Every April 25, Egypt’s president delivers a variation of the same speech. The imagery is invariable: fallen martyrs, liberated soil, a nation besieged by enemies but preserved by its army. This year’s address by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, marking the forty-fourth anniversary of Sinai’s return from Israeli control, followed the template faithfully. Sisi declared that Egypt “cannot relinquish any part of its territory,” warned against ideologically motivated attempts to redraw the Middle East map, and reaffirmed Egyptian opposition to any displacement of Palestinians. The applause lines were well chosen. The underlying reality was considerably less inspiring.

A Regime Hiding Behind Monuments

Sisi’s invocation of Sinai’s liberation is, at its core, a political act of misdirection. The 1982 withdrawal marked the culmination of Anwar Sadat’s historic gamble: peace with Israel in exchange for territory, a bargain that transformed the region and anchored American strategic architecture in the Arab world for decades. Sisi praised Sadat in his remarks, but the tribute rings hollow. Sadat accepted political risk and personal danger to realign Egypt with Western interests. Sisi has spent over a decade using the peace treaty as a shield while systematically undermining the liberal regional order........

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