented him from developing ties with the Jewish community in Seattle. He noted, in fact, that it was criticism from the Jewish community that he understood the Mideast conflict only on a theoretical level that prompted him into coming to Israel.

During his visit, Kadir has met with Arab and Jewish specialists on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict, including Likud MK Ehud Olmert and the head of the Hebrew University Students Association, Moshe Shiff.