General Saad al-Shazly, 1922-2011

At a moment of supreme crisis in Egypt, it has ironically lost a war hero and military commander who also became a prominent dissident and spent years in exile. General Saad al-Shazly, (also see this link), Chief of Staff during the 1973 war and architect of "the crossing" — Operation Badr to cross the Suez Canal and breach the Bar-Lev line — but who was removed by Anwar Sadat and named as Ambassador to London, has died, on February 9 in Egypt, at age 88. In the picture above left, he is to the left of Sadat (Sadat's own right) during the war. Later (after Shazly became a dissident) Sadat claimed he was fired for wanting to withdraw troops and that he had had a breakdown. Shazly denied those claims, which were not made at the time, but years later.

Shazly was named Ambassador to London and later, Portugal. (The photo at right is from his diplomatic days.) After the Camp David Accords, Shazly broke with Sadat. He was dismissed and went into exile. His 1980 book The Crossing of the Suez told his side of the story, but led to charges of writing a book without permission (which he didn't deny) and revealing military secrets (which he denied)., and conviction in absentia.

After years in exile, he returned to Egypt in 1992 and served half of his three-year sentence.

Shazly had apparently been seriously ill for some time. If Egypt were not preoccupied by other events, it would be interesting to see how he was remembered. At least, Al-Ahram noted his passing. Though it fudges the exile (saying only that he left Egypt in 1978 and returned in 1992) and fails to mention the jail time, at least it was noted.

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Sonia Peres, 1923-2011

Sonia Peres, wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres, died yesterday at the age of 87. She had been married to Peres, also 87, for 67 years. Born in Ukraine, she immigrated at the age of four.

The Ha'aretz obit includes a slideshow of her life, in which she generally stayed out of the limelight.

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Richard Holbrooke

I didn't post anything yesterday about the death of Richard Holbrooke, mostly because the Egypt Wikileaks and my Winter issue kept me busy enough. So I'm literally a day late and probably a dollar short as well. I'll keep it brief since most of it's already been said.

His major involvement in our region has been as the Obama Administration's AfPak envoy, on the civilian side. So much of the appreciation (and video of a Holbrooke speech) posted by Foreign Policy may be a bit out of theater for my readers. Abu Muqawama's brief post is more to our point, perhaps.

You may well have heard, as has been widely reported, that his last words to his doctors before going into surgery were reportedly "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan." I think that's a fitting epitaph for a veteran diplomat, so I'll give him the last word.

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Ruler of Ras al-Khaimah Dies at 92

Sheikh Saqr al-Qasimi, Ruler of the UAE Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, has died at age 92. He was reportedly the world's oldest reigning monarch (though not longest reigning: the King of Thailand holds that title), and died at dawn today.

His presumed successor is the Crown Prince, Sheikh Sa‘ud, though the succession has been disputed by the deposed and exiled Crown Prince, Sheikh Khalid; see my earlier post on the issue, but also be sure to read the exchange of comments by people who know more about it than I do.

Ras al-Khaimah is the northernmost emirate of the UAE, and its name can be translated as "top of the tent," (or Cape of the Tent), though whether that relates to its geography, I don't know.

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