21. Targeting Egypt’s President
October 6th has been a day of national commemoration and celebration in Egypt, ever since 1973, when the Egyptian military successfully crossed the Suez Canal at the start of the Yom Kippur War. The war ended in defeat, but it had been a tough fight that cost their Israeli opponents dearly, and marked the first time that the Egyptian military had put up a credible effort, so it was worth celebrating.
By the time the eighth anniversary rolled around in 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who had been in office in 1973 and enjoyed a huge bump in popularity and prestige, as a result, was becoming quite unpopular. In addition to an economic downturn, Sadat had entered what was viewed by many Egyptians as a controversial rapprochement with Israel.